New Delhi: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday came down heavily on his Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee after she mentioned the neighbouring state while drawing a parallel between the protests in Kolkata and the Bangladesh crisis.

Don’t show us your bloodshot eyes

Reacting to Mamata Banerjee’s remarks that “if Bengal burns, then Assam and Delhi too shall burn”, Himanta Sarma said the Trinamool chief was trying to set India on fire with her “politics of failure”.

“Didi (Mamata Banerjee), how dare you threaten Assam? Don’t show us your bloodshot eyes. Don’t try to set India on fire with your politics of failure. It does not suit you to speak divisive language,” the Assam Chief Minister tweeted.

BJP leader from Assam Piyush Hazarika also lambasted the Bengal Chief Minister, saying, “She can’t bully, threaten us. I seriously condemn her. She can’t control law and order in her state and is threatening us. It will not happen in Assam, I am assuring you.”

Union Minister and Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar also said the remarks sounded like someone having an “anti-national” mindset and not from a leader holding a constitutional position.

Speaking at the foundation day event of the Trinamool Congress’s student wing, Mamata Banerjee attacked the BJP over the violence during the bandh (strike) and the ‘Nabanna Abhijan’ protest march to the state secretariat.

The Trinamool government has faced severe criticism and massive protests over its handling of the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the state-run RG Kar Hospital.

“Some people think this (agitation) is similar to the protests in Bangladesh. I love Bangladesh, they speak like us (Bengal). Our culture is also the same. However, Bangladesh is a different country,” Banerjee said. It was a reference to the student protests in the neighbouring country over a controversial quota system that led to the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government.

“PM Modi, you are trying to create unrest in Bengal through your people. But remember, if you burn Bengal, Assam, the North-East, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Delhi will also burn,” Banerjee said.