As the battle heats up in the run-up to the state assembly elections in West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee have not been shy about exchanging barbs.
Banerjee sought to attack the Prime Minister over his address to the nation on Saturday, and said it was “extremely unfortunate” that he “chose to mislead the nation instead of addressing it honestly.”
On the other hand, Modi continued his attack against the Trinamool Congress, which is currently in power in West Bengal, and against the Congress, and claimed that both parties “colluded” to prevent “ensuring the entry of more women into legislative bodies.”
He was referring to the Lok Sabha not passing the Constitutional Amendment Bill which seeks to expand the lower house of Parliament to make room for women by 33 per cent. The opposition did not allow the bill to pass due to the division over the border demarcation process based on the 2011 census.
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“A coward, a hypocrite, and one with a thorny tongue.”
Reacting to Modi’s address to the nation, in which he equated the non-passage of the said bill to “feticide” by the Congress and other opposition parties, Banerjee challenged him to “have courage” to address the nation from the floor of Parliament next time, where he will be subjected to “scrutiny, challenge and accountability”.
She described Modi’s speech as “cowardly, hypocritical and disgraceful.”
Banerjee also said her party has “always stood for higher political representation of women”, citing the proportion of female MPs from her party.
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She explained that the opposition was not about the women’s quota bill, but rather the demarcation process, which she said “the Modi government was planning to move forward by using women as a shield for its political agenda.”
“What we fundamentally oppose is changing Babasaheb Ambedkar’s constitution, dividing this nation and usurping power through fraud, by redrawing political lines to give greater representation to BJP-ruled states at the expense of others. This is an assault on federal democracy. We will not watch this happen in silence,” she wrote in a lengthy post on X.
Banerjee also questioned the timing of the bill, asking why the women’s reservation bill was being rushed three years after it was passed in 2023 amid the ongoing state elections.
“Why does he associate it with demarcation?” I asked.
“TMC era of ‘Maha Jungle Raj'”
Prime Minister Modi, during a rally in Purulia in West Bengal on Sunday, doubled down on his criticism of the current TMC government, saying it has a “Maha Gabal Raj” rule and because of that, the state’s tribal areas are lagging behind.
“During the TMC era, the tribal areas were backward. Roads, electricity, water, schools, hospitals… everything is in a deplorable state. The tribes do not have control over their lands. The TMC syndicate has taken control of the tribal lands,” he said.
Modi also sought to attack the TMC over the issue of hiring teachers for money and unemployment levels in the state, claiming that no work there is done without corruption.
He said that under TMC’s 15-year rule, unemployment in West Bengal had reached a “dangerous level”.
“TMC ministers steal teacher appointments, defraud thousands of youth. In the TMC jungle, nothing can be done without bribery. When bribery is forcefully imposed, how will the industry flourish?” He said.
Modi also expressed confidence that the BJP will form a government in the state after the next elections, saying that while he does not usually give predictions about states, everyone he meets this time is telling him that “the BJP government is certain.”
“After hearing all this, I say that this time the BJP will form the government with an overwhelming majority,” he said.
Elections in West Bengal are scheduled to be held in two phases on April 23 and 29. The counting of votes is scheduled to take place on May 4.
