Days after West Bengal Cheif Minister Mamata Banerjee’s announcement that her state will withdraw from the Ayushman Bharat health scheme, around 200 Trinamool Congress activists led by MLA and Nadia chief, Gourishankar Dutta threatened to shut the Krishnagar head post office down, unless the delivery of the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme letters was stopped immediately.
Mamata Banerjee while withdrawing from the scheme had stated that the Centre had been sending a two page customised letter, highlighting the importance of the Ayushman scheme, to every beneficiary. She fancied that the Prime Minister was “politicising” the health scheme by sending letters about its provisions to every household of the state with his picture. She had also complained that the Ayushman Bharat logo resembles the Lotus of BJP.
However, after leading 200 party activists into the postmaster of Krishnagar post office, Prabodh Bag’s chamber, Dutta warned to stop delivering these letters to avoid severe repercussions, “Are you working as the employee of an extended office of the BJP to deliver (Narendra) Modi’s letters? Stop delivery or it will be construed as you all working as BJP cadres. In that case, we will shut down your office.”
Though Prabodh Bag tried hard to convince the MLA that delivering letters is his job regardless of the identity of the sender, but the TMC mob was in no mood for reasoning.
The letter is sent to the potential beneficiaries of the scheme. It contains the enrollment card and information about the healthcare scheme.
Moreover, guided by her impulse, making every possible effort to denounce Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections, Mamata Banerjee had not only alleged that the Centre is using the picture of Modi in Ayushman Bharat healthcare scheme for the poor to take full credit for a jointly-funded project, but also claimed that West Bengal’s state health schemes are better than the Ayushman Bharat scheme floated by the Central government.
Meanwhile, furthering the opposition’s single agenda of denouncing Modi, the Chief Minister of West Bengal also mocked the Prime Minister, who is otherwise known for his exemplary oratory skills, for taking help of teleprompters for delivering speeches in English. This completely explains the desperation of not only Mamata Banerjee but all other opposition party leaders, who are willing to go to any lengths in their yearning to replace Narendra Modi.
PM Narendra Modi on September 23, rolled out the world’s largest healthcare scheme, Ayushman Bharat. Under the scheme, each family can get a cover of up to 5 lakh. 31 states and union territories had joined the Ayushman Bharat scheme. The scheme has been receiving accolades all across the world. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General had also expressed happiness that India’s ambitious Ayushman Bharat scheme had provided free care to almost 7 lakh people in its first 100 days.
