With Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee sitting by his side, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday sang her pariborton (change) tune. In a clear bid to send a positive message about a strong alliance to the workers of the two parties as well as the people, Dr Singh said: “I have come to appeal to you to vote for the
Congress-Trinamul Congress alliance and give us a chance to serve the people of Bengal. You have given support to the Left Front to rule for 34 years uninterruptedly. Now the time for change has arrived.” Dr Singh was addressing a rally at Dum Dum Jail Ground. Besides Ms Banerjee, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, Trinamul Congress MP Saugata Roy, state Congress president Manas Bhunia and AICC general secretary and in-charge of Bengal Shakeel Ahmed were also present on the stage. Dr Singh earlier addressed another rally at Katwa in Burdwan.
The mild-mannered Dr Singh tore into the Left Front accusing it of failing on all fronts. “The Left Front administration is paralysed. It has lost contact with the people. It has failed in the field of agriculture, industry and education. It has no concrete policy and no dream,” he said, adding that only the Congress-Trinamul combine could rejuvenate Bengal.
Expressing serious concerns about the deteriorating law and order situation in the state, he promised that the Congress-Trinamul alliance would restore peace and order in the entire state if it came to power. “Establishing peace in the entire state will be our first priority. We will fine tune the administration and the police,” he added.
Dr Singh criticised the Left Front government for the fall in the standard of education. “Even small states like Manipur and Nagaland have left Bengal far behind,” he said. He recounted that the UPA government had allotted `95 crores for the upgradation of Visvabharati and set up a campus of Aligarh Muslim University in Murshidabad and an engineering institute in Malda. “If the Trinamul Congress-Congress alliance comes to power it will restore Presidency College’s lost glory,” he added. Dr Singh promised to free educational institutions of politics.
Using the Sachar Committee report as a stick to beat the Left Front with, Dr Singh said: “Compared to Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat, the number of Muslims in government jobs in the state is much lower.” Like Congress president Mrs Sonia Gandhi, he also charged the state government for not fully utilising Central funds for various development schemes like NREGA.
“In the past, the Left Front government used to accuse the Centre of discrimination. Now when we are sending so much funds, why they are not spending it for the welfare of the people?” he asked.
Dr Singh concluded his 50-minute speech with a Urdu couplet which also spoke about change.
Confident of coming to power, Ms Banerjee urged Dr Singh to help the state. “Prime Minister will have to help us as the state has been left politically, economically, socially bankrupt by the 34 year Left Front rule,” she added.