Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a grand rally in Bolpur in Bengal’s Birbhum district, alleging that Visva-Bharati, Bengal’s only Central university that Rabindranath Tagore had set up in the town, has turned into a centre of dirty politics.
Visva-Bharati is in news for several months now for vice-chancellor Bidyut Chakrabarty’s attempts to set up a security zone around the campus. The authorities hit the headlines last week for accusing Nobel laureate economist Amartya Sen of illegally occupying some land.
Banerjee led the biggest roadshow Bolpur has witnessed in recent history in a bid to outdo Union home minister Amit Shah who led a roadshow in the same place on December 20. While Shah’s roadshow followed a 1.5-kilometre route, Banerjee walked for about 4.5 kilometres. The crowd that followed her was several times bigger than what was seen at the BJP event.
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“After I was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time (1984) Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister and also the chancellor of Visva-Bharati by default. It was with him that I came to the campus for the first time. When the students asked him during lunch who should be their icon, he pointed at me,” said Banerjee.
{{/usCountry}}“After I was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time (1984) Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister and also the chancellor of Visva-Bharati by default. It was with him that I came to the campus for the first time. When the students asked him during lunch who should be their icon, he pointed at me,” said Banerjee.
{{/usCountry}}“Do you know why he did that? It is because he had realized the I know the soil of Bengal and love Bengal,” said the chief minister.
“Today the same Visva-Bharati has become the centre of dirty politics over blind religious faith. I don’t like it at all. I don’t like the fact that walls are being put up. I am saying this clearly. Dirty politics has been imported here and in Bengal. Those importing this hatred do not know the Hindu religion,” said Banerjee.
“To understand the real Hindu religion they have to understand Tarapith, Kankalitala and Lalateshwari,” said the chief minister, referring to the state’s most auspicious places of pilgrimage dedicated to goddess Shakti or Kali in their different forms.
Referring to the social welfare programmes of the state government, Banerjee said, “A lot of dirty politics is going on to divert people’s attention from these. Those who killed Gandhi and defamed Tagore are their (BJP’s) leaders. The vice-chancellor is a marked stooge of the BJP. Didn’t they find any other person for the post. Why are BJP leaders visiting Visva-Bharati so frequently. What business do they have on the campus? I do not do politics on Calcutta University campus.”
“Those who have imported the politics of fake videos and lies, those who are getting outsiders to visit your homes are making false commitments,” said Banerjee.
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Significantly, folk singer Basudeb Das Baul, who hosted Shah’s lunch at his home, walked alongside Banerjee on Tuesday and even performed on the dais. Banerjee took off her shawl and put it around his neck.
BJP hits back
Meanwhile, BJP national secretary Anupam Hazra, who was the TMC’s Bolpur Lok Sabha member before joining the saffron camp in 2019, alleged that no more than 20,000 people seen at Banerjee’s roadshow were local residents. “It is sad to see the TMC bringing people from other districts and even Jharkhand. They were ferried in trucks and the number plates of the vehicles were removed after they were parked,” said Hazra who accompanied Shah on December 20.
Anubrata Mondal, the TMC district president who organised the roadshow, dismissed the allegation. “TMC does not need to import supporters like the BJP. We wanted to assemble around 1.5 lakh local people but 4.5 lakh turned up on their own,” said Mondal.