Kolkata:
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 fierce row included Ms Banerjee thundering “I’m a Hindu… don’t need certification from BJP”, and ripping into the saffron party’s “imported Hindu dharma”.
The opposition party then 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.
Ms Banerjee’s fierce comments followed Mr Adhikari – the Leader of the Opposition – declaring that Muslim MLAs from her party would be thrown out if his party were to come to power.
On Tuesday Mr Adhikari – Ms Banerjee’s right-hand man before jumping to the BJP in December 2020, weeks before the election – said Muslim MLAs would be “physically” thrown out.
The 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.
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