Kolkata, Sep 27 (IANS) BJP central observer for West Bengal Amit Malviya on Saturday slammed the Mamata government over West Bengal recording the “highest” number of child marriages in India, saying she has dragged the state into a cesspool where the dreams of little girls are being murdered.

Quoting the latest statistics on the sample registration report published earlier this month, which showed that the percentage of females getting married before attaining the official marriage age of 18 in West Bengal at the highest in India at 6.3 per cent, BJP IT Cell chief Malviya said, “A Bengal that now leads India in child marriage cannot be called Vidyasagar’s Bengal, nor Tagore’s Bengal. It is Mamata’s Bengal and the shame is entirely hers.”

According to him, such a high percentage of premature marriage was unthinkable in West Bengal, the land of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, whose most enduring contribution was the Widow Remarriage Act of 1856, which sought to dismantle the evil of child marriage and the scourge of child widows.

“Tragically, in Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal, child marriage has surged. Little girls are being denied rights, dignity, and agency, undoing the very reforms Vidyasagar fought for. This is not the Bengal that Vidyasagar envisioned. Nor is it the Bengal of Rabindranath Tagore, who also stood against social evils that blighted society,” the social media statement by Malviya read.

According to him, such a high figure of premature marriage in West Bengal not only violates the laws of “Bharat” but also tramples upon the spirit of our Constitution.

“Mamata Banerjee’s hollow slogan of ‘Ma, Maati, and Maanush’ stands exposed. The decline and fall of a progressive people, once inspired by the ideals of Vidyasagar and Tagore, rests squarely on her shoulders. Her coarse, abusive politics desecrates the memory of Bengal’s greatest heroes every single day,” Malviya said.

–IANS

src/svn