New Delhi: The Trinamool Congress on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should answer why the government brought Bills for the removal of the prime minister, chief ministers and ministers on arrest for 30 days in the “dead of the night”, slamming the ruling party over the Centre’s dues for West Bengal and alleging discrimination against Bengali migrants and language.
Prime Minister Modi is visiting West Bengal on Friday to unveil Rs 5,200 crore worth of infrastructure projects, including three crucial metro stretches, and address a public rally.
In a video statement, TMC Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra said the prime minister is coming to the state in the “election season” like a “migratory bird”.
“Now that the election season is upon us, you have been visiting Bihar and now you’ve come to Bengal like the migratory bird that you are, but we welcome you and we have five questions for you Modiji,” Moitra said.
The TMC leader said the prime minister should answer some questions, the first being the requirement for bringing Bills providing for the removal of the PM, CMs and ministers who are arrested for over 30 days on serious charges.
“You brought in a constitutional amendment Bill on the second last day of Parliament in the dead of the night. What moral authority do you have to bring this Bill, which is essentially going to be able to topple the Opposition-ruled states without conviction, without a trial?” Moitra said.
“Only eight out of 5,900 ED cases in the last 10 years have resulted in a conviction. So 99.9% of ED and CBI cases are actually trumped up,” she said.
Moitra said that while he talks about “corruption-free India”, “twenty-three out of 25 politicians from other parties that have joined you in the last few years have got a reprieve from the agencies and their criminal records have been wiped clean thanks to your washing machine”.
“Out of your 240 MPs, 94 face criminal charges and in your cabinet, 28 ministers face cases,” she said.
The second question, Moitra said, was if the electoral rolls in the 2024 Lok Sabha in Bihar were so faulty, then why is the Lok Sabha not being dissolved and fresh elections are not being called, she asked.
“The third question, do you endorse the Delhi Police’s stand that Bangla is a Bangladeshi language? Why don’t you have the courage to stand today in your programme on the soil of Bengal and tell all of us that Bangla is a Bangladeshi language?” the TMC MP said.
In her fourth question, Moitra said that the prime minister claimed there is no ‘Viksit Bharat’ without ‘Viksit Bangla’ and asked why Bengalis in all the BJP-ruled states are being harassed, profiled, detained and even deported.
“The fifth and last question, are you aware that the Centre’s dues to the state of Bengal now stand at 1.83 lakh crores? After blocking MGNREGS, (PM) Awas Yojana, (PM) Gram Sadak Yojana, now even the Jal Jeevan Mission funds have been blocked. So, please, we welcome you to Bengal, but we also want answers to these five questions,” she said.
