Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Jan 16: The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and the BJP leader and union minister of state for education Sukanta Majumdar traded barbs over the Rashtriya Swayasevak Sangh (RSS) chief Mohan Bhagwat’s comments on India’s “True Independence.”
Ms Banerjee’s slamming Mr Bhagwat’s statement as “anti-national” drew an immediate response from Mr Majumdar who in turn called Ms Banerjee an “anti-national chief minister” and pointed to claims from September last year – that Ms Banerjee refused to give land for the Border Security Force to build a fence along the Bangladesh border.
Ms Banerjee, a fierce and vocal critic of the BJP and the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, criticised the remarks by Bhagwat – whose group is seen as an ideological mentor to the BJP – as “an attempt to distort history.
“This is anti-national. I strongly condemn this dangerous remark… it should be withdrawn. This is an attempt to distort history. We are dedicated to keeping our independence intact (and) ready to sacrifice our lives for India…but not to tolerate this,” she told reporters in Kolkata.
She made the comment when her attention was drawn to Mr Bhagwat’s statement at an RSS event in Indore on Monday that India truly became independent only on the day the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple was consecrated in Ayodhya last year.
Ms Banerjee was not the only senior opposition leader to have slammed Bhagwat. At the opening of the Congress’ new Delhi office on Wednesday, Rahul Gandhi said the comment would have gotten the RSS chief arrested had it been said in any other country. “… the chief of the RSS said India never achieved independence in 1947. He said true independence was achieved when the Ram Temple was built…” Mr Gandhi had said.
“To say India did not get independence in 1947 is an insult to every single Indian, and it is about time we stop listening to this nonsense…” Mr Gandhi raged in an all-out attack on the BJP. In his attack Mr Gandhi also accused the RSS and BJP of having “captured every single institution of our country”, and that his party is “now fighting… the Indian State itself.”
The Congress leader’s comment provoked a counterattack from the BJP, which sought to flip the narrative by accusing Mr Gandhi and his party of having “close links with urban Naxals and the Deep State (which) wants to defame, demean, and discredit India.”
“The Congress has a history of encouraging forces that want a weak India. Their greed for power meant compromising the nation’s integrity and betraying the trust of the people. But the people of India… decided they will always reject this rotten ideology,” BJP chief JP Nadda said.
