Bengal Faces Lawlessness Under Mamata's Rule, Says Rajnath

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday alleged that lawlessness was prevailing in West Bengal under the Mamata Banerjee dispensation. He said that despite the state having a woman chief minister, incidents like Sandeshkhali were taking place.

"There is lawlessness in West Bengal under the Mamata Banerjee rule," Singh said while addressing an election rally here in Murshidabad Lok Sabha constituency in favour of BJP candidate Gouri Shankar Ghosh. Everyone across the world who has heard of the Sandeshkhali incident "was ashamed", he said.

Photo Credit: PTI

Some local TMC leaders have been accused of committing sexual atrocities on women as well as grabbing land of villagers, including tribals, at Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district. "Goons are ruling the roost here and people are scared," Singh claimed.

He said Bengal was one of the most important centres of India's cultural renaissance, giving the country its national song by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and the national anthem by Rabindranath Tagore. "But now Bengal is known for criminal activities," he said.

Wondering how incidents like Sandeshkhali could happen in Bengal despite the state having a woman CM, Singh asserted that if the BJP wins in the state, no one will dare to repeat such incidents. "ED and CBI officials are attacked by goons when they go to conduct investigation... law and order does not exist in the state," he said, maintaining that the development of a state depends on good law and order. The senior BJP leader alleged that "loot" was going on in the state under the TMC dispensation.

"Even in school jobs recruitment there was a scam, it seems there is a scam in everything in the state," he said. Amid vehement opposition by the TMC supremo to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), he said that the legislation will certainly be implemented in West Bengal.

Noting that those who came to India, including to West Bengal, from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan as refugees on religious grounds will be granted citizenship, Singh said, "No power in the world can stop us from doing so."

Singh alleged that Banerjee "speaks bad about" Prime Minister Narendra Modi, while he is doing everything for the development of the people of the country, including West Bengal. Stating that former prime ministers Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had spoken of removing poverty, he claimed that "this is the first time it is being truly achieved under the leadership of PM Modi".

He said Niti Aayog and several experts have stated that 25 crore people have been brought out of poverty by the Modi government.