Bengal not mentioned in Budget, govt sees us as 'Bangladeshis': Abhishek Banerjee

Trinamool Congress National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Sunday accused the Centre of seeing people of West Bengal as ''Bangladeshis'', as he lambasted the finance minister for not mentioning the state in her Budget speech. Asked about the Budget, Banerjee said it has no solutions for any community, and called it a ''faceless, baseless, and visionless Budget''. ''The Budget speech was 85 minute long -- 5,100 seconds -- Bengal was not even mentioned. Forget Bengal; farmer, youth... there was nothing concrete for anyone. ''They talk about AI, Skill India, technological advancement; how would youth get employment, how would employment be generated, there is no mention. There is nothing on how to increase farmers' income, there is nothing for any community,'' Banerjee said. ''It is the Union government and its ministers, the ones who presented the Budget, they call us Bangladeshi. Bengal was not even mentioned. Jal Jeevan Mission money has been stopped, they have not even fulfilled old promises...'' he said. ''We have no expectations from this government, the way they have committed atrocities on people of Bengal since 2020... They know they are going to lose the state,'' he added. The TMC leader called Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's Budget speech a ''self-appraisal report''. ''Government would defend its Budget; to me, it is more like a self-appraisal report written by its own PR department. It does not have any concrete solution to offer to anybody,'' he said.