Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Mar 1: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who till date has maintained a studied silence on the gang rape and parading naked of two women in the BJP-ruled Manipur last year, on Friday slammed the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal over the alleged Sandeshkhali issue and said the entire country was ashamed to see the atrocities meted out to women at the hands of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders.
Mr Modi, who was addressing a public meeting at Arambagh in Hooghly district, also questioned the silence of the INDIA bloc alliance over the Sandeshkhali issue and asked the people to give a befitting reply to the TMC through the ballot box.
Targeting the TMC government over charges of corruption, Mr Modi also gave his “guarantee” that he would not allow TMC leaders to indulge in scams and would ensure that they return money to the poor people of Bengal.
In a sharp attack on the TMC, Mr Modi accused the party of shielding Sandeshkhali prime accused Sheikh Shahjahan, who has been arrested amid allegations of sexual assault and land grab. Mr Modi said the people of the state were asking whether the votes of “some people” were more important to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee than the suffering of women in Sandeshkhali.
Referring to the Trinamool Congress’ slogan of ‘Maa, Maati, Manush’ (Mother, Land, and People), the PM said in Hindi, “What has been done to the women in Sandeshkhali by the Trinamool Congress, which keeps talking about ‘Maa, Maati, Manush’, has made the entire country sad and angry. (Reformer) Raja Ram Mohan Roy’s soul must be in tears because of the deeds of these people.”
“A Trinamool leader crossed all limits of audacity with women in Sandeshkhali and when they spoke up and sought help from Mamata didi, she and the Bengal government did everything in their power to shield him. It was because of pressure from the BJP leaders, who fought for the women and even braved assaults on their behalf, that the Bengal Police was forced to arrest the accused yesterday,” he added.
Insisting that someone must have been trying to save Shahjahan since he was on the run for nearly two months, the PM exhorted people to answer every injury with their vote, saying, “Har chot ka jawaab vote se dena hai.”
With just weeks to go for the Lok Sabha elections, the PM also trained his guns on leaders of the INDIA alliance and said,” They have shut their eyes, ears and mouth, just like Gandhiji’s three monkeys. They hold meetings together in Patna, Bengaluru, Mumbai and other places, but did the Left or the Congress dare to seek any answers from the chief minister or the Bengal government?”
After a Congress delegation had been stopped from visiting Sandeshkhali last month, party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had called Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee the “Bengali queen of cruelty” and accused her of having spoken out in Shahjahan’s favour earlier. Accusing Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge of having said that “things like this keep happening in Bengal”, the PM asked whether that wasn’t an insult to the state, its people and its tradition.
“This is the truth of the Congress and the INDIA bloc. The INDIA alliance’s only aim is to support people who believe in corruption and the politics of appeasement and dynasty,” the Prime Minister said.
Sheikh Shahjahan, a local Trinamool strongman was arrested on Thursday after women in Sandeshkhali accused him and his aides of sexual assault and land grab. He had been on the run since an Enforcement Directorate team was attacked by a mob during a raid on his house in connection with an alleged ration scam on January 5.
The arrest, which was in connection with the mob attack, came days after the Calcutta High Court had pulled up the Bengal police for letting Shahjahan roam free. Insisting that the leader had been arrested immediately after the court had clarified that there was no stay on doing so, the Trinamool Congress had suspended him from the party for six years on Thursday.
Modi, who is on a two-day trip to West Bengal, laid the foundation stone for multiple development projects worth Rs 7,200 crore before addressing the meeting. He also came down heavily upon the TMC government over corruption charges and its leaders’ involvement in multiple scams.
“The TMC has created a new model of corruption in Bengal. It supports widespread corruption and violence. There is corruption in primary teachers recruitment, civic bodies recruitment, ration distribution system, implementation of the MGNREGA scheme etc. There is no area left where they did not indulge in corruption. Bundles of cash were recovered from the houses of TMC leaders. Have you seen such things before? Even in cinema?” Modi asked.
“The TMC government even stops central agencies from conducting investigations. TMC wants to loot money from central schemes. TMC sees Modi as its number one enemy as it stops such acts. Should I allow them to loot people’s money? Am I doing the right thing or not? I give you my guarantee that the looters (of people’s money) will have to return the money. Modi will not spare them. Modi is not scared of their attacks. Modi’s guarantee is that they will have to return the money which they looted,” Mr Modi said.
He also added that Bengal’s development was being compromised because of the TMC government. “Projects worth crores are pending due to non-cooperation of the state government. The TMC government is also not allowing houses to be constructed for poor people…Centre is releasing funds but the state government is not utilising them properly. It is putting up roadblocks,” he said.
On Saturday, PM Modi will address another public meeting at Krishnanagar in Nadia district and inaugurate development projects.
