Trinamool's Nusrat Jahan's "More Dangerous Than Corona" Remark Angers BJP

Trinamool Congress MP Nusrat Jahan has been attacked by the BJP for publicly calling the party "more dangerous than the coronavirus". Nusrat Jahan was speaking at a blood donation camp when she made the comments.

"Keep your ears and eyes open because there are some people around you who are more dangerous than corona. Do you know what is more dangerous than corona? It is the BJP. Because they don't understand our culture. Because they don't understand humanity. They don't understand the value of our hard work. They only know business. They have a lot of money. They are spreading it everywhere. And then they turn people against each other on the basis of religion and trigger riots," the actor-turned-Trinamool leader said at a meeting in her constituency Bashirhat.

The BJP's social media head Amit Malviya, who is co-convenor for the Bengal elections due in four months, targeted Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over her party leader's statements and accused her of appeasement politics.

"In WB, the worst kind of vaccine politics is unfolding. First, Siddiqulla Chowdhury, a sitting minister in Mamata Banerjee's cabinet, holds up trucks carrying vaccines. Now a TMC MP, campaigning in Muslim majority Deganga, likens BJP to Corona. But Pishi (aunt) is silent. Why? Appeasement?" Mr Malviya tweeted.

The BJP leader was referring to an incident in Burdwan on Wednesday when a health department van carrying vaccines from Kolkata to Bankura was stuck in a traffic jam on the highway, reportedly because of a blockade led by Bengal minister Siddiqulla Chowdhury. Police had to escort the van through a different route to bypass the jam.

Siddiqulla Chowdhury was quoted as saying later that his highway protest had been announced earlier and the police had been informed of it, but he had not been alerted to the possibility of the van with vaccines on the route.