Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday kicked off his pre-poll campaign in West Bengal with a scathing attack on Mamata Banerjee Government holding it guilty of “innumerable fouls” and promising the people of the State “optimum good governance” once the BJP comes to power. “The people will bring the BJP to power replacing the TMC Government,” Modi said.
He was addressing a political rally at the industrial town of Haldia in East Midnapore where he inaugurated a plethora of Central projects worth ` 5,000 crore, including Dhobi-Durgapur gas pipeline and fishing hub. The PM referred to lingo of Bengal’s popular sports, football, and said, “Bengal is a State that loves football. That’s why, using some football terminology, I would like to say that the bua bhatija (aunt-nephew) dispensation had ‘committed a number of fouls like mal-governance, tolabaji (extortion), general loot, syndicate raj’ criminalisation of politics and politicisation of the police administration.”
He went on to add, “The people of Bengal are watching and very soon, the State will show the ‘Ram card’ to the TMC,” Modi said, in an obvious reference to the red card in football.
“This is why the people of Bengal have decided to bring the BJP by throwing it out of power … even the TMC supporters are itching to see the back of this Government. And this is why the real parivaratan (political change) will take place unlike the one that Mamata Didi had promised 10 years ago but ended up giving a worse Government than what the Left and the Congress gave,” he said.
The people had expected “Mamata (compassion)” from the TMC Government after it came to power but they got “nirmamta (cruelty)” instead, he said alleging how the Chief Minister was so intolerant to criticism that she put those behind bars all those who raised their voices against her.
“She is even intolerant towards slogans like Bharat Maata ki Jai (hail Mother India),” Modi said reminding how on account of bad governance given by the Congress, Left and the TMC, Bengal which had a glorious past ranking among the best developed States in the country had turned into a laggard of sorts.
Though the Chief Minister skipped the Prime Ministerial programme, no exact reason was given for the same. However, sources said the decision to skip the Sunday’s programme was taken in view of the “insult she had been meted out on January 23 at Victoria Memorial in Kolkata” where alleged BJP supporters had hooted her with ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogan in presence of the Prime Minister.
Reiterating how the Chief Minister got irritated by patriotic slogans Modi on Sunday said, “She gets angry when people chant ‘Bharat Mata Ki Jai’ but not when conspiracies are hatched to defame India.”
“Not only that the TMC Government refused to perform but it stalls the developmental schemes introduced by the Centre from reaching the people of Bengal,” Modi said adding how Banerjee put spanners on the plethora of Central schemes like Kisan Sanman Nidhi, Ayushman Bharat and deprived the people of Bengal from getting benefited from them.
“Not only this, thousands of crores of rupees sent after the Amphan cyclone and the pandemic were misappropriated,” he said, adding “even the courts had to intervene in favour of a thorough probe into the matter.”
Regardless of the deprivations the “first Cabinet meeting of the BJP Government will take up the issue to ensure that the Central schemes reach the people and particularly farmers in general,” he said promising that “even the benefits the people could not get in the past years due to the adamant attitude of the TMC Government will be compensated for.”
Earlier expressing anguish at the dam burst in Uttarakhand where many villages have been swept away in a near repeat of the Himalayan Tsunami that hit the same State a few years ago, the Prime Minister said that Central Government was in continuous touch with the State and was sending all possible help to save life and property.
Monday, 08 February 2021 | Saugar Sengupta | Kolkata
