West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said that India must have four alternative capital cities. She said that British ruled entire country from Kolkata. “I believe that India must have 4 alternate capitals. The English ruled the entire country from Kolkata. Why should there be only one capital city in our country,” said West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee while addressing a rally in Kolkata on the occasion of 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
She also questioned Centre’s decision to declare January 23 as Parakram Diwas. “We have observed ‘Deshnaayak Divas’ today. Rabindranath Tagore called Netaji ‘Deshnaayak’. What is this ‘Parakram’?” questioned Banerjee.
She said, “I would like to voice my dissent against the Central government’s decision to never observe the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, before today.”
The CM said that Netaji took everyone together and the state government will build a monument to honour Netaji.
“When Netaji constituted the Indian National Army, he took everyone including people from Gujarat, Bengal, Tamil Nadu. He stood against the divide and rule policy of the British….We will build an Azad Hind Monument. We will show how it will be done. They’ve spent thousands of crores in building statues and a new parliament complex,” said Banerjee.
Earlier in the day, Banerjee led a procession from Syambazar area in the northern part of Kolkata to Netaji’s statue on Red Road of the city.
Attacking the Centre, she said that the BJP remembers him only when there are elections. “Netaji had the foresight to conceptualise a Planning Commission & the Indian National Army before Independence. They claim to idolise him but scrapped the Planning Commission. We do not celebrate Netaji’s birthday only in the years when there are elections. We are celebrating this occasion in a grand manner because it’s his 125th birth anniversary,” said Banerjee.
The CM also said that a monument named after Azad Hind Fauj will be constructed in Rajarhat area, adding that a state-funded university will be dedicated to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
Reacting to West Bengal government’s criticism of Centre declaring January 23 as ‘Parakram Diwas’ Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has said that it’s not good for the state government to question every decision of Central government and go against cooperative federalism.
