Kolkata:
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the BJP went head-to-head in the Assembly Wednesday, trading allegations of communalism and making inflammatory statements.
The row included her thundering “I’m a Hindu… don’t need certification from BJP”, and ripping into its “imported Hindu dharma”. The BJP responded with accusations of Hindu temples being vandalised.
The throwdown – which included BJP lawmakers protesting furiously outside the Assembly building – comes with the 2026 election, to be held in March-April, on the horizon.
Responding to the BJP’s Suvendhu Adhikari of her government being “anti-Hindu”, Ms Banerjee accused her rivals of “targeting Muslims because this is the holy month of Ramzan”.
“They don’t like this. They are trying to distract the attention of the country from economic and trade collapse by making communal statements. I’m a Hindu, and I don’t need certification from BJP,” the Chief Minister, who is routinely attacked for ‘minority appeasement’, said.
She also reminded the BJP that sovereignty, secularism, and pluralism remain the main pillars of India’s democracy, and that every Indian has the right to practise his/her religion, “whether a person is a Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Muslim, Christian, or Parsi…”
“As Chief Minister, my responsibility is to care for all,” she said in the Assembly, as BJP lawmakers shouted anti-government slogans. “Do not play the ‘Hindu card’…” she warned.
During her speech Ms Banerjee was interrupted by the BJP MLA from Siliguri, Shankar Ghosh, who pointed to remarks by senior Trinamool leader Firhad Hakim in July last year.
Mr Hakim had reportedly used the word “unfortunate” to refer to non-Muslims and said, “We have to bring them under the fold of Islam… Allah will be happy if we do so.” His party swiftly condemned the statement – which prompted another row (and BJP walkout) in the Assembly.
Mr Hakim, who is the Kolkata Mayor, later also offered an apology.
To this reminder, Ms Banerjee said she had personally warned Mr Hakim to not make such statements. “But how can your leader say ‘Muslim legislators will be thrown out…’?”
Ms Banerjee’s fierce comments followed Mr Adhikari – the Leader of the Opposition – declaring on Tuesday that Muslim MLAs from her party would be thrown out if his party were to come to power. Mr Adhikari was Ms Banerjee’s close aide before jumping to the BJP in December 2020.
That was weeks before the last Assembly election.
“The Mamata Banerjee government is a communal administration that is behaving like the second version of Muslim League. People of Bengal will uproot them this time,” he also said.
His remark was slammed as “hate speech” by Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh, who said, “This is an extremely objectionable statement. He cannot say MLAs from a particular religion will be thrown out physically… cannot discriminate in the name of religion… this mentality is not good.”
Many senior BJP leaders refused to comment on Mr Adhikari’s words.
With input from agencies
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