Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday publicly responded with a fierce counteroffensive in Burdwan, four days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scathing criticism of her regime in Calcutta, warning him against disrespecting Bengal or her chair.
“I did not expect this of the Prime Minister. I respect his chair, but he should also respect our chair…. I never expected him to call the people of Bengal ‘thieves’,” said Mamata at a state government event in Burdwan.
“Why should he say, 'I stopped the funds because there are thieves in Bengal'? Uttar Pradesh is the biggest thief. Maharashtra and Bihar… the double-engine states, they are the biggest thieves. How many central teams did they send to defame Bengal? A hundred and eighty six! Can you imagine?” she asked. “We answered all your queries, yet you stopped release of funds due to Bengal, and on top of that you call Bengal a thief. They sent 186 teams to probe corruption charges and found nothing.... We won’t tolerate this insult,” she said.
This was the second instance in recent memory, after May 29, of Mamata mounting a belligerent counterattack on Modi. Prior to these two instances, Mamata had specifically spared Modi during her attacks on the BJP or the Centre since the general election, raising allegations of a “secret Modi-Didi entente” from the CPM and the Congress here.
On Tuesday, Mamata was responding to Modi’s remarks made on Friday at a Dum Dum rally, in which he launched the BJP’s slogan in Bengali for the 2026 Assembly elections — Banchte chai, BJP tai (I wish to survive, therefore the BJP) — with a scathing attack on her government for alleged failure in ensuring development, restricting infiltration, and curbing corruption.
“You are holding meetings with master thieves and traitors, and falsely blaming Bengal. Haven’t you an iota of shame? No, they are all incorrigibly shameless,” said the Trinamool chief, apparently referring to Modi’s allegation that “corruption, crime and the Trinamool Congress are synonymous”, and the funds the BJP-led Centre sends to Bengal do not reach the people but are misused by the Trinamool cadre.
Mamata said Modi was welcome to keep visiting Bengal, mocking him for his poll season visits, while underscoring her personal probity and her austere lifestyle despite being the chief minister for 14 years, a seven-term MP, and a Union minister over multiple stints.
“You are now coming here like a migratory bird ahead of the polls. I want you to come 365 days a year, because your copters, flights, food and accommodation are all taken care of,” she said, apparently suggesting the Prime Minister’s expenses on political visits are covered by the Centre
“But do remember, I do not take anything from the state coffers, nor Parliament. I have been an MP seven times, I could have drawn a monthly pension alone of ₹2.5-3 lakh…. Over 14 years (as chief minister), I did not take a single paisa. Yet no one seems to remember this…. I use the royalty I make from my books,” she said. “I live by myself. I don’t need much money to sustain myself…. I do not want any money, I want nothing but talent and self-respect.”
Mocking Modi for switching from the saffron war chant of Jai Shri Ram in Bengal, she said: “They have only one religion, manufactured Hindutva. They created this and want to impose it on people. This will not happen now, and will not happen even in a thousand years. We will never bow down.”
“You can abuse and defame me all you want but remember that I know how to fight. I have the courage. This is the strength my soil gives me. You do not, cannot scare me,”
she added.
Protest placards
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday paused her speech at the government benefit distribution programme in Burdwan town for several minutes on Tuesday after she noticed mediapersons taking photographs of protesters holding posters demanding her statement on the recruitment of primary school teachers,
A group of people, mostly women, suddenly stood up from the audience and raised posters demanding a message from the chief minister on primary schoolteachers’ recruitment, which visibly displeased her.
“Didi, prathamik shikshak niyog shomparke kichhu barta din (Didi, give some message about the recruitment of primary schoolteachers),” read one of the placards.
Mamata urged the media personnel to let her continue her speech and to photograph the protesters afterwards.