‘Goli Maaro’ chants at BJP leader Suvendu’s rally in Bengal

Kolkata Supporters of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday allegedly raised the controversial “goli maaro” slogan at a roadshow in West Bengal’s Hooghly district, a day after a similar slogan was raised by supporters of the ruling Trinamool Congress.

The slogan, “desh ke gaddaron ko, goli maaro” (shoot the traitors of the nation), was raised by people carrying the BJP flag who were seen trailing a truck carrying former Trinamool Congress leader Suvendu Adhikari who is now with the BJP, the BJP’s Barrackpore MP Arjun Singh and BJP’s Hooghly MP Locket Chatterjee in the district’s Chandannagar area.

Condemning the incident, Bengal BJP’s chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said the party “does not endorse it”. “Our party does not endorse it at all. People carrying the BJP flag cannot talk like that,” he told mediapersons in Kolkata.

The BJP spokesperson also hit out at the TMC, saying that the slogan raised at the Chandannagar rally was aimed at terrorists while workers of the ruling party had used it against “traitors of Bengal”.

“However, one must understand that when we talk of traitors of India we mean mercenaries and terrorists who kill innocent citizens and pose a threat to the nation. The intention of TMC workers was quite different because they talked of traitors of Bengal,” he said.

TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh targeted the BJP and said that the party believes in the “culture of violence”. “The TMC workers should not have uttered it but the BJP has proved once again that it believes in the culture of violence in letter and spirit,” he said.

On Tuesday, the BJP had alleged that a section of people who took part in a massive TMC road show in Kolkata shouted slogans about “shooting traitors in Bengal”.

Asked about the purported “goli maaro” slogan, TMC leader Madan Mitra said: “Bullets are not part of Bengal’s political culture, but the people could certainly slap BJP leaders.”

In January last year, Union minister Anurag Thakur egged the audience at a Delhi election rally to raise the slogan by repeatedly chanting the first half of it, and waiting for the crowd to complete it.

West Bengal is scheduled to go polls before May this year.

(With Agency inputs)