Prove allegations or apologise: TMC on Amit Shah’s letter to Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress on Saturday hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for writing a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee saying her government was not co-operating with the Centre over the migrant workers’ issue.

KOLKATA: West Bengal’s ruling party Trinamool Congress on Saturday hit back at Union Home Minister Amit Shah for writing a letter to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleging that her government was not allowing trains with migrants to enter the state.

Abhishek, the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, alleged that the Home Minister was spreading a "bundle of lies" after staying silent for weeks. “Home Minister Amit Shah speaks after weeks of silence only to mislead people with lies,’’ the senior TMC leader said.

Abhishek said Shah was talking about the very people who have been left to fate by the Centre. The TMC leader even asked the Home Minister to either prove allegations which he had made against the Bengal government or apologise for the same. 

"A HM failing to discharge his duties during this crisis speaks after weeks of silence, only to mislead people with a bundle of lies! Ironically he's talking about the very ppl who've been literally left to fate by his own Govt. Mr @AmitShah, prove your fake allegations or apologise (sic)," he said in a tweet.

Extremely critical comments from the ruling TMC came shortly after it was reported that Shah has written a letter to Mamata alleging that her regime was not cooperating over migrant workers’ issue.

In his letter to Mamata, the Union Home Minister stated that the West Bengal government is not allowing trains carrying migrant workers to reach the state, which may further create hardship for the labourers.

In his letter, Shah said not allowing trains to reach West Bengal is "injustice" to the migrant workers from the state.

Referring to the 'Shramik Special' trains being run by the central government to facilitate transportation of migrant workers from different parts of the country to various destinations, Shah said that the Centre has facilitated more than two lakh migrants workers to reach home.

The Home Minister said migrant workers from West Bengal are also eager to reach home and the central government is also facilitating the train services.

"But we are not getting expected support from the West Bengal. The state government of West Bengal is not allowing the trains reaching to West Bengal. This is injustice with West Bengal migrant labourers. This will create further hardship for them," Shah wrote in his letter to the Trinamool Congress chief.

It may be noted that the Centre and the Bengal government have clashed frequently amid the coronavirus outbreak in the country, with an IMCT (inter-ministerial central team), which visited the state to review its handling of the crisis, this week accusing Banerjee's administration of taking an "antagonistic view" of the COVID-19 crisis.

In its observations on Monday, the central team said the high mortality rate in the state was a "clear indication of low testing and weak surveillance, tracking". The Centre has also accused the state of violating lockdown guidelines and failing to ensure critical measures like social distancing.

Last week, reportedly fearing a political backlash over the migrants' crisis, the centre permitted travel of stranded people, providing they displayed no COVID-19 symptoms and underwent a mandatory quarantine period on arrival. The first such "special" train to Bengal set off from Rajasthan's Ajmer this week - bound for Durgapur via Asansol - carrying 1,200 migrant workers.

Shortly after the first train was announced Banerjee tweeted that a second would bring back a similar number of people stranded in Kerala.