In his first public appearance in Bengal after the women’s reservation Bill could not muster enough numbers in Parliament last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi attacked the Trinamool Congress, claiming that it ‘betrayed’ women, during an election rally in Bishnupur under Bankura district on Sunday.
PM Modi said, “We want more women to join politics, but you all saw what happened in Parliament. The TMC in Parliament again cheated the women of Bengal; they betrayed the women of this state. Bengal women wanted this (33 per cent reservation in Parliament and Assemblies for women) to be implemented from 2029, but the TMC did not want more women from Bengal to become MP, MLA, because the women of Bengal are challenging their maha jungle raj. So, the TMC, in conspiracy with the Congress, did not allow the 33 per cent reservation bill to be passed.”
He added, “This is the same TMC that breaks all laws to give advantage to the infiltrators, it is the same TMC that does appeasement politics.”
The prime minister urged the voters not to allow the TMC to go unpunished for looting the rights of women and not allowing the Bill to be passed.
The PM also criticised the ruling TMC government for ‘insulting’ the Kurmis and the Adivasis and ‘ignoring’ their rights. He said, “Over here, the TMC does not listen to our Kurmi community but listens to the infiltrators and, going against the Constitution, they are giving reservations to their vote banks. Even the Calcutta High Court is repeatedly saying this cannot be done, but they do not even listen to the court.”
Raising the issue of ‘protocol breach’ while receiving President Droupadi Murmu during her visit to the state earlier in the year, Modi said, “The TMC dislikes the women of the Adivasi community also. The BJP gave the country its first woman Adivasi president because we want to empower the Adivasi community, but the TMC and the Congress put up a candidate against the Adivasi presidential candidate because they did not want an Adivasi woman to become the President. Today, the entire world respects our Adivasi President, Droupadi Murmu, but the TMC insulted her time and again. The entire country and all the women of West Bengal saw how the TMC had insulted our President when she had come to West Bengal.”
Thereafter, Modi listed the poll promises that the BJP has made to the women of West Bengal.
Raising the issue of drinking water ‘shortage’ in Bankura, the PM said, “Here, there is a lot of problem regarding drinking water. The TMC syndicate is looting your water. In Bihar, there is the BJP-led NDA government. Over there, most houses have tap water. Over here also, when you make a BJP chief minister, then the double engine government will ensure that each household gets water.”
PM Modi is set to hold three more rallies – in Purulia, Jhargram, and Medinipur – in poll-bound Bengal on Sunday. All these areas will go to the polls in the first phase of the Bengal Assembly elections on April 23.