Shah can't skirt responsibility if BSF employees are involved in cattle smuggling: TMC's Abhishek
Kolkata, May 9: Senior Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee on Tuesday asserted that as the ED has found involvement of a section of BSF personnel in cattle smuggling to Bangladesh, Union Home Minister Amit Shah cannot skirt responsibility on the matter as the force is under his ministry.
The Enforcement Department (ED) in its charge sheet submitted recently before a Delhi court said that a section of the BSF personnel are involved in cattle smuggling. The charge sheet was filed in a case in which senior TMC leader Anubrata Mondal and his daughter were arrested.
Speaking at a public rally at Murarai in Birbhum district, Banerjee said, "I am not defending or shielding anyone... But, under which ministry the BSF functions? The Ministry of Home Affairs. Does anyone have the guts to bring this aspect under the ambit of the investigation? Is Amit Shah ji ready to clarify on this issue?"
If the property of Mondal's daughter increased exponentially as stated in the ED charge sheet, the TMC national general secretary claimed that the same has happened to Shah's son.
The Diamond Harbour MP, considered the number two in the TMC, said, "I am not casting aspersions on anybody but asking for application of the same yardstick for everyone."
Anubrata Mondal, the TMC's Birbhum district president and a close aide of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was initially arrested by the CBI in connection with the related corruption case. The ED arrested him in the alleged multi-crore cattle smuggling scam case after questioning him in a jail in the state. His daughter was arrested recently. Both are now lodged in Delhi's Tihar jail.
Continuing his tirade at Shah without naming him, Banerjee said some people came from Delhi to pay respect to Rabindranath Tagore on his birth anniversary but they do not have much knowledge about his compositions.
"They can't even differentiate between the national anthem composed by Tagore and the national song penned by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay," he said.
During a programme here on Tuesday, Shah said Tagore is the only poet in the world who wrote the Rashtra geet' of two countries India and Bangladesh.
In an India government website, Chattopadhyay's Vande Mataram' was referred to as Rashtra geet' (national song) while Tagore's Jana Gana Mana' is the Rashtra gaan' (national anthem).
Reacting to Banerjee's comments, BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh told PTI: "Why should Amit Shah be held accountable for the ED naming some BSF personnel in the smuggling case. Investigations are on and the central agencies are on the right path. If any central security force personnel is involved, he will be prosecuted according to law."
"Does this mean that for any police firing incident in the state, the chief minister should be interrogated?" he asked.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Nirmala Sitharaman inaugurates Gems and Jewellery Institute campus in Udupi
Udupi (Karnataka) (PTI): Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday inaugurated the premises of the Indian Institute of Gems and Jewellery here, praising the centre for providing professional training and promoting entrepreneurship among youth.
Speaking at the event, Sitharaman said the centre, established in 2016 with support from the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council and the district administration, has grown steadily despite disruptions during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We started in a very small place, unsure of the response. Today, advanced facilities including CAD and 3D printing are available, enabling students to gain industry-relevant skills,” she said.
Sitharaman highlighted the centre’s reach across Karnataka and beyond.
“Students have come from Karwar, Chitradurga, Raichur, and Tamil Nadu. Some had no prior experience but are now running successful jewellery businesses,” she said, citing examples of trainees who returned to their hometowns to start enterprises.
Emphasising affordability, she noted, “Training abroad is expensive, but here the Indian Institute of Gems and Jewellery offers professional courses at accessible costs, making skill development widely available.”
The minister also underlined the centre’s contribution to India’s jewellery export sector.
“This region, from Ratnagiri to Kerala, has a rich jewellery tradition serving the Indian diaspora. Skilled manpower from such centres strengthens our exports and creates livelihood opportunities,” she said.
Sitharaman commended the collaboration between the government, GJEPC, and local jewellers, noting that around 600 students were trained last year.
She urged greater awareness to attract more youth to the institute, describing it as a model public-private partnership that fosters entrepreneurship and skill development.
The minister also witnessed the signing of an MoU between the Indian Institute of Gems & Jewellery and IIT Madras under the InCent LGD platform for a specialised, industry-oriented certification programme in lab-grown diamond technologies.
The office of the minister said in a post on X that the programme will help bridge critical skill gaps, create job-ready professionals, boost value-added manufacturing, and strengthen India’s position in the global LGD (lab-grown diamond) value chain, aligned with Make in India, Skill India, and the goal of a self-reliant, globally competitive LGD ecosystem.
It further said that the Rs 242 crore grant announced in the Union Budget 2023–24 for lab-grown diamond research at IIT Madras is helping build a world-class ecosystem.
Under the InCent initiative, India’s first indigenously designed scaled prototype of a High Pressure High Temperature (HPHT) LGD machine has been developed and installed at IIT Madras, while imported commercial HPHT machines have also been installed for benchmarking.
Sitharaman also witnessed a demonstration of the ‘Design to Manufacturing’ process by students at IIGJ Udupi and interacted with trainees of the institute and entrepreneurs from the gems and jewellery industry, the minister’s office said in another post.
