PM writes to West Bengal, says change is inevitable
In a first before a State Assembly election, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday wrote an open letter in Bangla saying he was “heartbroken by the deceit and anguish” faced by a cross-section of citizens under the current Trinamool Congress led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. The letter comes months after PM had asserted that Ganga will now flow to West Bengal after massive electoral win in the Bihar Assembly polls, where the RJD-Congress combine was routed in November last year.
It coincides with the State BJP’s ongoing house-to-house Griha Sampark Abhiyan during which party leaders will distribute the PM’s communication to households during their grassroots outreach programme.
“Bengal used to be the nation’s vanguard in both financial and industrial sectors in post-Independence India. It pains me to witness the brittle and sick State it has turned into. It is impossible to describe the irreversible damage which six decades of misgovernance and appeasement politics have caused,” the PM wrote in his letter.
Naming West Bengal’s political and cultural icons such as Swami Vivekananda, Rishi Aurobindo, Subhas Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee at multiple points in his letter, PM Modi wrote that he regretted the “darkness of chaos that grips West Bengal” in current times.
PM Modi further wrote that while a political change was “inevitable”, a “judicious choice” by voters could align the State with the accelerated development seen in the rest of the country. Beginning his letter with Jai Maa Kali, the PM targeted the TMC Government on issues ranging from lack of governance and appeasement politics to fake voters, employment deficiency and women’s safety. “Change is now inevitable. The standard of living has remarkably improved in other states. Smiles have returned to the lips of the poor. Ayushman Bharat has provided health cover, new employment is guaranteed for the youth and women’s safety is ensured. Bengal too should be part of this growth and development,” The PM wrote said.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh called the PM’s letter “nothing more than theatrics” ahead of the polls due in a few months. “If the PM is so devastated by the condition of ‘Sonar Bangla’, why has he stopped funds for 100-day work for the people of Bengal, why has the Centre withheld funds for rural housing and village roads, all of which the Mamata Banerjee Government is currently sponsoring? Bengal’s rightful dues from the Union Government currently stand at a whopping Rs 1.96 lakh crore,” he said.
Senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury questioned the timing of the letter. “I want to ask the PM why he suddenly remembered West Bengal right ahead of the elections? We see him touring the world all year round. We don’t see him visiting or talking about Bengal then. By writing letters like this, he is only exposing the brand of politics the BJP follows,” Chowdhury said.
