Launching a direct attack on the Mamata Banerjee led government in West Bengal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that it has used its full strength to protect the culprits of Sandeshkhali.

The West Bengal government was unable to protect the people of the state, he charged.

Addressing Nari Shakti Vandan Abhinandan programme in Barasat, West Bengal, Modi said, “TMC government can never provide protection to women whereas, the BJP government has decided to award life imprisonment for heinous crimes like rape. ”

He said for easy registration of women’s complaints, the Centre had arranged for a ‘Women Helpline’, but the TMC govt was not letting it operate in West Bengal. This TMC government can never work for the welfare of women, he stressed.

Modi said “Under TMC’s rule, the women of this land have been tortured. Whatever happened in Sandeshkhali will put anyone to shame but the TMC government does not care about your issues. ”

”The state government has received a shock from the High Court as well as the Supreme Court. TMC leaders have committed atrocities on the women of the state,” he said, charging that the TMC government has full confidence in their leader but not in the women of West Bengal.

He said he fulfilled promises made including abolishing the Triple Talaq, which strengthened socio-economic, fundamental and constitutional rights of the Muslim women.

The PM said TMC was an eclipse which will not allow the state to progress, adding that lotus should bloom in every corner of the state.

PM Modi got emotional while addressing the rally. He said, “I left my home at an early age. I used to roam around different parts of the country, carrying a bag. I had no money, yet not a day passed when I slept on an empty stomach. During that time, people cared for me.”

He said he was trying to repay that debt by working for the women of the country.

He asked the people present in the rally to switch on their mobile torch to display ”Nari shakti and nari vandana”.

Modi said, “Seeing NDA forming its government at the Centre, the INDI Alliance has begun to shake now. They have started hurling abuses at me now. They are asking about my family. They’re saying I talk against ‘Parivarvad’ because I don’t have any family. These people want to know about my family. I want these ‘Parivarvadis’ to witness our gathering and understand that all the people present here are my family…”