West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has demanded four rotating national capitals for India while addressing a crowd on the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in Kolkata.
After a rally from Shyambazar crossing to Netaji’s statue at Red Road, Banerjee said, “Kolkata was once the capital of India. Why should we have only one national capital now?”
“We should have four capitals. One in North India, one in South India, one in East India’s Kolkata and another one somewhere in the Northeast,” the Trinamool Congress supremo added.
Commemorating Netaji on his 124th birth anniversary, Banerjee also indirectly attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is set to visit Kolkata to pay tribute to the revolutionary.
“The Centre has dissolved Netaji’s planning commission. It must be recovered. Now the central government doesn’t listen to anyone. They are destroying the federal structure,” she said.
“One leader and one nation, one political party and one nation, this is what is going on at the moment. What is the valuation?”
Banerjee paid her tributes at Netaji Bhawan and took out a massive rally in Kolkata to observe mark the occasion of Netaji Jayanti, which she celebrated as ‘Deshnayak Diwas’.
At the beginning of her possession, the Trinamool Congress supremo also blew a conch shell and a siren was sounded at 12.15 pm, the time when Bose was born on this day in 1897.
“We do not celebrate Netaji”s birthday only in the years when elections are scheduled. We are celebrating his 125th birth anniversary in a grand fashion. Rabindranath Tagore described Netaji as Deshnayak. That is why we have decided to celebrate this day as Deshnayak Diwas,” she said.
“Netaji was one of the greatest freedom fighters of the country. He was a great philosopher,” she said.
She also said a monument, named after Azad Hind Fauj, will be built in Rajarhat area and a state-funded university, which is also being set up, will be dedicated to Netaji.
“A monument, named after Azad Hind Fauj, will be built at Rajarhat. A university named after Netaji is also being set up which shall be funded entirely by the state, and will have tie-ups with foreign universities,” Banerjee said on Twitter.