Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 18 attacked the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) authorities whereas launching a collection of improvement tasks price over Rs 830 crore at a rally in Singur, the positioning of the failed Tata Nano manufacturing plant in West Bengal’s Hooghly district. “Anti-industrial” coverage.
On Wednesday, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refuted this narrative at her rally in Singur. That is the place the motion towards the land acquisition of the Tata manufacturing facility 20 years in the past helped the TMC come to energy.
Banerjee was additionally appointed. Cornerstone of 1,694 authorities tasksprice an estimated Rs 33,551 crore in Singur, was held a couple of months earlier than the state meeting elections.
Hitting out on the Bharatiya Janata Celebration, Banerjee mentioned, “Many individuals make huge guarantees however do not maintain them. It’s my perception that it’s higher to die than to interrupt a promise. I’ll maintain my guarantees 100%. I cannot do jumla (rhetoric). We’re not a two-engine authorities. We’re a authorities of ‘ma’, ‘mati’ and ‘manush’.”
Listed below are the important thing takeaways from Banerjee’s rally in Singur:
“Trade and agriculture develop collectively”
Ten days after Prime Minister Modi mentioned poor regulation and order and a “syndicate tax on all the things in Bengal” have been hampering the state’s industrial progress and strengthening the Bharatiya Janata Celebration’s push for a “twin-engine” authorities, Banerjee hit again in a single, arguing that “agriculture and trade thrive collectively.”
The BJP, whereas touting its personal improvement monitor file, is making an attempt to push the narrative that Singur is a logo of the TMC’s “anti-industrial” insurance policies.
Whereas laying the muse stone for the warehouse venture in Singur, Banerjee mentioned, “We’ve got commissioned a personal industrial park in Singur over 77 acres of land the place Amazon and Flipkart will arrange giant scale warehouses and create jobs for hundreds of individuals.”
She additionally mentioned, “We’ve got constructed an agro-industrial park right here on eight acres of land at a value of Rs 9.2 billion with the intention of making employment along with the prevailing advantages of presidency welfare schemes loved by Singur’s farmers. Agriculture and trade will flourish collectively, however not by forcefully grabbing agricultural land.”
Bangla Bari as PMAY stalls
Amid a standoff with the Heart over defunding of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) in Bengal in 2022, the TMC authorities had launched its personal Bangla Bali scheme in 2024. On Wednesday, Banerjee introduced that 3.2 million extra homes will probably be constructed within the subsequent two months within the third section beneath Bangla Bari.
“One billion Bengali properties have already been constructed. A number of days in the past, I donated one other 1.2 million properties. Delhi (Central authorities) has not paid a single rupee. Inside two months, 3.2 million properties will probably be donated… I do not need anybody to undergo. Let’s maintain a roof over everybody,” the CM mentioned.
Ever for the reason that Heart raised allegations of corruption within the implementation of PMAY in Bengal and halted the discharge of funds beneath the scheme in 2022, the TMC has been utilizing the Bangla Bali scheme not solely to assault the BJP with an “anti-Bengal” stance but additionally to tout the state authorities’s “self-reliance”. Nonetheless, the Bangla-Bali venture was launched amid rising debt of the TMC authorities, which has reached Rs 7.72 billion in 2025-26.
Gataru Grasp Plan
Banerjee on Wednesday promoted the Ghatal Grasp Plan, which goals to regulate the devastating floods that hit low-lying areas of Paschim Medinipur district yearly.
“I’ve rushed to Ghatal many occasions throughout floods. The Damodar Valley Company (or DVC, the central company that oversees the dams alongside the Damodar river) has flooded Ghatal yearly. I’ve been writing to the Heart for 10 years. They all the time They’ve fooled us. Now we’ll deceive them and sanction funds for the Ghatal Grasp Plan. Works price Rs 500 crore have already been accomplished. The work will probably be accomplished quickly,” Banerjee mentioned.
In response to the plan, by 2027 the peak of river dams will enhance by about 50 meters and as much as 50 kilometers of canals and rivers will probably be excavated. As well as, two pump homes, three regulators, bridge extensions and 104 new bridges will probably be constructed by the state Irrigation and Water Sources Division.
Actor-politician and Ghatal MP Dipak Adhikari, popularly often called Dev, thanked Banerjee for launching the grasp plan and mentioned, “I’ve been combating for the Ghatal Grasp Plan for 10 years. Nobody stored their guarantees. Mamata Banerjee is the one one who stored her guarantees.”
The standoff between the Heart and the state over the DVC has been ongoing for a number of years, with the TMC repeatedly highlighting the Bharatiya Janata Celebration-led Heart’s “stepmotherly remedy” of Bengal and accusing the DVC of inflicting “synthetic floods”.
TMC vs. BJP through SIR
The continued Particular Intensive Revision (SIR) of the Election Fee’s (EC) electoral rolls in Bengal is controversial and has already develop into an election concern, with the BJP claiming the train is to root out “infiltrators” whereas the TMC sees it as a “conspiracy” to implement the Nationwide Register of Residents (NRC) within the state.
Threatening to battle SIR in courtroom, Banerjee mentioned in Singur: “You’re eradicating names by means of a conspiracy by means of SIR. Why cannot you belief the individuals? How can the EC take away 2 billion names to determine who’s a voter and who isn’t? Keep in mind, this isn’t a dictatorship or autocracy, however a democracy.”
The TMC supremo additionally blamed the Bharatiya Janata Celebration for the alleged SIR-related deaths. “Bolcho jos, kolcho plunder (The Bharatiya Janata Celebration lies, the technologists plunder). You’re standing over the our bodies of so many individuals. We is not going to forgive you. You will need to reply these chargeable for these deaths and we is not going to allow you to go free,” she mentioned.
language conflict
Banerjee additionally focused the Heart over Bengali, claiming that it was given the standing of a “classical language” beneath strain from the TMC. “You gave that standing to all classical languages besides Bengali. I despatched 5 luggage of books to Delhi as proof that Bangla ought to have been provided that standing a very long time in the past. You included Bangla solely as a result of we compelled it. Neither you nor your authorities did that originally. I needed to assemble a analysis workforce to get you to do it,” she mentioned.
The CM additionally introduced up current incidents of alleged violence towards Bengali audio system, particularly within the BJP-ruled state. “You’re bashing Bengali-speaking individuals in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. In Bengal, we is not going to reciprocate,” she mentioned.
The collection of assaults is a continuation of the TMC’s “Basha Andolan” (language motion) launched by Banerjee after she accused the Bharatiya Janata Celebration of wreaking “linguistic terrorism” towards Bengalis in July final 12 months.
