Bengal synonymous with corruption, anarchy under TMC rule: Nadda

BJP president JP Nadda on Tuesday said West Bengal is passing through a bad phase under the TMC rule, with its name becoming synonymous with corruption, bloodshed and anarchy.

"There was a time when Bengal showed the way to the rest of the country but today it is passing through a bad phase," Nadda said addressing people of the Bengali community at Rudrapur in Udham Singh Nagar district.

The name of West Bengal, which was once associated with great social reformers, thinkers, philosophers, literary figures and freedom fighters, has become synonymous with corruption, bloodshed and anarchy under the TMC, he said.

Naming Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Sri Aurobindo, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee, Subhas Chandra Bose and Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee, he drew a comparison between its "glorious" past and "ugly" present.

"TMC leaders in West Bengal today are involved in corrupt practices in every scheme, including the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana. Murders, rapes, crime against women, human trafficking and sexual harassment cases are at their peak.

There have been 123 sexual harassment cases and 53 murders in West Bengal since the Assembly election results are out. People have been forced to leave their homes. The BJP has given shelter to 191 refugees," he claimed.

He appealed to people of the community to first re-elect the BJP in Uttarakhand and follow it up with a victory to the party in West Bengal in a democratic manner so that the "grim picture" changes.

Highlighting outreach efforts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to people of Indian origin living anywhere in the world, Nadda spoke of his visit to a Matua community temple in Bangladesh during his visit to that country.

He said Modi has come to the rescue of members of Indian communities, be it Sikhs or Parsis, whenever they have suffered persecution at the hands of authorities in their countries.

The Citizenship Amendment Act is aimed at giving a life of dignity to people of Indian origin who escape to India after suffering persecution in foreign lands, he said.

Nadda also reminded Bengalis living in Uttarakhand how they had been exempted by the Pushkar Singh Dhami government from the compulsion of writing the word "East Pakistan" in their caste certificates.

The Uttarakhand cabinet in August cleared a proposal to drop the word "East Pakistan" from caste certificates issued to members of the displaced Bengali community settled mostly in Udham Singh Nagar district of the state.