Union Minister and former BJP president J P Nadda on Friday claimed that the Bengali community was no longer safe in West Bengal and said the time had come for a political change in the Trinamool Congress-ruled state, asserting that Bengal needed to be “rescued” from its present troubles.
Addressing a programme at the City Bengali Club in Jabalpur, Nadda said West Bengal was facing a deep crisis under the current dispensation. Referring to remarks made by an earlier speaker that Bengalis were safer in Madhya Pradesh, he said the comparison itself highlighted the deteriorating situation in Bengal.
“Therefore, time has come to send a message to Bengal that it needs a change. The Bengal that led the country is in trouble today. The entire country should stand with Bengal and we should rescue it from its troubles,” Nadda said.
Nadda invoked the legacy of Bengal’s towering historical figures, recalling the contributions of Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna Paramhans and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, and said the state had once provided decisive leadership to the nation during the freedom movement.
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While remembering Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Jana Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee, who he said sacrificed their lives for the unity and integrity of India, Nadda asserted that Bengal was “once again facing a new crisis”.
“It is our responsibility to free Bengal from such a misrule. We must convey this message. I am requesting you all. We should take this pledge today. And in the coming days, in April-May, you will get that opportunity,” he said, in an apparent reference to the upcoming Assembly elections in the state.
The BJP president also referred to comments made by Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav on Bose’s role in India’s history, saying that the course of the country could have been different had the freedom fighter lived longer.
“Had Subhash Chandra Bose got longer life, India’s map would have been different,” Nadda said, adding that “the map of India changed because the Congress leaders of the time promoted a compromising approach”.
Nadda’s remarks come amid intensified political sparring ahead of the elections in West Bengal, with the BJP repeatedly accusing the Trinamool Congress government of governance failures, while the ruling party has dismissed such allegations as politically motivated.
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