At a time when India is preparing a decisive response to Pakistan after the ISI-sponsored Pahalgam terror attack, the Centre must not ignore an equally dangerous threat festering within its borders. West Bengal, under Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC), has become a hotspot of lawlessness, minority appeasement, and administrative collapse. Also, demographic changes are taking place in thick and fast. With Governor C.V. Ananda Bose reportedly recommending the imposition of President’s Rule due to the state’s worsening law and order, the ball is now in the Centre’s court. The question is simple: Will the Modi government act with the resolve the situation demands?
India cannot afford to confront external enemies while turning a blind eye to internal sabotage. West Bengal, with its porous border with Bangladesh and history of infiltration, communal violence, and administrative apathy, is now a national security concern. A hostile neighbour on the west (Pakistan) and a rogue, unstable regime on the east (Bangladesh’s caretaker government under Mohammad Yunus, which has made alarming statements backing China’s territorial aggression) require that India secure every inch of its borders. West Bengal, under TMC rule, is a weak link in that chain.
Mamata Banerjee’s brand of politics—rooted in appeasement, minority vote-bank calculations, and open hostility to central institutions—has emboldened radical elements. Whether it’s the recent Murshidabad incidents or Sandeshkhali outrage where women were sexually assaulted by TMC-linked goons, or the shocking silence over rising attacks on Hindus in border districts, the state has shown it cannot, or will not, uphold constitutional order. The Calcutta High Court has time and again pulled up the state government for its failures—from post-election violence to its handling of communal flare-ups, including the recent, horrifying case of alleged mass rape of a doctor in a government hospital.
This is not just administrative failure—it is collapse. It is complicity. And it is dangerous.
President’s Rule, under Article 356 of the Constitution, is not a tool for political convenience. But when a state government abdicates its constitutional duty, refuses to uphold public order, and turns hostile to the very idea of national unity, the Centre has not only the right but the duty to intervene. The Modi government must not hesitate.
Critics, especially from the Congress-led INDIA alliance, will cry foul and accuse the BJP of authoritarianism. But these are the same parties that dismissed elected governments at will during their decades in power. Congress imposed President’s Rule over 90 times post-independence, often for flimsy reasons. Today, when there is genuine constitutional breakdown, they are the loudest defenders of chaos.
Moreover, these same opposition parties are no paragons of nationalism. While Prime Minister Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar work to build global consensus against Pakistan’s terror factories, Congress leaders like Udit Raj mock the Indian Air Force by questioning the efficacy of Rafale fighter jets. Is this how a responsible opposition behaves in the face of a national security threat? Let us not forget, Congress tried to derail the Rafale deal through legal and media-driven campaigns, not because they feared corruption, but because they missed the defence kickbacks they were accustomed to.
Even as Rahul Gandhi and other Congress leaders pay lip service to national interest, their partners in Tamil Nadu (DMK) and Karnataka (Congress) push separatist, anti-Hindu, and anti-national agendas. Tamil Nadu’s ruling party ridicules Sanatana Dharma while shielding radical Islamist groups. In Karnataka, law and order has deteriorated under Congress rule, with Hindus and pro-India voices increasingly targeted.
The Modi government must recognise this moment for what it is: an opportunity to clean house. A response to Pakistan must be matched by a resolve to tackle internal rot. If India is to send a message to the world that it will not tolerate terrorism, it must also send a message to the domestic disruptors who embolden that terror, whether they are in Sandeshkhali, Chennai, or Shivajinagar.
President’s Rule in West Bengal is not just a legal step; it is a political signal. India will not tolerate the Balkanization of its territory under the guise of secularism. That no chief minister, however shrill or popular, can run a state like a personal fiefdom. That public safety, national unity, and constitutional order are non-negotiable.
The Modi government has shown strength on the international stage. It is time to show that strength at home.
