Bhasha Andolan From Tagore's Bolpur: Mamata hyphenates ‘SIR-linguistic terror', slams EC-BJP ‘bid to bring NRC through backdoor'

Indian Express

5 days ago

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday hyphenated the issues of detention of Bangla-speaking migrants in several parts of the country with the Election Commission's plan to roll out the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) across the country, including in poll-bound West Bengal, and accused the BJP and the EC of trying to implement the NRC in the country 'through the backdoor'.
Launching her party's Bhasha Andolan (language movement) campaign from Bolpur – the karmabhoomi of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore – the TMC supremo alleged that the BJP-led Centre, in collusion with the EC, was targeting minorities, OBCs, the poor, and Bengali-speaking voters through the Special Summary Revision, to strike off genuine names from the voter list in a 'covert' NRC-like exercise.
The chief minister, who took part in a 3-km march in Bolpur, holding a portrait of Rabindranath Tagore, asserted that she would not allow the setting up of detention centres in West Bengal and dared the EC to delete names of genuine voters, saying such 'steps would attract consequences'.
'If you (EC) dare delete names from Bengal's voter list, you will witness Chhau dance, dhamsa-madol, conch shells, cymbals, and war drums. Have you heard such sounds before? We will make you hear them,' she said.
Accusing the EC of acting at the behest of the BJP government at the Centre, 'They (EC) are finalising the voters' list, while sitting in Gujarat. Gujaratis are not my enemies. The BJP's agency (EC) is doing this… They have already set up detention camps in Haryana and Assam. I will not allow NRC to be implemented in Bengal as long as I am alive. I won't allow detention camps to be built here… Have our Hindu brothers forgotten how 7 lakh names were removed in Assam? We want to say: 'Jo humse takrayega, choor choor ho jaayega' (Those who will collide with us will be shattered)'.
'The EC has come up with a new rule that the old list will no longer be used. Names must be re-entered from scratch. They are asking for the birth certificates of parents, too. Ask them if they themselves have their birth certificates. Those who are part of this conspiracy, do they have their documents in place?' she said.
'We will stop this conspiracy to jeopardise our existence in the name of linguistic terror and an attempt to implement NRC through the backdoor… The EC, with due respect, are you playing the government's NRC game?' she added.
The TMC supremo declared she would 'give up her life but not her language', and vowed to stand against attempts to erase Bengali 'asmita' (pride), disenfranchise the poor, or drive out migrants under the guise of electoral roll revision. 'We have no enmity with any language. I believe that unity in diversity is the foundation of our nation. But if you try to erase our language and culture, we will resist peacefully, powerfully, and politically,' she said.
In a sharp attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Mamata said, 'When you travel to Arab nations and hug the sheikhs, do you ask whether they are Hindus or Muslims? Did you ask the Maldives President his religion before hugging him and donating Rs 5,000 crore, while depriving Bengal of its dues?'
Stating that Bengali is the fifth-most spoken language in the world and the second-most spoken in Asia, Banerjee questioned the ongoing discrimination.
'Yet, Bengalis are being tortured across states. Why this hatred? If Bengal can accept and shelter 1.5 crore migrant workers from other states, why can't you accept 22 lakh Bengali migrants working elsewhere?' she asked.
The Bolpur protest march was not just political; it was rich in emotion and symbolism.
Banerjee wore her trademark white cotton sari and a traditional uttariya from Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan. Raising slogans of 'Joy Bangla' and 'Jai Hind' at the end of her speech, Banerjee urged TMC workers to spread the language movement.
-With PTI Inputs from Bolpur
Atri Mitra is a Special Correspondent of The Indian Express with more than 20 years of experience in reporting from West Bengal, Bihar and the North-East. He has been covering administration and political news for more than ten years and has a keen interest in political development in West Bengal.
Atri holds a Master degree in Economics from Rabindrabharati University and Bachelor's degree from Calcutta University. He is also an alumnus of St. Xavier's, Kolkata and Ramakrishna Mission Asrama, Narendrapur.
He started his career with leading vernacular daily the Anandabazar Patrika, and worked there for more than fifteen years. He worked as Bihar correspondent for more than three years for Anandabazar Patrika. He covered the 2009 Lok Sabha election and 2010 assembly elections. He also worked with News18-Bangla and covered the Bihar Lok Sabha election in 2019. ... Read More