Modi-Mamata war of words ensues amid Bhupatinagar row; TMC alleges BJP-NIA nexus

New Delhi: The war of words between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee escalated on Sunday with the Bharatiya Janata Party citing the attack on the National Investigation Agency’s (NIA) officers as another example of the Trinamool Congress’s desire to continue its reign of terror and corruption in the state.

A day after a team of NIA officers, while investigating a December 2022 explosion was attacked by a mob at Bhupatinagar in East Medinipur in West Bengal, the TMC, which has been in power in the state since 2011, has accused the BJP of having an alliance with the central counterterrorism agency. The TMC also alleged that a state BJP leader had recently met an officer of the NIA in Kolkata and handed over to him a list of leaders of the party led by Banerjee, with instruction to arrest them during the Lok Sabha elections in the state.

Moni, the wife of the local TMC leader, Monobrata Jana, who was arrested by the NIA in connection with a blast in December 2022, lodged an FIR with the police, accusing the officers of the central agency of forcibly entering her house at Bhupatinagar on Saturday and outraging her modesty. Monobrata and Balai Charan Maity were among the two whom the NIA arrested for their alleged role in the blast, which had killed three persons.

“The TMC government seeks to have a free pass for looting and terror in Bengal. To shield its extortionist and corrupt leaders, the TMC orchestrates attacks on central investigative agencies when they come here,” the prime minister said addressing an election rally of the BJP at Jalpaiguri in north Bengal. He accused the TMC of disrespecting the rule of law and the Constitution of India.

Modi led the BJP in raising the pitch against the TMC a day after an officer of the NIA was injured and a vehicle used by the agency was damaged during an attack by an angry mob when a team of the agency went to Bhupatinagar on Saturday to arrest Jana and Maity. A team of Enforcement Directorate officials had been similarly attacked at Sandeshkhali in the North 24 Parganas of the state on January 5 when they had gone to search the residence of the local TMC leader Shahjahan Sheikh in connection with alleged irregularities in the public distribution system of the state.

Modi on Sunday claimed that the ED had attached properties worth Rs 3,000 crore from the corrupt leaders of the TMC in connection with the cases in West Bengal. “I guarantee you that the money looted by corrupt leaders will be given back to the poor people who had to give money to get jobs," he said at the rally in Jalpaiguri.

Banerjee led the TMC’s counterattack, accusing the BJP of using agencies like the NIA, ED, and the Central Bureau of Investigation as the ‘arms’ of the saffron party itself to harass the leaders of the TMC. “They are carrying out raids without prior information and barging into houses. What would the women do if someone entered their house when everyone was asleep in the dead of night?” she questioned, addressing a rally in Purulia. She alleged that the central agencies were intimidating the leaders and the workers of the TMC to force them to switch over to the BJP.

The chief minister of West Bengal also criticized the Election Commission (EC) for making the state administration cover her pictures in the government posters after the declaration of the schedule of the Lok Sabha polls, but not doing the same for posters having photos of the prime minister.

“Dear @NIA_India, PLEASE CLARIFY if Jitendra Tiwari of BJP met with your SP, Dhan Ram Singh, at his residence in Kolkata on the 26th March, while the MCC (Model Code of Conduct) was in effect?” Abhishek Banerjee, the TMC general secretary, posted on X on Sunday.

He claimed that the TMC had information suggesting that Tiwari had arrived with a parcel and left empty-handed after 52 minutes. Earlier, Kunal Ghosh, a senior leader of the party in power in West Bengal, told journalists in Kolkata that a senior BJP leader from Paschim Bardhaman district of the state, had met an NIA SP at his apartment in the New Town area of the city on March 26 evening and handed over a list of the TMC leaders to be arrested by the agency ahead of the Lok Sabha elections.

"I dare this leader to either refute my allegations with substantial proof of his movement on that day or we will come up with his call records and CCTV footage evidence after 48 hours," Ghosh said in the press conference.

Tiwari dismissed the allegation and threatened to file a defamation case against the TMC leaders.