PM Modi attacks Mamata for maha jungle raj

Launching a scathing attack on the Mamata Banerjee Government for unleashing an anarchical rule in Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday said that the time had come when the people of the State should get rid of this “maha jungle raj” perpetrated by the Trinamool Congress.

The Prime Minister who was scheduled to address a mega rally at Taherpur off Ranaghat in Nadia district — some 90 km from Kolkata — but addressed his audience from Kolkata as his chopper could not land at the designated place on account of a dense fog, cited the example of Bihar, where the people had voted for the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance in the recently concluded Assembly elections.

“Last month, when the people of Bihar gave a massive mandate to the NDA, I had said that as Ganga flows from Bihar to Bengal, now it was the turn of the people of this State to snatch a freedom from the ‘maha jangal raj’ much the way the people of Bihar had been rejecting jungle-raj there even after 20 years of continuous NDA rule,” the Prime Minister addressing the rally virtually said.

From Kolkata, the Prime Minister inaugurated two National Highway projects worth around Rs 3,200 crore. He inaugurated the 66.7 km-long four-laning of the Barajaguli-Krishnanagar section of National Highway-34 in the Nadia district, besides laying the foundation stone for the four-laning of the 17.6 km-long Barasat-Barajaguli section of the National Highway in the North 24 Parganas district.

The projects will serve as a vital connecting link between Kolkata and Siliguri, reducing travel time by approximately two hours.

Calling for Parivartan (change of government) and reiterating the “development” and “double engine” cause — where the same BJP runs a government in the Centre as well as the State — in Bengal too, Modi said, “A double engine Government is needed to restore the State to its past glory,” because the Trinamool Congress was stalling the State’s development projects worth crores.

Apparently, setting the talking points for his party in the run-up to the elections, Modi brought back the infiltrator issue, saying the TMC was providing protection to the infiltrators.

“The TMC has been raising slogans of ‘Modi go back,’ but they are not raising the slogans of ‘ghuspaithiya’ (infiltrator) go back because the infiltrators who propose to take over Bengal are dearer to them. This is why they have been opposing special intensive revision (of electoral rolls) to protect the infiltrators,” the Prime Minister said.

“If Mamata Banerjee wants to oppose Modi or the BJP, let her do so, but why does she have to obstruct the development of the State?” Modi asked.

The TMC hit back at the Prime Minister hard, saying he was talking of infiltrators, but the SIR that was “whimsically” imposed on the people could not detect a single infiltrator in Bihar.

Aware that the Prime Minister was giving his speech for the citizens of Nadia and North 24 Parganas, a stronghold of the Matua vote bank where the BJP has a good stranglehold, the TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “The BJP wanted to use SIR for its own political interest, but it has boomeranged and hit it bad and hard” because instead of the Muslim infiltrators, it was the Matua (scheduled caste Hindu refugees from Bangladesh) community that was facing the brunt.” The BJP tried to hit the TMC with SIT, but the Matua community has been hit hard because it is their names that were being deleted,” Ghosh said, asking why the Prime Minister did not utter a single word about their citizenship.” He said many things about the Matua community, but he did not give any word on how the thousands of Matua people who came from Bangladesh and whose names were getting deleted would get back their citizenship. He has left the Matuas a dejected lot.” A 1.2 crore-strong Matua community influences about 90 Assembly seats in two 24 Parganas, Nadia, and two Dinajpur districts of Bengal.

PM’s speech lacked concern about Matuas, alleges TMC

Kolkata: The ruling Trinamool Congress on Saturday alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speech at the Taherpur rally in West Bengal showed his “lack of concern” for the Matuas, who have been facing uncertainties over the deletion of names post publication of the draft electoral rolls under the SIR.

TMC state general secretary Kunal Ghosh also claimed that the prime minister did not utter a single word about the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states.

“Modi’s speech lacked vision and responsibility. He did not address the concerns of the Matuas,” he told reporters.

Ghosh also alleged that the PM “remained silent on the deportation of Indian citizens to Bangladesh by the police force of BJP-ruled states, who could return to their motherland India at the intervention of the judiciary”.

His allusion was to Sunali Khatun, who returned to India on December 6 after being pushed into Bangladesh in June. “Modi did not explain why the Centre blocked the funds for central projects for the poor people in West Bengal and weaved a false narrative about lack of development in the state,” claimed TMC leader.

He asked why the Centre has withheld thousands of crores of funds under the 100-day rural employment scheme. Ghosh claimed that a few BJP workers died in a train accident on the way to the Taherpur rally and blamed “crowd mismanagement at Modi’s programme”.

“We are sad over the loss of lives of BJP workers. But had there been proper management on the way to the venue, it could have been avoided,” he claimed.

West Bengal minister and senior TMC leader Chandrima Bhattacharya later told reporters that the PM has not spoken a single word about the Centre withholding Rs 1.97 lakh crore dues of West Bengal under several central projects.

In a jibe at Modi’s speaking in Bengali, Bhattacharya said, “Despite his best efforts, many of his pronunciations made little sense, particularly regarding names of places.”