West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee addresses the party's Martyrs’ Day rally, in Kolkata
Credit: PTI Photo
Kolkata: Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, has accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of unleashing “linguistic terrorism” on Bengalis across the country and called for a movement to protect the language and cultural identity of the state against such onslaughts by the saffron party.
With the assembly elections in West Bengal less than a year away, Mamata not only blew the poll bugle with a no-holds-barred offensive against the BJP but also set the TMC’s strategy to counter the saffron party’s aggressive Hindutva with an assertive Bangaliyana. As she addressed a mammoth congregation of the TMC workers at the party’s annual Martyrs’ Day event in Kolkata to pay homage to the 13 people killed in police firing on July 21, 1993, while demanding fair polls, the TMC supremo also warned the BJP against using the Election Commission to manipulate the electoral rolls.
The party’s general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, said that he and other parliamentarians of the TMC would now speak only in Bengali in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. “We will not kowtow before any attempt by the BJP to erase Bengali.”
“We must win more seats in the 2026 assembly polls (in West Bengal) and then march to Delhi to oust the BJP from power at the Centre,” the TMC supremo said, coining the “Jabda Habe, Stabdha Habe” (we will trounce them, silence them) as her party’s new war cry for the 2026 assembly polls, moving on from the “khela habe (game is on)”.
The TMC over the past few weeks stepped up its attacks on the governments of the BJP-ruled states for the detention of migrant workers from West Bengal by police and, in some cases, even deportation to Bangladesh, often allegedly disregarding their claim of being genuine citizens of India.
Mamata, the chief minister of West Bengal since 2011, on Monday accused the BJP-led governments in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat and Delhi of harassing migrant workers from her state only because they spoke in their mother language Bangla.
“The BJP wants to erase our identity, language, culture and pride. But I promise you, till the time we oust them from the Centre, our fight will continue,” she said.
“In 2019, they vandalised the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. They saw the results of that audacious act of insulting Bengali icons (in the 2021 assembly polls). Now, they have issued notifications to delete Bengali names from voter lists. In BJP-ruled states, Bengalis are being harassed and put in detention camps,” alleged the TMC supremo.
“If needed, there will be a second Bhasha Andolan (language movement) against the BJP’s terrorism on the Bengali language... From July 27, a movement will start in Bengal to protest the attack on Bengalis, Bengali language and ‘Bhasha Santras’ (linguistic terrorism) of the BJP,” she said, adding: “This language movement will continue till the end of the assembly polls.”
The first ‘Bhasha Andolan’ had taken place in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1952 to protest the imposition of Urdu and sidelining of Bengali in the eastern part of Pakistan. A police crackdown had resulted in the death of at least 29 protesting students on February 21, 1952. The United Nations later declared February 21 as International Mother Language Day.
“(West) Bengal is home to nearly 1.5 crore migrants from other states. We welcome people from all over India. But look at what the BJP is doing to Bengalis (in the states ruled by it),” said Mamata.
She called upon the TMC workers to be very cautious to resist attempts by the BJP and the EC to erase names of legitimate voters of West Bengal from the electoral rolls of the state and instead enroll people from other BJP-ruled states.
“The BJP and the EC are conspiring against (West) Bengal. They want to do in Bengal what they did in Bihar through SIR (Special Intensive Revision). In Bihar, they have deleted the names of 40 lakh voters. If they try it here, we will gherao them. We will never allow it,” she said.