Highlighting a number of economic indicators to mark the “decline” of West Bengal, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while addressing a gathering in the State on February 27 touched upon several political issues, including electoral violence and the recent unrest at Sandeshkhali.
“Sandeshkhali... my body shakes when I talk about it and the audacity of the State administration in not arresting the culprit. Can there be a leadership either male or female which can bear with it? They did not arrest. I remember how many times they raised the issue of Manipur and the Union Home Minister had to come and respond to that,” Ms. Sitharaman said while delivering a talk on Viksit Bharat and Eastern India.
Referring to recent remarks by the Trinamool Congress leadership that the prime accused in the Sandeshkhali issue, Sheikh Shahjahan, will be arrested in seven days, the Finance Minister said, “This makes it clear that you are aware where he (Sheikh Shahjahan) is. How can you otherwise say that you will arrest him in a week? Your Ministers are going there and no one else is allowed. What kind of law and order is it.”
Ms. Sitharaman said that the people of the State should get their mojo back. “How long will you tolerate this absolutely irresponsible government?” she asked.
While the allegations of sexual assault and land grab at Sandeshkhali were highlighted by the Bharatiya Janata Party in West Bengal over the past several weeks, Ms. Sitharaman was the first key Union Minister to highlight the issue from the State’s soil. The Finance Minister said that 40 people died in the panchayat elections last year and there was still no answer from the State government on the issue.
On the allegations of denial of MGNREGS wages, she said there were 25 lakh fake job cards in the State. “It is a demand-driven scheme. How can I pay the taxpayers’ money?” she said.
She said that when the Union government said the money should be recovered from fake beneficiaries, the West Bengal government instead paid the workers from its treasury, thereby duping taxpayers twice.
Pointing out that the share of industrial production in the State had declined from 24% at the time of independence to 3.5% in 2021, Ms. Sitharaman said, “When I read these numbers from Bengal, my heart sinks with grief.”
The Finance Minister traced the journey of West Bengal from being one of the richest States in India in 1960s to a growth rate of 5.5% in 1993-2000, when the national growth rate was 4.6%. Over the next two decades, the State’s growth rate only declined from 4.9% in 2000-2010 to 4.2% in 2010-2010; whereas the country’s growth rate increased by 5.5% in the first decade and 5.2% in the second decade of the 21st century, she said.
“The annual per capita growth of West Bengal has been lower than the national average for the past two decades,” she said. Around 35% of the total revenue of West Bengal was spent on debt servicing and pensions, leaving no fiscal room for the implementation of new schemes, she added.
About 1.1 million workers — both high-end and those at the bottom of the workforce — have migrated out of West Bengal, which was a labour recipient State till 2010, she said. She accused the Trinamool Congress government of indulging in politics at the cost of the welfare of the people by not implementing the Ayushman Bharat scheme.
Responding to the slew of criticism, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said that Ms. Sitharaman was voicing out these concerns not as the Union Finance Minister but as a BJP leader. “They are jealous because what the Centre should have done, West Bengal government is doing it,” he said, pointing out that the MGNREGS dues were being cleared by the State government when it was the Centre that should have done it.
