Prime Minister Narendra Modi went full throttle against Mamata Banerjee’s government right there in the place that still hurts a lot of people in Bengal politics.
He straight-up said it: “As long as Trinamool Congress remains in power, big investment is not going to come to West Bengal.”
Speaking to a really charged crowd, Modi didn’t hold back.
He painted a pretty grim picture of the current situation in the state:
Rioters and local strongmen basically do whatever they want
Police and criminals are too cosy with each other
There’s this thing called “syndicate tax” that every businessman, builder, even small developer has to pay just to get any work done
His exact words were:
“In West Bengal, rioters and mafia have a free run; police are hand in glove with criminals; there is a syndicate tax on all development.”
He kept repeating that without fixing law and order, no serious company is going to risk coming here. “Only a stable law and order situation would attract new investments to the state,” he said.
And the location? Super symbolic. Singur is where the whole Tata Nano factory drama happened back in 2008. Mamata’s massive protest against land acquisition forced Tata to pack up and shift the project to Gujarat (when Modi himself was the Chief Minister there). So him coming back to the same spot and saying “investment won’t come” felt like a very pointed reminder.
Today he also did the usual development announcement stuff – inaugurated some port facilities, a road overbridge, an electric catamaran for the Hooghly, new rail lines, flagged off Amrit Bharat trains, projects worth more than ₹830 crore. The message was clear: Centre is ready to help Bengal grow, but the state government is allegedly blocking and creating hurdles.
He also brought up the old allegations again – TMC protecting infiltrators for votes, not allowing border fencing, deliberately stopping central schemes from reaching people just to spite the BJP.
Bottom line from his speech:
If Bengal wants industries, jobs, big factories, new companies – the “syndicate raj” and “jungle raj” has to end. And according to Modi, that will only happen when there’s a “double-engine sarkar” (BJP in both Centre and state).
With West Bengal assembly elections probably just 2-3 months away now, today’s rally in Singur was clearly the BJP turning up the heat big time.
What do you guys think – is law & order + syndicate tax really the main reason industries stay away from Bengal, or is it something else?
Sources:
The Hindu
Times of India
ABP
Morung Express reports
PMO India & BJP West Bengal handles on X (18 Jan 2026 posts)
