(IANS) PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday claimed that the“freedom of speech” inWest Bengal is at stake under the current Trinamool Congress Government. “The opposition voices in West Bengal are being suppressed in West Bengal. The freedom of speech of common people is at stake. In West Bengal, a person is threatened even for sharing a cartoon,” the Prime Minister said while addressing a rally at Arambagh Lok Sabha constituency in Hooghly district in support of the party candidate Arup Kanti Digar. The Prime Minister was referring to the former professor of Jadavpur University, Dr Ambikesh Mahapatra, who was arrested by police in 2011 for sharing a cartoon of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Prime Minister said that Trinamool Congress leaders feel that they enjoy the monopoly on the culture of West Bengal. “But this is the land of Maa Durga and Maa Kali. In Bengal, censorship has been put on people’s faith. Taking the name of Lord Ram is a crime here,” the Prime Minister said. He said that it is unfortunate that the condition of women and education are constantly deteriorating in the land of Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. “The contribution of personalities like Shyama Prasad Mukherjee is being undermined in West Bengal for appeasement politics and keeping the dedicated minority vote bank happy. The Trinamool Congress leaders areconstantly insulting the people coming from ScheduledCastes, Scheduled Tribes andother backward classes,” thePrime Minister said. He also said that theTrinamool Congress would not be able to stop the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act.

 

Modi on Sunday slammed the “vote-bank” politics of the TMC and said the goons of the ruling party are threatening the tormented women of Sandeshkhali, where allegations of sexual abuse against TMC leaders have surfaced, to protect the culprits involved in the heinous crime. While addressing back-toback rallies in Barrackpore and Hooghly, Modi alleged that under the TMC rule, Hindus have turned into second-class citizens in West Bengal and asserted that “as long as Modi is here, no one can repeal the CAA law.” Suggesting that the performance of the Congress would be at an all-time low, the prime minister claimed that the grand-old party will get fewer seats than the age of its ‘shehzada’ (Rahul Gandhi)intheLokSabhapolls. Gandhi is in his early fifties. “All of us have seen what the TMC has done with the sisters and mothers of Sandeshkhali. First, the police tried to save the culprits, now the TMC has started a new game. TMC goons are threatening the sisters of Sandeshkhali, just because the oppressor’s name is Shahjahan Sheikh... They are trying their best to save and protect him from legal action. Don’t be afraid of TMC,” he said at Barrackpore. Addressing his second rally in Hooghly, Modi said, “TMC is using every trick in Sandeshkhali, but none of the oppressors of Sandeshkhali TMC will be spared.” His remarks come in the backdrop of multiple purported videos surfacing on social media, which claimed that a local BJP party leader made several women of Sandeshkhali sign on blank papers which were later filled up as complaints of sexual assault against TMC leaders.

 

The prime minister, however, didn’t directly refer to those videos. PTI could not independently verify the authenticity of those videos. Claiming that under the TMC regime, Bengal has turned into a centre of “corruption” and a “cottage industry of bomb-making,” the prime minister said the state’s ruling dispensation has surrendered before the vote bank politics. “HINDUS HAVE BECOME SECOND-CLASS CITIZENS IN BENGAL”: PM MODI: PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday slammed the Trinamool Congress and accused the State Government of turning Hindus into “second-class citizens” in the State during the TMC regime. Addressing a rally in Barrackpur, PM Modi said that the people’s enthusiastic faces tell him that the BJP is going to receive an even higher mandate than it did in 2019. Bengal is saying, “Phir Ek Baar, Modi Sarkar!” The PM slammed the opposition bloc I.N.D.I. and the Congress for “supporting” the “vote jihad” comments.