Veteran Congress leader V Hanumantha Rao today came down heavily on Telangana BJP head Bandi Sanjay Kumar for the latter's
"insulting" comments against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Condemning Kumar's suggestion that the WB CM change her name to Mamata Begum of Mamata Khan, he made his annoyance with the BJP leader's anti-TMC rant very clear.
"It is entirely out of form for Bandi Sanjay to insult a well-loved and popular leader like Mamata Banarjee by making unfounded remarks. It is unfortunate that he has stooped low enough to insinuate that the CM's party, the TMC, won the recent assembly elections in West Bengal because it received funds from Bangladesh. Where respected leaders of his own party, like Union Minister G Kishan Reddy, Dr K Laxman and Bandaru Dattatreya, have never once said such insulting things about any women leaders of our country, it is saddening that Bandi Sanjay has felt no compunction to keep himself from making shameful comments against a prominent woman leader. The BJP-led Centre has been implementing schemes like the 'Beti Bachao, Beti Padao' program to empower the women of India. It is absurd that a leader of the same party can say these things about a woman," the Congress veteran fumed.
Advising the BJP chief to invest himself in battling the ongoing pandemic instead of making baseless allegations against rival leaders, Rao asked him to focus on coordinating with the Centre's officials to arrange vaccines for the people of the state.
The senior leader was left so annoyed by Kumar's remarks that he reportedly even urged the Telangana High Court to take suo moto cognisance of the same.
Referring to the statement of Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar that there was no need to reimpose a lockdown in the state, he said that Kumar's statement was puzzling since speculations about the outbreak of a likely third wave were already doing the rounds. He asked the state government to take a well-thought-out decision on the lockdown issue.
VHR's comments today come after the BJP chief alleged that WB was witnessing the rule of a party that was "aiming to hand over" the state to neighbouring Bangladesh. He alleged that WB CM Mamata Banerjee had made her state into a "Rohingya headquarter" and had welcomed "intruders" from Bangladesh with open arms. He also alleged that the WB CM was working as a "monster" in the state and asked her to change her name to Mamata Begum, claiming that she had spent money received from foreign countries and the Rohingyas to win the recent elections.