Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday lambasted Prime Minister Narendra Modi and demanded his immediate resignation for his conspicuous silence on a recent threat from the Pakistan government to target Calcutta.
As the political temperature in Bengal rises this election summer, Mamata asked if there was “another blueprint” for a “pre-poll Pahalgam”, referring to last year’s April 22 murder of 26 persons by militants.
At a poll rally at Bethuadahari in Nadia’s Nakashipara, Mamata mounted a scathing offensive on the Prime Minister for his fierce criticism of Bengal in his election speeches — including one in Cooch Behar on Sunday — while failing to respond to remarks from the Pakistan defence minister on one of this nation’s most significant cities.
The catalyst for her outrage was Pakistan defence minister Khawaja Asif’s warning to India on Saturday that it would respond to any “future misadventures” with a strike on Calcutta.
Speaking to reporters in Sialkot, Asif said: “If India tries to stage any false flag operation this time, then God-willingly, we will take it to Kolkata.”
Modi’s failure to even mention this during his Cooch Behar rally on Sunday was a loophole too gaping for Mamata to leave unaddressed.
“You target Bengal in your election rallies, but when Pakistan talks about attacking Calcutta, you remain silent. You should resign.... You must immediately resign,” Mamata said.
“Why did the Prime Minister not raise the issue in his Bengal rally? When Pakistan’s defence minister says they will attack Calcutta, why didn’t our Prime Minister say ‘We will take strong action’?” she asked, weaving in not only a security narrative but also a direct threat on the Bengal-Bengali way of life by a foreign aggressor.
She then turned up the heat further, asking if there was “another blueprint” for a “pre-poll Pahalgam” — a reference to the polarising terror attack that prompted a major military response last year. In Mamata’s world, such coincidences are rarely accidental, as she also brings up the Pulwama incident ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Modi’s communal overtones of his speech on Sunday left no ambiguity regarding his intent to double down on the saffron ecosystem’s weapon of choice, that of religious identity-based polarisation for electoral gains, despite its past failures in the essentially pluralist, inclusive-liberal, cosmopolitan state of Bengal.
There was no mention of Asif or any threat from Pakistan in Modi’s speech.
Mamata’s nephew and party MP Abhishek Banerjee was equally relentless in his criticism of Modi.
“Prime Minister Modi is silent while Khawaja Asif threatens Calcutta. He uses central agencies against political opponents but lacks the spine to respond to Pakistan. Is this your 56-inch chest? The day the INDIA bloc comes to power, we will teach him (Asif, presumably) a lesson...,” he asserted.
Mamata reminded the crowd that threats against Calcutta should be treated as seriously as threats against any other major part of India.
“We do not accept threats to any other place in India. We will not accept threats to Calcutta... one of the most important cities of the country,” she said.
This latest controversy is the first time in this election that Pakistan — and not Bangladesh or alleged infiltration from there — has found its way into the political discourse of Bengal, handing Mamata a crucial opportunity to punch holes into the BJP’s boasts on nationalism and national security by highlighting their selectivity.
As she prepares to file her nomination for Bhabanipur this week, Mamata’s message to Modi remained as blunt as a bare-knuckle boxer’s uppercut. If the Prime Minister thought his Cooch Behar speech had set the agenda, Nakashipara provided the rebuttal: if the people of Bengal are targeted, whether by foreign or domestic aggression, Bengal will fight back.
