Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday told an Eid prayer gathering on Red Road that people must not get ensnared by communal provocation, underscored her government’s pledge to protect Bengal’s pluralistic and inclusive ethos, and lashed out at the BJP’s majoritarian politics.
She also tore into the so-called “Bam-Ram, Lal-Gerua nexus” — Trinamool’s pet allegation of a Left-BJP conspiracy against Mamata — over last week’s protest by some audience members when she addressed an event at Kellogg College in Oxford.
“Bam-Ram came (to Oxford) together, bought tickets from Calcutta. They went there… and asked me, ‘Are you Hindu?’ I replied with pride, ‘I am Hindu, I am Muslim, I am Sikh, and I am Christian… I am Indian. What can you do?’” Mamata said to deafening applause from the audience of thousands on Red Road.
“What do these people want, divide and rule? We don’t want that. My life can be sacrificed for the country, for all religions, castes, creeds, communities, families…. If you are salamat (safe), I am salamat,” the Trinamool Congress chief added.
“It’s a matter of shame that the Lal party, which used to talk of secularism, has joined hands with the Gerua. Let them do so. We will fight alone and prevail; alone we are akin to a hundred. We will fight (for secularism) with our lives on the line,” Mamata said in an apparent allusion to the protesters at the Kellogg event who had accused her of a pro-minority bias.
Mamata makes it a point to address the Red Road prayer congregation every year to deliver crucial messages to the minorities, who make up one-third of Bengal’s electorate. On Monday, she told the gathering that she had curtailed her Europe trip — a proposed visit to a Scandinavian country had purportedly been dropped — so that she could attend the Eid event.
“Do not ever think that you are alone. We are with you. Do not think that someone will ask you to follow some restrictions,” Mamata said.
“If they (the BJP) want to divide the country, (we must) first protect the Constitution. What does the Constitution say? That we are secular. If they want to divide us, they have to change the Constitution first,” she added.
“I follow Swami Vivekananda’s and Ramakrishna Paramahansa’s dharma, not… the ganda (dirty) dharma created by the jumla party that actually is against Hinduism,” Mamata said, alluding to the BJP.
“Some political leaders do saudagari (trade) with religion. I will shut their shop if we are all together,” the chief minister added. “We don’t want any riots or strife. No common citizen does it, only a political party.”
She advised against yielding to the saffron ecosystem’s “planted game” of continuous provocation till one reached a breaking point.
“This is their plan… do not fall for it. Do not even touch them. If they say something, you should know that your Didi is with you… and so is the entire state government. Do not think anybody can do anything to you,” Mamata said.
“The majority’s dharma is to protect the minority. The minority’s dharma is to stand united with the majority…. I can give my life but I will never deviate from my ideology.”
Mamata’s nephew and Trinamool leader Abhishek Banerjee, who accompanied her to the event, lauded how “unity against the BJP” had produced “splendid results” in the general election in Bengal.
“The BJP claims Hindus are in danger and their friends claim that Muslims are in danger. I ask them to take off their lenses of communal politics. The truth is that the whole nation is in danger because of their politics,” the Diamond Harbour MP said to loud cheers.
“If they try to cause divisions in Bengal, we will fiercely resist them.”