Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday claimed that unlike the Gujaratis, Bengalis were not sent back as illegal immigrants from the US to their country of origin, as they played important roles in multiple prestigious American institutions.

Trinamool insiders said the chief minister while expressing pride about Bengal’s global talent pool was making a political statement — without naming anyone — as Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah belonged to Gujarat.

“Bengal’s researchers are revered by the whole world, they are saluted by the entire global community. That is why, remember, (Donald) Trump, the American President, could afford to have Gujaratis, chained by the waist, thrown out. But he cannot do so with Bengal’s talent,” said Mamata at at her government benefit distribution programme in Burdwan.

“Because without them (Bengalis) Harvard does not function, Oxford does not function, remember, Columbia does not function, without them, San Francisco does not function… from Nasa (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to bhasha (language) it is them all the way,” she added.

“We will rise in protest if there are attempts to stifle our voices. We will proudly chant both Jai Hind and Joy Bangla as Bengali courses through our veins…. No insult to our mother will ever be tolerated,” she said.

In the past too, she had hurled similar jibes at the Modi government. “Where is India now? You are being controlled by the US President. Donald Trump is controlling you... and yet you make loud, lofty claims. What kind of Hindu are you?” she had said from the Martyrs’ Day dais on July 21.

“The US President sent back planes filled with people to Gujarat, with their hands and feet shackled and tied? Where were you then? No one was ever sent back to Bengal.... They should look at themselves in the mirror,” the Trinamool chief had added.

Mamata’s jibe at the deportation of Gujaratis from the US comes in the backdrop of repeated incidents of Bengali-speaking migrant workers being attacked, tortured and detained in BJP-ruled states and pushed into Bangladesh on the suspicion of being infiltrators.

“If people speak in Bengali, they are refused service at hotels, not allowed to work, and not allowed to study. We will speak in Bengali. We will speak in other languages too because we respect them. But why should I not speak in Bengali?” asked Mamata, before mentioning Monday’s death of a migrant worker from Habra, Golam Mondal, who was allegedly tortured by Maharashtra police in June.

EC as BJP ‘lollipop’

Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday urged the Election Commission of India not to be the BJP’s “lollipop” and strike out names of Bengal voters ahead of next year’s Assembly
elections.

“I pay my respect to you. I salute you. Please don’t be the BJP’s lollipop. If you become so, the people of the country will not forgive you,” Mamata said in Burdwan.

She made the remarks in the presence of chief secretary Manoj Pant, who was recently summoned to Delhi by the EC and who suspended four poll officers according to the poll panel’s instructions, despite her having earlier opposed any action against the quartet.

On August 5, the EC directed Pant to suspend, initiate departmental proceedings and lodge FIRs against four officials accused of inserting fake names in the electoral rolls for the Moyna and Baruipur Purba Assembly segments. The EC also instructed him to lodge an FIR against a contractual data entry operator. Mamata had lambasted the EC for its “audacity” during her Jhargram rally and said no action would be taken against the officials.

On August 8, the EC asked Pant to send a compliance report by 3pm on August 11. In his reply, Pant told the EC that the state government removed the Moyna assistant electoral registration officer and the data entry operator from poll-related duties and initiated an internal inquiry against them. He said stern measures against officials before an inquiry was over would be harsh.

The “unsatisfied” EC summoned Pant to Delhi on August 13. Coming back, Pant suspended four officials and started departmental proceedings against them. However, no FIRs were filed.

BJP state chief Samik Bhattacharya said Mamata was “habituated to feeding the state election commissioners with lollipop and chop, and so she started thinking that the central government can also be handled in the same way”.