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‘BJP trying to break spine of Bengali culture through distorted facts’: Mamata Banerjee
“All information and cultural hubs in the country are being attacked so that their spines could be broken,” the chief minister alleged.
Sharpening her attack against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee alleged that the BJP was trying to break the spine of Bengali-culture with the help of distorted facts.
“Of late, the BJP is trying to break the spine of Bengali culture. They are trying to break the Bengali pride, erase our history, change the geographic boundary and hit the political ideology with violence. Bengal’s culture is not the one which they are trying to present,” said Banerjee while adding that she never tagged Indians as outsiders.
The Trinamool Congress supremo was addressing the media at Birbhum district on Monday. She is on a two day visit to the district.
“All information and cultural hubs in the country are being attacked so that their spines could be broken. Be it Puducherry University, JNU or Nalanda University. Outsiders have captured Visva Bharati (set up by Rabindranath Tagore),” she added.
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Union home minister Amit Shah had visited Visva Bharati on December 20 while he was camping in the state for two days to bolster the BJP’s campaign in the run-up to the crucial state assembly elections in 2021.
Shah, who had held a mega roadshow in Birbhum, was impressed with the huge turnout. Banerjee is scheduled to hold a roadshow on the same route on Tuesday.
The BJP has hit back.
“The Mamata Banerjee administration has failed to address the burning problems of the state. They know they would lose and are hence attacking the BJP with baseless allegations and opposing the Narendra Modi-led government,” said Samik Bhattacharya, BJP spokesperson in the state.
Banerjee also said that Nobel laureate Amartya Sen is being attacked by the BJP for his views against the Union government. This is, however, not the first time that she has said this.
“Amartya Sen is being attacked for his views against the Union government. This is completely unacceptable. Just like, I am being attacked for my political views,” she said while talking to reporters.
Banerjee had earlier written a letter to Sen expressing her anguish after Visva Bharati, a central university, and had allegedly said that Sen’s family was in illegal possession of land on the campus.
Amartya Sen in his letter to Banerjee wrote, “Your strong voice, along with your full understanding of what is going on, is, for me, a tremendous source of strength.”
