Kolkata, July 22 (IANS) The BJP is the genuine admirer of Bengalis, Bengali language and Bengali culture, unlike the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is exploiting the issue of “Bengali Pride” for narrow political benefits, the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said on Tuesday.

“The Chief Minister is trying to portray herself as the self-proclaimed protector of the Bengali language and Bengali culture, understanding that the anti-incumbency wave against her party is getting stronger every day. Who gave her that right? In reality, she is a pseudo Bengali-devotee, unlike the BJP, which is the true admirer of Bengalis, Bengali language and Bengali culture,” the LoP said while speaking to the media person in Kolkata before leaving for New Delhi.

Explaining why he was describing the Chief Minister as a ‘pseudo Bengali devotee’, Adhikari said that in 2012, when Congress proposed the name of Late Pranab Mukherjee as the President of India, Mamata Banerjee opposed that proposal and instead floated three alternative names.

“The founder of the BJP, the party that the Chief Minister abuses every day, was a Bengali, Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. Renowned economist Late Bibek Debroy, who was the special advisor to the Prime Minister, was also a Bengali. The current member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, Sanjeev Sanyal, is also a Bengali. Acclaimed academician Asim Kumar Ghosh, who has been recently appointed as the Haryana Governor, is also a Bengali. So the Chief Minister should stop projecting herself as the self-proclaimed protector of the Bengali language and Bengali culture,” Adhikari said.

He also said the real intention of the Chief Minister behind her projection as a self-proclaimed protector of the Bengali language and Bengali culture is to protect illegal Rohingya and Bangladeshi infiltrators.

While addressing Trinamool Congress’s annual Martyrs’ Day rally in central Kolkata on Monday, Mamata Banerjee announced that her party will launch weekend protest programmes across the state starting July 27, in response to the alleged harassment of Bengali-speaking people in BJP-ruled states.

She described this protest programme as yet another “Bhasha Andolon (Language Movement)”. Historically, “Bhasha Andolan” was a political movement in what was then East Pakistan, advocating for the recognition of Bangla as an official language of the country, which ultimately led to the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent nation after erstwhile East Pakistan was liberated from Pakistan in 1971.

–IANS

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