Mamata Banerjee accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of terrorising the nation. (File)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday likened Prime Minister Narendra Modi to 'Gabbar Singh'-- an antagonist in iconic Bollywood movie "Sholay"-- as she alleged that the leader was "terrorising" everybody like the villain in the movie. Referring to the recent Indian Air Force strike on terror group Jaish-e-Mohammed's camp in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, the Trinamool Congress chief alleged that the PM was forced to show "missiles, bombs and dead bodies" as he did nothing in his five year rule.
"The Prime Minister has done nothing for the last five years. That is why he needs to show missiles, bombs and dead bodies of jawans. Don't you feel ashamed that you are doing opportunistic politics over our soldiers?" she said in a function in West Bengal's Howrah district.
After the Air Force strike in Balakot, Ms Banerjee had said that the nation had the right to know what happened after the strike. "The people want to know how many were killed. Where was the bomb actually dropped? Was it dropped on the target?" she had asked.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had slammed the opposition for questioning the IAF strike, calling the opposition "poster boys" of Pakistan.
Ms Banerjee today said that those who wanted to know the outcome of the airstrike were branded as Pakistanis.
"The BJP should stop lecturing us on patriotism. We don't need to learn from them. We are for the country, but we will not support the blacklisted Modi government at the Centre. We will even remove their signboards from this country. The sooner this government is defeated, the better it will be for the country," she added.
"We have seen several governments, but we have never seen such a prime minister, who is terrorising everybody in this country as if he is a Gabbar Singh," she said.
After Ms Banerjee's comment on the airstrike, she had come under attack from the BJP leaders. Party's West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh said on Tuesday," I think people like Imran Khan are not needed to harm India, Mamata Banerjee alone is enough. When a party like Trinamool Congress is operating here, what is the need of terrorist outfits like SIMI, Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen or Al Qaeda to attack?"
After 40 CRPF soldiers were killed in a terror attack in Pulwama, India's package of Mirage-2000 jets unloaded bombs on Jaish training camp in Balakot. The government estimated 300-400 terrorists might have been killed. The opposition has been demanding that the government must reveal the details of the strike.
With inputs from PTI