Picking up from where she left off in Burdwan on Tuesday, Mamata Banerjee in Calcutta on Thursday tore into the saffron ecosystem over its alleged Bengali-phobia and “backdoor NRC” that she calls the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
The chief minister vowed a fight to the finish to prevent Bengal’s people from getting disenfranchised by “selfish giants with high-load viruses” acting with “Himalayan incompetence”.
Mamata accused the BJP of having deployed over 500 teams from across the country in Bengal to have names of genuine voters here erased from the electoral rolls in the name of surveys.
Mamata said all their conspiracies would be defused by her.
“A few selfish giants with high-load viruses… in their Himalayan incompetence… think they will snatch people’s voting rights through the backdoor NRC. We will never allow it…,” the Trinamool Congress chief said at the foundation day event of her party’s student wing, the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad, on Mayo Road in the afternoon.
Mamata has been unrelenting for nearly two months in her attacks on the saffron regime over alleged linguistic apartheid fuelled by their “Bengali-phobia”.
With it, she has woven in the issue of “backdoor NRC” by an allegedly compromised Nirvachan Sadan, which she says is a “conspiracy to disenfranchise” the poor and the marginalised who she believes are unlikely to vote for the BJP.
“If someone comes to you for any survey, do not give them details. They will strike off your names from the electoral roll. Be vigilant, keep checking your names in the electoral roll. Keep the Aadhaar cards with you always as (the Supreme Court) has made it acceptable,” she said.
Later in the day, sources in the Treasury benches of the Assembly said a special session of the House could be convened for three-four days starting Monday, specifically to discuss the two issues and have them placed on record in the legislature.
Referring to the Election Commission of India as a “lollipop” of the BJP-led Centre, she said: “This Lollipop Sarkar is threatening our BDOs, SDOs, DMs and police with incarceration or termination of employment. But the commission’s tenure is no more than three months during the elections.”
“It’s the state government that stays on. We won’t tolerate this muscle-flexing. We have all your darkest details… we will expose your corruption if you keep pushing us…. Listen, Lollipop babu, we know who all from your family are IAS and IPS officers in which states, and through whom you are conducting this lollipop mechanism for the BJP,” she added, in a veiled reference to chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar.
“I respect the office of the (election) commission. But you know, lollipops suit children. When adults start taking lollipops on behalf of a party, it does not look good.”
She also lambasted Union home minister Amit Shah, whose orders Kumar, helming the constitutionally autonomous poll panel, has been carrying out according to multiple INDIA constituents.
“Amit babu, you accuse us of dynastic politics, what about your son (Jay Shah) who presides over the global governing body of cricket, with which thousands and lakhs of crores of rupees are involved…. Do we call it socialism?” she asked.
Mamata alleged that the BJP was trying to make people forget the role played by Bengal and Bengalis in the freedom struggle and nation-building after Independence.
She mocked Hindutva proponent Vinayak Damodar Savarkar without naming him for his infamous mercy petition to the British Raj.
“Where were their predecessors during the freedom struggle? Agents of the British… writing muchleka (undertaking) to get out of prison,” said Mamata.
“Why should we or anybody now, for that matter be held accountable for things that happened eight decades ago (around the Partition)? Why should those things be forcibly made relevant in politics now? Neither us, nor were they born back then…. This is the result of desert-barren brains,” she said.
“I have seen many Prime Ministers from close proximity. I will write a book on who was actually like what. It will be released at the book fair,” said Mamata, whose parliamentary career began in the Rajiv Gandhi era.
“They shouldn’t try to come and teach me lessons now,” she added, in an apparent reference to Prime Minister Modi’s attacks on her government in his August 22 rally.
Her nephew and heir-apparent Abhishek Banerjee, speaking before her at the event, also tore into the BJP for allegedly misusing the SIR to select its voters instead of letting the people elect their governments.
“Now the BJP is handpicking voters through their undemocratic SIR... our fight against this will continue. If the BJP dares to delete even one legitimate voter (in Bengal), we will march to Delhi with 10 lakh Bengalis, gherao Rajpath and show them our might,” said the Trinamool national general secretary, vowing that the party would win more seats next year than the 215 (in the 294-seat Assembly) it secured in the 2021 state polls, challenging the BJP to go past 50.
BJP counter-attack
The BJP responded to these remarks with derision.
“No power on earth can keep Trinamool Congress from being thrown out of power by the people of Bengal, who know the BJP is the only alternative,” said the Bengal BJP chief Samik Bhattacharya. “Doesn’t matter what they say, it (Trinamool) is a dynastic, regional force that has lost all credibility.”