Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: “Banglaye poriborton hoye gechhe (change has happened in Bengal),” said a triumphant PM Narendra Modi, clad in traditional Bengali attire of ‘dhuti-panjabi’, in his victory speech at BJP headquarters here on Monday, hailing the party’s maiden win in state as a new dawn in Bengal.“This is a declaration of the country’s bright future,” he said, as BJP, besides its spectacular Bengal victory, scored a hat-trick in Assam and romped home in Puducherry with ally AINRC.
He appealed to parties in Bengal to resolve to end the unending cycle of poll violence. “Badla nahi badlav ki baat honi chahiye. Bhay nahin, bhavishya ki baat honi chahiye (we should not talk about revenge but about change; about the future, not fear),” he said. He noted that numerous BJP members have been killed in Bengal and Kerala and many more families have suffered for their ideology.Modi described the defeat of DMK and TMC as popular rejection of their politics of “division” based on language and food, and even the tagging of Indians as outsiders, a reference to their projection of BJP as a party of outsiders.Left’s loss in Kerala underscored a change of mindset and defeat of communism, with India preferring development and stability, he said.Women have punishedopposition partiesfor defeating govt’sbill to roll out women’s reservation in legislatures by 2029,he said, noting Congress benefitted in Kerala only because of people’s anger withthe Left alliance.As expected, his party’sremarkable victory in Bengal was the main feature ofhis address, with the PM remembering the founder ofJana Sangh, which latertransformed into BJP, SyamaPrasad Mookerjee, and projecting the win as a tribute tohim and other Bengali icons,including Vande Mataramauthor Bankim ChandraChatterjee and Rabindranath Tagore. Bengal is nowfree of fear, he said, alludingto Tagore’s famous poem.On a day BJP realised itslong-cherished dream ofbagging Bengal, a state intrinsic to its cultural and nationalism plank but whichfor decades had proved atough political nut to crack, itwas natural that Modi’sspeech was rich on culturalsymbolism. He recalled hispost-Bihar win remarks inNov last year that as Gangaflows from there to Bengal, sowill the BJP’s victory march,and noted that BJP now governs every state throughwhich the sacred river flows.
“In Bengal, women will now find an environment of safety and youth will find em- ployment,” he said, announc- ing that the new govt, in its first cabinet meeting, will adopt the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme. Stringent action will be taken against infiltrators, PM added, ticking another of BJP’s key promises.BJP will now run govts in‘Anga, Banga and Kalinga’(Bihar, Bengal and Odisha),and this holds immense importance for ‘Purvodaya’(rise of eastern region),which is a must given that thecountry’s fortunes fell whenthey lost their economic andcultural prominence, hesaid, emphasising that theywill now emerge as strongpillars in the rise of “ViksitBharat” on his govt’s watch.Framing the verdict as anendorsement of his govt’s handling of a series of crises triggered by several global upheavals, including the West Asia conflict, he said people are voting for stability at a time when the world is mired in adversities. The re- sults have shown that India is united in the face of challeng- es and moving towards its goal of development, he addedBJP’s win in one state after another underscores pop- ular recognition of its agen- da of development and good governance, he pointed out.With opposition parties,especially TMC, attackingElection Commission for SIRand allegedly favouring BJP,Modi lavishly praised thepoll body and central security forces for ensuringviolence-free polling inBengal and high polling percentage across the five statesand Union territory thatwent to the polls.
