00:00And we have Dr. Shashi Panja, Minister in Mamata Banerjee's Cabinet, joining us now.
00:07Dr. Panja, I really appreciate your time. Why is Mamata Banerjee backing infiltrators?
00:12That's the charge coming in from the Home Minister.
00:16Unfortunately, this is a repetition of the BJP's narrative whenever it comes to polls in Bengal.
00:23Bengal by now has understood that the only, you know, I would say the weapon in their hand, in BJP's hands, is some false narratives, lies, manipulative videos, etc.
00:39It's so unfortunate. We thought he would say something, you know, something new.
00:44But he didn't speak. And when he speaks about Ghospatia, it's at a time when SIR is underway here in Bengal.
00:51You know, we were still looking at Bihar SIR 2025, in which the exclusions were never shown, that the deletions were due to Ghospatia, which he also said in Bihar.
01:05He's just flown in from Assam, where he, you know, Assam is also going to have its elections soon, but of course after us.
01:13And BJP is there. Now BJP is in power in Assam.
01:19So he still said in Assam that if you want to stop infiltration, bring BJP back to power.
01:28Well, you were in power in Assam. Well, you couldn't stop infiltration.
01:32So this kind of narrative shifts. They shift from state to state.
01:37And here again, it's Ghospatia. But when we question about Pehelgaon and how the, you know, the terrorists came in, they were also Ghospatias.
01:46They came, they shot, they killed and they went back.
01:49They came and they did the Delhi blast and again went back.
01:53Dr. Panya, is the concern also of anti-incumbency?
01:58The chief minister faces three-term anti-incumbency, 15 years of anti-incumbency.
02:03Are there concerns that may not be against the chief minister herself?
02:09It could be against the local leaders.
02:11And that's a concern.
02:12Anti-incumbency is something which the people of Bengal will voice.
02:17It's not what BJP is trying to voice.
02:20So the people would be saying that, yes, we are dissatisfied.
02:24We are not satisfied with certain issues over time.
02:27But you know where Bengal stands, Bengal's janta understands that Bengal has been deprived economically.
02:36You see, we are yet to receive our 1.75 lakh crore dues,
02:41which are absolutely legal, just dues from the government of India.
02:47Imagine if we got all that money, we could have done much more for Bengal's development.
02:53And here Amit Shah is saying, Vikas nahi hita hai.
02:56You see, you are stopping Vikas ka money which is due to Bengal.
02:59You have stopped important schemes.
03:02It took the Supreme Court to tell the government of India
03:05that you should not have done this to Bengal.
03:07You are supposed to release those funds.
03:10Meanwhile, even the Manrega changed to something else.
03:13On the other hand, since you are saying that the centre is stopping schemes,
03:16they are saying that you do not allow the central run schemes to be implemented in the state.
03:21That you are depriving the people of Bengal of what is there,
03:26of benefiting from those schemes which are being run by the Modi government.
03:31No, no, it's not that.
03:32It all started way back when we, why only we,
03:38every state has a share of 40% in all those centre development schemes.
03:45You know, there is a centre state share.
03:47So all that we were saying, why should it be Pradhan Mantri, Grameen Yojana?
03:53We are not saying CM, Grameen Yojana, Gaon ki Yojana or something.
03:57Pradhan Mantri, Avas Yojana.
03:58It should be Bengal Avas Yojana or call it Gujarat Avas Yojana.
04:03Call it Uttar Pradesh Avas Yojana.
04:06Why Pradhan Mantri?
04:07This is how the, you know, the disagreement began.
04:12But Pradhan Mantri doesn't really mean Mr. Modi here.
04:16Of course, he is the prime minister here.
04:18It is, of course, he is the prime minister here.
04:21It is not as specific as a Mahatma Gandhi, you know, Rozgar.
04:28Mahatma Gandhi is Bapuji or the father of the nation.
04:31Absolutely, ma'am.
04:32My limited point here is that the disagreement can be,
04:36why deprive the people of Bengal of schemes which are ensuring,
04:43you know, uplifting the lives of people and benefiting the poor in other states?
04:47Yes, that is a question you should be asking the BJP
04:51because, you know, when they stopped it,
04:53they stopped it after they lost in Bengal in 2021.
04:56They lost in May 2021.
04:58They stopped it in December 2021.
05:02And we continued and all those teams,
05:04remember those 100, 150 teams visiting every district of Bengal.
05:09I mean, there were only a few errors.
05:17in few blocks where you could have stopped the money if you really wanted.
05:21But you stopped the money for the entire Bengal
05:22because it was politically motivated.
05:25That's what we went to see.
05:26Okay.
05:28And Dr. Panja, what about this opposition to SIR?
05:34You know, we have seen,
05:35I'm just going to give you an example of Bihar, my home state.
05:38The opposition there also took the BJP and the election commission to the court.
05:45The response came.
05:46And then in the elections which were held in Bihar,
05:48they could not find a single voter who was deprived the right to vote.
05:53So everyone who voted and was a resident of Bihar got the right to vote.
05:58So why oppose SIR if it is indeed about cleaning up of the electoral rolls?
06:05So in a way, we understand regarding the Bihar SIR,
06:11it is still in the courts of law.
06:14So now what has remained is that it is just an academic exercise.
06:18The vote is over.
06:19The government is in power.
06:22The court is still going to hear the Bihar SIR case.
06:26See where it is.
06:27What we were saying was, what was the hurriedness?
06:33This could have been done in 2024 itself with that amount of time.
06:38In Bengal, if you really wanted to do it.
06:41But in Bengal, it is happening.
06:43The distribution of the form, the filling up of the form,
06:46and the hearing up of all these forms, all within two months.
06:51Why this hurriedness?
06:52What's the hurry for it?
06:54And the unpreparedness, you will just not believe,
06:57every day the Election Commission is changing its directions.
07:02Because it is unprepared.
07:04The software is not updated.
07:07The frontline workers have been pressurized.
07:10There have been suicides in Bengal,
07:12and also in some of the other states where SIR is happening.
07:16But nobody takes cognizance of this human life factor.
07:22No accountability of the Election Commission.
07:25And why this hurriedness?
07:26I mean, if 2024 looks of a list, electoral list was fine for the general elections,
07:33then why is this list now full of fallacies and flaws for the forthcoming 2026?
07:39That was asked by the RJD and the Congress in Bihar, ma'am.
07:42Dr. Panja, I really appreciate your time.
07:44I wish you health.
07:46You know, because this is the bad weather,
07:48which is causing all of us cough and cold.
07:50So, thank you for joining us and participating in this discussion.
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