The BJP on Friday slammed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee calling her a “liar” and asked her to explain why she has not done anything to ensure implementation of existing “stringent” rules and regulations to protect women in her state.

This came after Mamata wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, reiterating her request for stringent central legislation and exemplary punishment on heinous crimes like rape and murder.

She also sought mandatory provision for time-bound disposal of cases of rape/rape and murder.

“It is incumbent on Mamata to explain why the West Bengal Government hasn't done anything for implementing the stringent rules and regulations, which exist for protecting women and girls,” BJP co-incharge for West Bengal Amit Malviya said in a social media post. “Stop writing letters. Answer the questions. You are accountable,” he said.

In her letter, Mamata said she was yet to receive a reply from the Prime Minister on the issue that she had flagged in her previous letter to him.

The Chief Minister, however, said she received a communication from the Union Women and Child Development (WCD) Minister Annapurna Devi.

Maintaining that the letter by the WCD Minister “barely attends the gravity of the issue” raised by her, Banerjee wrote,

“The seriousness of the subject and its relevance to the society have not been adequately appreciated while sending out this generic reply.”

Banerjee, in her letter to the Prime Minister, mentioned that 88 fast-track special courts and 62 POCSO-designated courts are already functioning in West Bengal on State funding.

Reacting sharply, Malviya said, “Mamata is a liar”.

“Annapurna Devi, Union Minister of Women and Child Development, responded to West Bengal Chief Minister on August 25, 2024. In her letter, in point 4, she (the WCD Minister) specifically mentions West Bengal Government not setting up even a single fast track Court for addressing rape and POCSO related cases,” the BJP Leader said. He also posted on social media a copy of the WCD Minister's letter to the West Bengal Chief Minister.

Malviya said as many as seven cases of rape, mostly of minors, and in some cases murders too have been reported in West Bengal in the last 48 hours.

“But in the last 48 hours, Mamata has been engaged in every deplorable act — that a civilised Chief Minister would be ashamed of — from issuing open letters to clarifications, from threatening and abusing doctors to inciting nationwide arson,” he said in another social media post.

He called Mamata a “failed Home and Health Minister” of the State and alleged that she is preoccupied with suppressing evidences of her corruption and incompetence in the RG Kar Hospital rape-and-murder case. “But, enough is enough. The awakened conscience of Bengal now calls for accountability,” the BJP leader added.