Fake voters now dominate Tagore's 'Sonar Bangla': PM Modi targets Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: In a public appeal to West Bengal voters weeks before the declaration of Assembly polls, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said he was "heartbroken by the deceit and anguish" faced by the cross-section of the state's citizens under the current Mamata Banerjee regime and vowed to correct it by building a 'Viksit Paschim Banga'.

Modi said while a political change was "inevitable", a "judicious choice" by voters could align the state with the accelerated development seen in the rest of the country.

In an open letter written in Bengali, which began with the slogan 'Jai Maa Kali', Modi targeted the TMC government on issues ranging from lack of governance and appeasement politics to fake voters, employment deficiency and women's safety.

The PM also promised citizenship to refugees through the CAA and pledged to stop infiltration through state borders as part of his pre-election promises.

"Bengal used to be the nation's vanguard in both financial and industrial sectors in post-Independence India. It pains me to witness the brittle and sick state it has turned into. It is impossible to describe the irreversible damage which six decades of misgovernance and appeasement politics have caused," Modi said.

"While on the one hand the youth are forced to migrate to other states for lack of employment opportunities, on the other, women of West Bengal are fearful and alarmed due to a lack of security," he added.

Naming Bengal's political and cultural icons such as Swami Vivekananda, Rishi Aurobindo, Subhas Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee at multiple points in his letter, Modi regretted the "darkness of chaos that grips West Bengal" in current times.

"The West Bengal visualised by its iconic forefathers, such as Swami Vivekananda and Rishi Aurobindo, is now riddled with vote bank politics, violence and anarchy. The son of the soil of this state, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, whose call for freedom had once stirred the whole country, that holy land is now blemished with infiltration and torture of women. Fake voters currently dominate Rabindranath Tagore's 'Sonar Bangla'.

"The whole country is worried about the darkness of chaos that West Bengal is sinking into," the PM wrote.

Insisting that the time has come to break the shackles of "silent suffering", the PM said that change is now "inevitable" in Bengal.

"How long should we continue to suffer in silence? Change is now inevitable. The standard of living has remarkably improved in other states. Smiles have returned to the lips of the poor. Ayushman Bharat has provided health cover, new employment is guaranteed for the youth and women's safety is ensured. Bengal too should be part of this growth and development," Modi said.

Stating that he "waited eagerly for a chance to serve the people," the PM quoted Tagore's 'Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high' and promised to bring an end to "corruption and mal-governance".

"We will ensure women's safety, curtail migration for work and restore the state's former glory. Religiously persecuted refugee brothers and sisters who took shelter here would be granted citizenship through CAA and we will establish the rule of law by stopping infiltration," Modi said.

The letter coincided with the Bengal BJP's ongoing house-to-house 'Griha Sampark Abhiyan' during which party leaders will distribute the PM's communication to households during their grassroots outreach programme.