Amit Shah, Mamata Banerjee cross swords over Rabindra Sangeet

Kolkata/Purulia, Mar 28: Rabindra Sangeet, a popular genre of Bangla music, was today dragged into the high decibel poll campaign in West Bengal with BJP President Amit Shah and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee crossing swords.

Firing a salvo at the ruling Trinamool Congress over its five-year rule in the state, Shah told a press meet in Kolkata that the only industry to have come up in Bengal during this period was "bomb making industry" as a result of which Rabindra Sangeet, also known as Tagore's songs, was getting suppressed.

"Only the bomb making industry has come up in West Bengal in the last five years. And the sound of Rabindra Sangeet is getting suppressed because of those bomb blasts," Shah said.

In a sharp retort to Shah, Banerjee said she would be the "biggest enemy" of anyone who insulted Bengal. "If anyone insults Bengal, there will be no bigger enemy than me," Banerjee said at a poll rally in Ramachandrapur in Purulia district.

"Today you are in power in Delhi, but will lose tomorrow," the Chief Minister said, adding, "I have heard that (Shah) has said something about Rabindranath." "People of Bengal do not forgive anyone who insults great poets like Rabindranath Tagore or Nazrul Islam," the TMC supremo thundered at the rally in support of TMC candidates for the upcoming Assembly polls Banerjee claimed that the CPI-M had suffered for allegedly disrespecting Tagore.

"CPI-M had claimed that it had made Tagore famous, while taking 'Sahaj Path' (a beginners' book in Bengali for kids) off the syllabus of nursery students," Banerjee said, claiming that people of Bengal had paid back the Left party for such acts.

The Left was ousted by the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal in 2011 after 34 years of uninterrupted rule.

PTI