Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, July 21: The West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee while claiming that the Bengali-speaking people are being harassed in the BJP-ruled states, on Monday announced launching of “language agitation” from July 27 and also gave a call for the ouster of the BJP government at the Centre.
Sharpening her ‘Bengali asmita’ (pride) pitch ahead of the 2026 West Bengal assembly polls scheduled early next year, Ms Banerjee accused the BJP of unleashing “linguistic terrorism” on Bengalis, asserting that the fight for identity and language would continue till the saffron party was vanquished both in the state and at the Centre. “If linguistic profiling doesn’t stop, the resistance movement will reach Delhi,” she asserted.
Addressing the Trinamool Congress “Martyrs’ Day” rally, Ms Banerjee also targeted the Election Commission of India (ECI), which she said, was “full of BJP people,” and said the poll body was planning to implement a strategy similar to Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the state, aiming to influence voters or manipulate outcomes and said she would not allow any Bihar-type SIR exercise on the Bengali voters to manipulate BJP victory in the next elections as the BJP has managed to win in Maharashtra, Haryana and Delhi with the help of the ECI.
The TMC observes July 21 as a “martyrs’ day” every year in memory of the 13 youth Congress activists killed in police firing on this day in 1993 when the CPM was in power in the state. Ms Banerjee then was the president of the state youth Congress. Ms Banerjee was leading a rally “Writers` Chalo Abhiyan” (march to state government secretariat) demanding that the voters` identity card be made the only valid document to verify voters in order to put a stop to “rampant `scientific rigging.’
The marchers, however, were stopped at the Brabourne road, barely a few metres away from the Writers’ Building, gheraoed the marchers and started beating them up. Ms Banerjee herself was one of those severely injured in the police highhandedness. But if it was not enough, the police suddenly opened fire, eyewitness accounts had claimed the police aimed at heads and chest, and within minutes 13 of the marchers were dead and hundreds other injured. Though Ms Banerjee since has quit the Congress and has now formed her own party Trinamool Congress, she still observe the day in memory of her erstwhile Congress colleagues.
“There will be a language movement against the BJP’s terrorism on the Bengali language… From July 27, the language movement will start in West Bengal in protest against attacks on Bengalis,” Ms Banerjee thundered before a massive turnout at the rally venue in central Kolkata. “We have to win more seats in the 2026 assembly polls, and then march to Delhi to defeat the BJP at the centre,” she said.
This year, as the countdown to 2026 begins, Mamata Banerjee is expected to sharpen her political pitch once again ahead of the crucial poll battle. And, among key issues likely to dominate the state’s political narrative, and also her campaign, would be the “threat” from across state lines – the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar, now tipped to be replicated in Bengal.
The poll body on Thursday had claimed that 94.68% of electors in Bihar had been covered under the SIR, which will end on July 25. The Opposition parties have raised concerns about the exercise, which is expected to extend to all states. Mamata Banerjee alleged that the BJP and the Election Commission were “conspiring against Bengal” and claimed they were trying to remove Bengalis from the voter list.
She called on TMC workers to organise protest rallies every weekend starting after July 27 against the BJP’s “attacks on Bengalis.” BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya attacked Mamata Banerjee over her call for protests, questioning, “What is she so afraid of?”. In a post on X, the BJP leader said she was “now openly threatening to gherao the Election Commission if it dares to implement the Special Intensive Revision of the voter roll in the state.’ He said in Bengal, the BJP has pointed out, duplicate voters alone number around 17 lakh, nearly three times more than in Bihar!
Malviya claimed that “if the SIR is implemented properly, and free and fair elections are held, it is game over for TMC.” “As usual, Mamata Banerjee is resorting to lies and fear-mongering — talking about ‘detention camps’ and imaginary conspiracies,” he added. The BJP leader further noted that it is the curse of Bengal’s people, especially its women, that will bring Mamata Banerjee down.
Ms Banerjee also took a jibe at her Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma, saying that he “cannot properly handle his own state” adding that Himanta was “meddling” in the affairs of Bengal. She questioned the Assam government on the NRC notices to a West Bengal farmer, asking, “Who has authorised the BJP government in Assam to send NRC notices to residents of Bengal?”
A 50-year-old farmer from Cooch Behar district in West Bengal received a notice from the Foreigners Tribunal in Assam’s Kamrup district, requiring the farmer to provide valid documents to prove he wasn’t an “illegal migrant or foreigner.”
Ms Banerjee’s fierce speech touched upon a wide range of issues from NRC notices in West Bengal to the “targeting” of Bengalis in BJP-ruled states, including allegedly putting them in detention camps and attempts to remove their names from electoral rolls. “In 2019, they vandalised the statue of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar. Now, they have issued notifications to delete the names of Bengalis from the voter list. In BJP-ruled states, Bengalis are being harassed and put in detention camps,” she alleged.
Ms Banerjee said West Bengal hosts around 1.5 crore migrants from other states, but they have never faced harassment. “We welcome people from all over India, but look at what the BJP is doing to Bengalis. Ms Banerjee also launched a blistering attack on the Election Commission, accusing it of working at the BJP’s behest.
“The BJP and the Election Commission are conspiring against West Bengal. They want to do in West Bengal what they did in Bihar through EC’s SIR. If they try the same here, we will gherao them. We will never allow it,” he added. “BJP speaks against Emergency, whereas they have imposed ‘Super Emergency’ in the country,” Ms Banerjee said.
“If you target us in Delhi, there will be protests in Delhi and here. If you target us in Maharashtra, there will be protests in Maharashtra and here also. Do not belittle us in any way,” Ms Banerjee said. The Chief Minister claimed around 1,000 people had been arrested and put in “detention camps” in BJP-ruled States. She alleged that the Central government had surreptitiously issued a notification to BJP-ruled States to harass Bengali-speaking people and detain them at the slightest suspicion.
Asserting that there were nearly 22 lakh migrant workers from Bengal working in other parts of the country, who had valid identity documents such as Aadhaar, voter ID and PAN cards, the Chief Minister said she would not tolerate any disrespect meted out to them on flimsy grounds.
Ms Banerjee also claimed that the current government was being controlled by American President Donald Trump. “The American President controls the BJP-led central government,” she claimed.
The Calcutta High Court had earlier directed that all processions heading to the Monday’s rally at Central Kolkata’s Dharmatala must reach the venue by 8 a.m. or after 11 a.m., to ensure the smooth flow of traffic through Central Kolkata during rush hour. The single bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh directed that processions will be allowed until 8 a.m. and will be given until 9 a.m. to settle down. Processions will be allowed to resume only after 11 a.m. to prevent traffic congestion in Kolkata’s central business district between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., the court had said. The directive was issued on a petition filed by a group of lawyers.