West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has launched a frontal attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of politicising a natural disaster. The Trinamool Congress chief’s broadside came after Modi targeted the state government over the attack on two BJP leaders who were on a visit to the flood-hit areas in the northern part of the state.
"It is unfortunate and deeply concerning that the prime minister of India has chosen to politicise a natural disaster without waiting for a proper investigation, especially while people in north Bengal are grappling with the aftermath of devastating floods and landslides," Banerjee wrote on X.
The chief minister alleged that the BJP leaders chose to go to the affected areas with a large convoy of cars and “under security cover of the central forces” while the local administration and police were engaged in rescue and relief work. She also claimed that the BJP leaders had not informed the local police and administration about their visit.
“How can the state administration , local police or the TMC be blamed for the incident ?,” she asked.
BJP MP Khagen Murmu and MLA Sankar Ghosh were injured in an attack by a mob during their visit to the flood and landslide-hit Dooars region in the north Bengal. Modi in a social media post had called it absolutely pathetic and reflective of the TMC government's collapse of law and order.
Banerjee, however, said the prime minister had blamed the TMC and the state government without a shred of verified evidence, legal inquiry or administrative report.
“This is not just a political low, it is a breach of the constitutional ethos the Prime Minister has sworn to uphold. In any democracy, the law must take its own course, and only due process can determine culpability - not a tweet from a political pulpit,” she said.
The chief minister noted that the incident occurred in a constituency where the people themselves have elected a BJP MLA. “Yet the prime minister sees no contradiction in painting the incident as a reflection of TMC’s so-called ‘strongmanship’,” she said.
Such sweeping, unsubstantiated generalisations are not only immature, but also, they are unbecoming of the highest office in the land, the chief minister alleged.
“Coming from a Prime Minister who visited Manipur only 964 days after it was engulfed in ethnic violence, the sudden concern for Bengal appears less like empathy and more like opportunistic political theatre,” Banerjee wrote in her long X post.
Modi, while condemning the attack on the BJP leaders, had termed the incident “appalling”.
"The manner in which our party colleagues, including a sitting MP and MLA, were attacked in West Bengal for serving the people affected by floods and landslides is outright appalling. It highlights the insensitivity of the TMC as well as the absolutely pathetic law and order situation in the state,” he had said.
