KOLKATA: Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually flagged off a host of infra projects, designed to add speed to Bengal and Kolkata, immediately after his mother’s cremation in Gandhinagar on Friday as West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw and a host of other CMs physically attended the programmes at Howrah and the naval base off Garden Reach.
An unseemly controversy, resulting from "Jai Sri Ram" slogans from a section of the crowd waving BJP flags on Howrah station’s platform 23, prompted Banerjee to refuse to take her place on the dais. The Bengal CM chose to address the audience from the front row of the platform-level seating area and thanked Modi for attending the event virtually despite his mother’s death a few hours earlier.
"Your mother was our mother also. I remember my mother. May God give you the strength to continue your work. Today is a sad day for you personally and it is a great loss. May God bless you so that you can love your mother through your action and activity. Please take rest as you are coming directly from the crematorium," Banerjee told Modi.
