PRIME Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday stepped up his attack on the TMC Government in West Bengal over the treatment meted out to President Droupadi Murmu, saying the “enlightened people” of the State will never forgive the party for “insulting” a woman tribal leader and the President of the country. “Today, as the nation celebrates International Women’s Day, it is deeply concerning that just yesterday, the TMC Government in West Bengal demonstrated a grave insult towards the honourable President of India, Draupadi Murmu,” the Prime Minister said in the national capital after inaugurating two new Delhi Metro corridors and other projects. Modi’s remarks came after President Murmu expressed displeasure over the change of venue of a conference of the tribal Santal community in West Bengal on Saturday and the absence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her ministers during her visit.

 

Soon after, Banerjee had accused the President of speaking “on the advice of the BJP” and had questioned her silence on alleged atrocities against tribals in states like Manipur and Chhattisgarh. The BJP lashed out at the TMC Government for “insulting” the President, while PM Modi termed it “shameful and unprecedented” and accused the TMC of crossing all limits. The controversy has led to a further rise in the political temperature of the poll-bound state, where the BJP hopes to end Banerjee’s 15-year rule. On Sunday, PM Modi said the TMC Government’s actions not only resulted in the mismanagement of the tribal community event but also constituted an affront to the President, the Constitution and the noble tradition of democracy in the country. “President Murmu ji visited Bengal to attend a significant celebration honouring the Santal tribal tradition. However, the TMC chose to boycott this sacred and important event, which holds great meaning for both the President and the tribal community,” he said. He said the President herself is from a tribal background and has shown deep concern for the Santal community. Modi said the “enlightened” people of West Bengal will never forgive TMC “for insulting a woman, for insulting a tribal, and for insulting the honourable President of the country”.

 

“The country will not forgive either, the tribal society of the country will never forgive either, and the women’s power of the country will never forgive either,” he said. The Prime Minister inaugurated two new Delhi Metro corridors and laid the foundation stone for three more metro lines, providing direct connectivity to several important locations in the capital. The Prime Minister also inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of projects worth Rs 15,200 crore under the central government’s General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) redevelopment plan. The total cost of all projects is around Rs 33,500 crore. On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Modi announced that more than 3 crore women have now achieved the milestone of becoming “Lakhpati Didi”. He said a few years ago, his government made a commitment to empower 3 crore women to become “Lakhpati Didi”, whose annual household income is more than Rs 1 lakh. “At the time, many doubted our resolve and dismissed it as a political move.

 

However, I am proud to announce that we have fulfilled our promise -- more than 3 crore women have now achieved the milestone of becoming Lakhpati Didi,” he said. Terming the previous Aam Aadmi Party dispensation in Delhi as “AAPda (disaster) government”, Modi alleged it had halted all development work in the national capital for the past 10 years. “Now, our government is operating in mission mode to address the challenges facing Delhi. With the construction of the Peripheral Expressway, lakhs of vehicles no longer need to enter the city. Our government is also undertaking large-scale initiatives to clean the Yamuna River,” he said.

 

 

WEST Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday asserted there was no breach of protocol at President Draupadi Murmu’s programme in Siliguri and said that the responsibility of mismanagement at the function, if any, lay with its private organisers and the Airports Authority of India who provided the venue of the event. While speaking from the central Kolkata sit-in platform on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi lashed out at the TMC Government “insulting” a woman tribal leader and the President of the country, Banerjee held up an enlarged photograph of the PM remaining seated at an event with veteran BJP leader LK Advani with the President standing next to them. “The picture shows that the PM is seated when the President is standing. We never do that. It is the BJP which carries the culture of insulting the President, not us,” she claimed, while displaying the photograph as “evidence”. “We have full respect for the chair of the President and the Constitution of India, which we consider our mother; do not blame us,” Banerjee said. Maintaining that the State Government wasn’t even aware of the details of the President’s programme and that it wasn’t taken into confidence by the private organisers, Banerjee said that the responsibility of the alleged garbage, green room malfunction and lack of women’s toilets should be shouldered by the event managers and the AAI on whose plot the function was held. “We did not pick the venue, you did,” she said.