Durgapur: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday asserted that the BJP is the only party that truly respects and protects Bengali ‘ashmita’ (pride), and lashed out at the ruling TMC for allegedly enabling infiltration, stoking violence, and driving Bengal’s youths out of their home state.
“For the BJP, Bengali ‘ashmita’ is supreme. Wherever there is a BJP government, Bengalis are respected,” Modi said at a public rally in Durgapur, seeking to blunt the TMC’s recent accusation that BJP-ruled states were targeting Bengali-speaking migrant workers.
In a blistering attack on the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC, Modi said the BJP government at the Centre had conferred classical language status to Bangla — a recognition that parties like the Congress, the Left, and the TMC “ignored” despite running the governments in Delhi together for years.
“The TMC is actively helping infiltrators. I want to say this very clearly that those who are not citizens of India and have entered illegally – the law will take its own course in accordance with the Constitution,” he said, sending a clear message on illegal immigration.
Modi’s comments come amid an emotionally charged political atmosphere in West Bengal, where the ruling TMC has raised concerns over alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking migrants in several BJP-ruled states, including Assam, Gujarat, Delhi, Odisha, and Maharashtra.
Without naming Mamata Banerjee directly, Modi accused her party of nurturing vote-bank politics at the cost of Bengal’s development and security.
“The BJP will not allow any conspiracy to succeed against Bengali ashmita (pride),” he said.
Recalling Bengal’s contribution to India’s intellectual and cultural awakening, Modi said, “BJP is a pan-India party whose seeds were sown in Bengal.”
He lamented how the state, once a cradle of development, has now become a “symbol of flight” with youths leaving in droves for jobs elsewhere.
“The youths here now have to leave Bengal to look for jobs in other states. The situation here has become increasingly unfavourable for investment and employment,” Modi claimed.
