Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday launched a broadside against Suvendu Adhikari for his latest diatribe against Muslims and accused him of importing to Bengal a “fake” variant of Hinduism which was alien to the pluralist state.

The chief minister made an unscheduled visit to the Assembly to participate in a motion of condemnation moved by a cabinet colleague against Adhikari’s remark.

“Your imported version of the Hindu religion is neither endorsed by the Vedas nor our sages and monks. How can you possibly deny the fundamental rights of Muslims as citizens, just because they are Muslims? This is jaliyati (fraud). You are importing a fake Hinduism,” said Mamata in her address on the floor of the House amid furious protests from BJP legislators.

“We are a secular, pluralist, inclusive nation where everyone has the right to practise the religion of their choice…. The duty of every majority (in a secular democracy) is to protect the minority.”

Adhikari, the leader of the Opposition, was not present as he has been serving
a suspension.

“I have the duty and the right to protect Hindus and Hinduism, but not your version of it. Please don’t come to play the Hindu card…. I need no certification from you on how Hindu I am,” said Mamata.

“How can your leader (Adhikari) say that you will have Muslim lawmakers thrown out of the Assembly? How can they possibly dismiss 33 per cent of the population?” she asked.

On Tuesday, the BJP’s Nandigram MLA had said: “Will defeat (Speaker) Biman Banerjee, Mamata Banerjee…. R odeyr j kota Muslim bidhayok jitey ashbey – BJP shorkarey ashbey – chyangdola korey tuley rastay phelbo! Dosh mash porey, ei rastay phelbo (And their Muslim MLAs that will emerge victorious and come here — the BJP will form the government — we will pick them up by the arms and the legs and throw them on the road! Ten months later, we will throw them on this
very road)!”

The Trinamool Congress chief mounted a scathing offensive on her former protege — now her bete noire — for his alleged disregard for the Constitution and its principles.

“The person who has been saying such things will have to regret it in the future. He keeps switching sides — the Congress, then Trinamool… now the BJP. In the future, there will be a request (from Adhikari) to move to another party,” she added.

“You are casually violating the Constitution repeatedly, despite being the leader of
the Opposition.”

Asked by Opposition chief whip Shankar Ghosh what she had to say regarding the recent communal, allegedly Hindu-phobic remarks of the likes of Trinamool ministers Firhad Hakim and Siddiqullah Chowdhury, and Bharatpur MLA Humayun Kabir, Mamata said they were all told not to make such comments in the future and necessary action was taken.

Even as Mamata spoke, the BJP legislators staged a walkout and started protesting for the cameras outside the Assembly gates, tearing and tossing paper, dressed in black.

Unwilling to miss out, Adhikari rushed in from elsewhere and launched a brief sit-in protest outside the gates. Trying to project himself as a saviour of all Hindus in Bengal, Adhikari said he was merely trying to highlight the Vijender Gupta example
from Delhi.

“I had said the Speaker (Banerjee) is throwing out our MLAs using marshals. I had said they should learn from the Delhi example, the same thing was done to Vijender Gupta by the AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal, when Gupta was the lone BJP MLA there. Now Gupta is Delhi’s Speaker, he has Kejriwal’s misbehaving MLAs thrown out now,”
said Adhikari.

“Next year, the only ones to win on Trinamool tickets in the Assembly election would be Muslims. Trinamool will have no Hindu MLAs. I stand by that. When the BJP forms the government, our Speaker will have their MLAs picked up and thrown out,” he added, attempting to give the issue a spin that didn’t quite land. “This is not my theory, but (Isaac) Newton’s (third law of motion)… for every action, there is an equal and
opposite reaction.”

Later, Adhikari wrote to the Assembly secretariat claiming he felt threatened by the 72-hour apology deadline set by Bharatpur MLA Kabir. The Bharatpur MLA had said if Adhikari failed to meet the 72-hour deadline, 42 Muslim MLAs that he claimed are loyal to him would teach the 65 BJP MLAs a lesson. Following the letter, Kabir wondered if Adhikari’s remark deserved such a warning from him or an invite to treat him to roshogolla.

Up north, the Congress’s state general secretary Ali Imran Ramz — better known as Victor, a spirited Left legislator in the past — filed a police complaint at Chakulia police station in North Dinajpur, demanding Adhikari’s arrest.

“The defamatory comment of Suvendu Adhikari targeting a section of MLAs from a particular religion has disturbed the general equilibrium of the state and also hurt the religious sentiment of the people from a particular religion,” wrote Ramz in
the complaint.

He said a copy of his complaint was emailed to Mamata, with an appeal for her to take every necessary step to have Adhikari arrested.