Kolkata: In a fiery broadside against Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday, Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra highlighted the previous day’s violent clash between BJP and TMC workers in Kolkata — culminating in the vandalism of West Bengal Minister Shashi Panja’s residence — as evidence that BJP supporters have unleashed a “jungle raj” in the state.
The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon, when stone-pelting broke out between supporters of the two parties at Girish Park on Chittaranjan Avenue, close to where the PM’s election rally was being held at Brigade Parade Ground.
En route to the event, BJP workers allegedly vandalised Panja’s Girish Park home, breaking window panes and attacking her staff while the minister and her two daughters were inside.
Posting on X, Moitra directly addressed Modi: “Dear @narendramodi, welcome to Bengal as an Election Bird. You spoke of TMC’s Maha Jungle Raj on a day when your BJP goons vandalised the home of our lady cabinet minister. Bengal will punish you the same way it did in 2021.”
In an accompanying video, she elaborated on the attack’s unprecedented nature: “Welcome to West Bengal, Prime Minister Modi. From your rally at Brigade Parade Ground, you have said that Trinamool is running a maha Jungle Raj in Bengal. It is ironic that the day you said this is the day that your BJP workers came to your meeting at the Brigade Parade Ground, vandalised and attacked the home of a lady cabinet minister, Shashi Panja in Girish Park, on the way to your rally. This is the first time that the home of any cabinet Minister in Bengal has been attacked by any political party. Shashi Panja is a mother of two daughters, and she lives in that house with them. Her house was vandalised, the window panes were broken, and her staff was attacked. She was present in the house. This is the jungle raj that you have brought. These are the gunda lauts and rowdies that are walking the streets of Kolkata to attend your meeting. You never apologised for coming to our city and having your workers vandalise the home of our lady cabinet Minister. Shame on you.”
The BJP, however, said that buses, carrying BJP supporters to the venue came under attack from Trinamool hooligans. The skirmish took place after the BJP supporters fought back, party leaders said.
The police stood mute spectators to the whole incident, video footage has revealed.
Moitra also rebutted claims of TMC insulting President Droupadi Murmu at a private event, shifting blame to the BJP: “You say that we have insulted the President. We have not insulted her; you have reduced every constitutional body, from the President, the Election Commissioner, to the Speaker, to being the BJP’s puppet. You sent her on the eve of an election to parrot your lies. She came to a private event on a private invitation. The State Government was not responsible for that program. We gave in to writing that the program was not suitable for her. Even then, you insisted that she come here.”
She further condemned Modi’s record on tribal welfare amid ongoing violence: “When tribals were attacked and paraded naked in Manipur, you haven’t stepped into the soil of Manipur to date. When tribals were urinated on in Madhya Pradesh, a state ruled by the BJP, you said nothing. You are teaching us about tribal welfare?”
Earlier on Saturday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaking at a BJP rally on Kolkata’s Parade Ground, declared that a political transformation was imminent in West Bengal, as the “countdown” for the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government had begun.
Modi went on to outline the BJP’s roadmap for the state should the party triumph in the upcoming elections. The rally attracted numerous BJP leaders and workers from Kolkata as well as districts throughout West Bengal.
Asserting that the Mamata Banerjee administration was headed for collapse, Modi branded it a “nirmam sarkar (heartless government).” He stated: “Change in Bengal is now visible on the walls and deeply etched in the hearts of its people. The end of the ruthless government in Bengal is inevitable. The era of maha jungle raj in Bengal will end.”
Modi pointed to surging support for the BJP across all regions of the state, adding: “That day is not far when the rule of law will once again be established in Bengal. Those who break the law and commit atrocities will not be spared. Not a single TMC oppressor will be spared…. It (TMC) cannot stop the storm of change.”
Modi further lambasted the TMC for rejecting the Election Commission’s special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which he said was aimed at “protecting infiltrators.” He alleged that illegal immigration under the current government had led to demographic alterations in various parts of West Bengal.
