Bengal: PM Modi lashes out at TMC over Sandeshkhali

Krishnanagar (West Bengal) [India], March 2 (ANI): Tearing into Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal over allegations of “sexual abuse” and “land grab” in the Sanndeskhali area of North 24 Parganas district, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday alleged that the ruling party “did not want the accused to get arrested.”

PM Modi further alleged that the ruling party used the women of Bengal as a “vote bank”.

In his public address at Krishnanagar, PM Modi said that while the women of Sandeshkahli “cried out for justice,” the ruling party in the State “looked elsewhere.”

PM Modi said, “Using the slogan of ‘Maa, Maati, Manush’, the TMC government used the women of Bengal as a vote-bank. Today, Maa, Maati and Maanush are all in the TMC mode of governance. Women of Sandeshkhali kept asking for justice, yet the government did not hear them.”

PM Modi alleged that the TMC had no “intention” to get the prime accused arrested in the Sandeshkhali incident. “But the nari shakti of Bengal stood like a Durga (goddess Durga).

“In Bengal, the police do not decide when a criminal must be arrested; it’s the criminal who decides everything for himself. The state government did not want the accused in the Sandeshkhali incident to be arrested…,” the Prime Minister said.

He said every worker of the BJP stood with the women of Sandeskahli (in their struggle for justice. “Then the state government relented,” referring to the arrest of Shahjahan Sheikh.

Sanndeskhlai has been on a boil and witnessed violent protests in recent days over the allegations of “sexual abuse” against Shahjahan Sheikh, who was arrested earlier this week after remaining elusive for over a month.

The BJP state leadership also felicitated Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a program in Krishnanagar.

PM Modi’s visit assumes significance ahead of the Lok Sabha elections expected to be held in April-May.