‘BJP weaponising agencies against Oppn fearing defeat in LS polls’
Kolkata: During its “Modi guarantee: zero warranty” campaign Trinamool Congress (TMC) asserted that the BJP government’s inability to fulfill its promises has led it to unleash Central agencies on Opposition parties, fearing defeat in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
During a press conference on Saturday, senior TMC leader Santanu Sen and party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh stated that the BJP is exploiting Central agencies such as the ED, CBI, and Income Tax (I-T) in Bengal, illustrating their desperation to evade defeat in this year’s Lok Sabha elections.
The party’s statement coincides with a series of raids conducted by various Central agencies on the residences of several TMC leaders. The CBI raided the home of former TMC MP from Krishnanagar, Mahua Moitra, who is once again contesting on TMC’s ticket from the same Lok Sabha constituency. Additionally, the ED conducted a raid on the residence of state minister Chandra Nath Sinha, while the I-T department carried out a search operation at the house of TMC leader Swarup Biswas.
The TMC presented statistics to highlight the failure of Modi’s guarantee compared to the effectiveness of Didi’s (Mamata Banerjee) guarantee. They pointed out that in BJP’s 2014 election manifesto, the promise of creating 25 crore jobs annually was made. However, the Modi government acknowl-edged in 2023 that only 1.2 crore jobs had been generated since 2014, which amounts to less than 5 per cent of the initial guarantee.
They said: “If Modi’s guarantee had been fulfilled, approximately 20 crore jobs could have been gener-ated in the country over the past decade. However, the reality is that the unemployment rate in the country has reached an all-time high during Modi’s tenure. Among graduate youths under the age of 25, around 42 per cent are unemployed. In Bengal, the unemployment rate is significantly lower than the national average, with approximately 2 crore jobs created.”
They slammed the Modi government and BJP leaders as they failed to respond to the challenge thrown by their party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee who urged the BJP or anybody from the Centre to take part in an open debate over the release of funds to Bengal in last three years. Abhishek had appealed to the Centre to publish a “white paper” to substantiate BJP’s claim that they cleared Bengal dues in the past three years.
More than 10 days have passed since Banerjee threw the challenge; no BJP leaders have been able to come up with documents to bolster their claim.
Ghosh asked how the BJP that talks about corruption accommodated leaders like tainted leaders like Suvendu Adhikari in Bengal, Himanta Biswa Sarma in Assam or Narayan Rane and Ajit Pawar in Maharashtra.
Hitting out at Adhikari, Ghosh in a post on X said: “Are you blind to the biased Directors of ED and CBI? They’re clearly acting as @BJP4India’s puppets. Why haven’t you demanded @ECISVEEP to replace them? Or are you too afraid to speak up, fearing they’ll dig up your past corruption scandals if you dare criticise them?”
