Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Saumitra Khan has taken a jibe at Trinamool Congress (TMC) and said that Amit Shah should have more lunch at Adivasi and Matua homes for West Bengal Government to provide jobs.
Khan’s statement has come after it emerged on Thursday that the TMC government provided a job to an Adivasi woman, who had hosted Amit Shah for a lunch during his visit to North Bengal in 2017.
After her wife Gita Mahali was appointed as a homeguard in West Bengal police, Raju Mahali alleged, as quoted by ETV Bharat West Bengal, “No one from BJP ever visited us again after Amit Shah had left. It was TMC who stood by us. They helped us everytime we needed anything.”
While the BJP leader’s visit had given Mahali and her husband a temporary fame, no substantial development occurred in their lives, the Adivasi couple claimed on Thursday.
On being asked why BJP failed to look after the Mahalis even after Shah’s visit, Khan did not provide any answer. The Bishnupur lawmaker was instead seen saying in jest that he would ask the former BJP president to have lunch more often at Dalit and Adivasi homes in Bengal.
Meanwhile, the ruling TMC leader Firhad Hakim hit out at Shah, for his “drama” of having lunch at the homes of Matua and Adivasi communities.
Hakim, Minister of Urban Development and Municipal Affairs in West Bengal government, has said that Shah is trying to conceal the fact that Dalit and Adivasi girls are raped and burnt in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, hinting at the gang-rape incident and its aftermath in Hathras.
“In Uttar Pradesh girls of Adivasi and Dalit communities are raped and burnt. The families are denied to even perform the last rites. Dalit girls are raped daily in UP and many Adivasis are being tortured regularly in BJP-ruled states,” Hakim was quoted as saying by ABP Ananda.