India Would Not Have Got Independence Without Bengal: Mamata
The West Bengal chief minister said, “India would not have got independence if Bengal was not there. The soil of Bengal produced numerous luminaries from Rabindranath Tagore to Nazrul Islam to Subhas Chandra Bose...the national anthem, the national song and 'Jai Hind' slogan are all creations of Bengalis.”
Kolkata/Berhampore: Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee claimed on Thursday that India would not have become Independent without Bengal. She made the remark at an event on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of Kanyashree, one of her government's key upliftment initiatives for the girls, in the city.
The West Bengal chief minister said, “India would not have got independence if Bengal was not there. The soil of Bengal produced numerous luminaries from Rabindranath Tagore to Nazrul Islam to Subhas Chandra Bose...the national anthem, the national song and 'Jai Hind' slogan are all creations of Bengalis.”
She then pointed out that nearly 70 per cent of the freedom fighters, who were kept lodged by the British at the Cellular Jail in Port Blair, were Bengalis in her bid to take a swipe at the BJP over the harassment of Bengali speaking people from the state on the basis of their mother tongue just because it resembles the language of the citizens of Bangladesh.
Incidentally, her party MP from Berhampore Yusuf Pathan revealed during the day that he wrote a letter to union home minister Amit Shah against the trend and can even meet him also to stop it. He said at an event in his constituency, "It is very unfortunate that harassment of Bengali speaking people is going on throughout the country. These incidents should stop immediately.”
The cricketer-turned-TMC parliamentarian added, “I already wrote a letter to Mr Shah for his intervention and can meet him soon if it doesn't stop. Bengali is a sweet language. Each and every citizen has the right to speak in their mother tongue. Many Bengali freedom fighters laid down their lives for our motherland." He however openly admitted his inability to speak Bengali but asserted that he has started understanding the language to some extent while learning it.
Meanwhile, Raj Bhavan stated that governor CV Ananda Bose on Wednesday met “a few distinguished academicians and litterateurs and interacted with them about the current issue of Bengali-language and also about its promotion and propagation across the country.”