'Evil plan of I.N.D.I.A. bloc': Mamata faces flak from BJP for offering shelter to people from violence-hit Bangladesh

If they insist, she will ask 'illegal Rohingyas, who vote for the TMC, to burn trains, block roads and kill people', BJP alleged.

Kolkata: Often criticized for playing a spoilsport in Delhi-Dhaka bonhomie, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Sunday sought to strike the right chord with the protesters in Bangladesh, offering shelter in her state for the people in distress fleeing the unrest in the neighbouring country.

Her comment, however, triggered sharp reactions not only from the Centre but also from the Bharatiya Janata Party. A source in the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre even questioned the locus standi of the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal in making comments about the issues of providing shelter to the citizens of the neighbouring nations.

“I should not be speaking on the affairs of Bangladesh since that is a sovereign nation and whatever needs to be said on the issue is a subject matter of the Centre. But what I can tell you is that if helpless people knock on the doors of West Bengal, we will surely provide them with shelter,” Banerjee said at the mega rally the Trinamool Congress held on the occasion of its ‘Martyrs’ Day’ in Kolkata on Sunday.

The TMC supremo also cited the resolution of the United Nations to justify her offer of shelter for the people fleeing unrest in Bangladesh, where a massive agitation by the students protesting against reservation in government jobs and the police crackdown on them claimed at least 114 lives and injured many others.

“That’s because there is a United Nations resolution to accommodate refugees in the regions adjacent to those under turmoil,” said the chief minister of West Bengal. She cited the example of the people of Assam coming to West Bengal in the wake of ethnic strife in the neighbouring northeastern state.

“These are matters which are handled by the Union Government. A State Government has no locus standi on the issue and as such their comments are totally misplaced,” a source in the Union Government said.

Ever since Sheikh Hasina returned to the helm of the government in Dhaka in 2009, the relations between India and Bangladesh have been on a positive trajectory with the two sides expanding cooperation in development and regional connectivity as well as in the areas of security.

The attempts by New Delhi and Dhaka to clinch a deal for the sharing of water of transboundary river Teesta, however, could not succeed, as the TMC government in Kolkata stalled it, arguing that such a pact between India and Bangladesh would deprive the farmers of the northern region of West Bengal of water. Hasina’s Awami League has been holding Banerjee responsible for the delay in clinching the deal. The TMC supremo recently also protested against New Delhi’s move to start negotiations with Dhaka for renewing the 1996 India-Bangladesh agreement for the sharing of the water of the Ganges.

But the West Bengal chief minister’s comment on Sunday offering shelter for people seeking to flee the unrest in Bangladesh appeared to be an attempt to reach out to the protesters in the neighbouring country.

“Who did give Mamata Banerjee the authority to welcome anyone in India? Immigration and citizenship are exclusively in the Centre’s domain. The States have no locus standi,” Amit Malviya, who oversees BJP’s affairs in West Bengal, posted on X.

“This is part of I.N.D.I. alliance’s evil plan to settle illegal Bangladeshis from Bengal to Jharkhand so that they can win elections,” he alleged.