West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has said she would not let anyone take away people’s voting rights, alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party was unleashing ‘linguistic terror’ on Bengalis across the country.
Addressing a rally in Kolkata to mark the foundation day of the Trinamool Chatra Parishad as reported by PTI , the party’s students’ wing, Banerjee claimed that the BJP has deployed over 500 teams from across the country in West Bengal to conduct surveys, aimed at deleting names of voters from the electoral rolls.
“Do not give your details if anyone comes to your house for surveys. They will use that data to delete your name from the voters’ list. Instead, check directly with the polling centres and ensure your Aadhaar cards are ready, because the Centre has made it compulsory,” she told her supporters at the rally.
Alleging that the Election Commission was intimidating state government officers at the behest of the BJP, she said, “I respect the office of the EC, but you know, lollipops suit children. If adults start taking lollipops on behalf of one party, it does not look good.”
Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress chairperson, alleged that the BJP is insulting Bengalis by branding poor migrant workers from the state as “Bangladeshis”.
“You torture poor people by calling them Bangladeshis. But to me, poor people are my biggest strength. I don’t believe in caste or creed, I believe in humanity,” she said.
“Recently, a migrant worker from Habra was killed in Maharashtra, but these people (BJP) never raise their voice over such atrocities,” she said.
Banerjee alleged that the BJP was trying to make people forget the role played by Bengalis during the freedom movement.
“If there is no Bengali language, then in which language were the national anthem and national song written? They want people to forget the historical role played by Bengalis. Now they are even funding movies to defame Bengal and insult our history,” she alleged.
“Their predecessors were agents of the British who gave undertakings to get out of jails,” she claimed.
