Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s public meeting in West Bengal\u2019s West Midnapore district — in the south-western part of the state, a tribal belt — is significant on several counts. Interestingly, this is the first time Modi visited Bengal in a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-organised meeting after the Assembly elections in the state in 2016. All his visits to Bengal since 2016 have been as the Prime Minister, in government programmes.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Modi lambasted Mamata Banerjee and the ruling Trinamool Congress at the public meeting on Midnapore College grounds. \u201cThere is no difference between the (ruling) party and the administration here. The situation in Bengal is no longer a secret. Small or big businessmen must satisfy the \u2018syndicate\u2019 first. And the party and the administration’s job is to help them (the syndicate).\u201d<\/p>\n
What is syndicate?<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cSyndicate\u201d is the name given to groups of local youth \u2013 most of them unemployed \u2013 who run a network forcing builders, contractors, owners of factories and houses to purchase construction materials from their set of suppliers. This is done through force and threats and has the backing of the ruling party. Initially applicable in the area surrounding Kolkata \u2013 especially Salt Lake and Rajarhat \u2013 which has seen rapid urbanisation, the term is now loosely being used by newspapers and political leaders to imply that the network has spread beyond Kolkata and does not apply simply to the construction business. Modi\u2019s use of the term “syndicate” today was certainly much broader.<\/p>\n \u201cNothing works here without the consent of the syndicate. Whether it is a new company, new hospital, school or roads, nothing can be built. The syndicate will tell you from whose shops you should buy cement, sand, stone chips,\u201d he said. \u201cIf you have to sell your produce, syndicate will decide where to sell it and at what price. Now, even college admission can\u2019t take place without offerings before the syndicate. It applies everywhere \u2013 from chit funds to potato bonds (an instrument to safeguard potato farmers\u2019 losses).\u201d He was addressing a rural crowd who are primarily farmers \u2013 and therefore using the term “syndicate” implies he meant the tentacles and such modus operandi had spread to rural areas too.<\/p>\n Modi asked the gathering if this was the reason they wanted to rid themselves of the 34 years of uninterrupted Left Front rule in West Bengal.<\/p>\n Appeal to go the Tripura way<\/strong><\/p>\n Modi asked the gathering at Midnapore College grounds to follow Tripura\u2019s footsteps \u2013 where the Left Front rule had given way to a BJP-led alliance after the state elections earlier this year.<\/p>\n \u201cThose who oppress people have to leave. No one gets away,\u201d he said. \u201cThose who don\u2019t bother about democracy, the courts, the panchayat system must remember that this is Bengal and they can\u2019t get away.\u201d Modi said that they must decipher the writing on the wall. \u201cBengal is waiting for an opportunity,\u201d he said, asking people to unite and to be brave so they could defeat the syndicate oppression.<\/p>\n He heaped praise on the people of Midnapore for being brave enough to fight against Trinamool oppression. Modi\u2019s choice of West Midnapore as a place for public meeting is significant here. Purulia, Bankura and West Midnapore are among the few places in the state where BJP has performed well<\/span><\/a> in the panchayat (rural) polls.<\/p>\n