At 'industry's graveyard' in Bengal, Modi skips investment pledge, harps on BJP's 'good governance' vs TMC’s ‘Maha Jungle Raj’ narrative

PM Modi addressed a BJP rally in Singur, where West Bengal’s industrial ambition had collided with agrarian resistance two decades ago.

Kolkata: Investments will come in only if law and order improve, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said at the ground zero of the industry versus agriculture debate in West Bengal on Sunday, promising that the Bharatiya Janata Party, if voted to power, will rein in criminals thriving under the ruling Trinamool Congress’s patronage.

“Industries will be set up in (West) Bengal, and investments will also come, but only when law and order will improve here,” Modi said, alleging that the TMC government led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had given a free rein to the rioters, looters and mafias in the state.

“Here, the extortionists impose ‘syndicate tax’,” he alleged, adding that only a BJP government could end the mafia rule in West Bengal and free the state from the clutch of the criminals. “This is a guarantee from Modi.”

Modi addressed a BJP rally in Singur, where West Bengal’s industrial ambition had collided with agrarian resistance two decades ago. The agitation by Trinamool Congress and other parties against the acquisition of land for the proposed Nano car manufacturing plant of Tata Motors in Singur between 2006 and 2008 had helped Mamata Banerjee mobilise rural anger against the government led by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and finally end the 34-year-long rule of the Left Front in 2011.

The TMC has been citing Singur as a symbol of its fight to protect the rights of its farmers against forcible industrialisation. The BJP, now the principal challenger to the TMC, however blame Mamata Banerjee’s government for scaring away investors and thus deepening the problem of unemployment in West Bengal.

As the BJP chose Singur as the venue for Modi’s rally on Sunday, speculation was rife that the prime minister might use the opportunity to promise the return of Tata Motors or any other big corporate house with investments in what his party projected as the graveyard of industry in West Bengal under the TMC. He did not make any such promise but stressed that good governance and maintenance of law and order were the prerequisites for the inflow of investment and establishment of industries in the state.

“Every district of West Bengal has its own unique strength, and the people of this state possess intelligence, talent and enterprise. The BJP will draw up a separate development roadmap for each district to ensure that the maximum benefits reach local communities,” Modi said, adding that if voted to power in West Bengal, the saffron party would implement the “One District, One Product (ODOP) policy to promote and scale up district-specific products.

In the wake of the agitation in Singur, Tata Motors had in 2008 shifted the Nano car manufacturing plant from West Bengal to Sanand in Gujarat, where Modi had been at the helm of the state government then.

With the next assembly elections in West Bengal likely to take place in April-May this year, the prime minister, while addressing the rally in Singur on Sunday, however, harped on the narrative of the TMC’s “Maha Jungle Raj” versus the BJP’s promise of good governance.

“A very large number of mothers, sisters, and farmers have gathered here. All of them have come with one shared hope — a hope for a real change. There is a collective resolve to end the 15-year-long Maha Jungle Raj (of the TMC),” Modi said, adding: “The BJP has once again resisted the return of Jungle Raj in Bihar, and now it’s the turn of West Bengal, which too, is prepared to say goodbye to the TMC’s Maha Jungle Raj”.

He reiterated the BJP’s allegation that the TMC government was facilitating illegal migrants from Bangladesh to India and helping them settle in West Bengal. He accused the TMC of obstructing key security measures, alleging that the Centre’s repeated requests to the state government for land to erect fencing on the India-Bangladesh border have gone unanswered for years.