The Trinamool Congress is playing a dangerous game in West Bengal with the card of regional chauvinism to counter the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the state. With the Vidyasagar statue having been vandalized at a college in Kolkata, Mamata Banerjee and her party claimed that it was committed by outsiders who were brought in to attend Amit Shah’s rally by BJP.
An attempt is underway to demonize the people of North India living in the state and efforts are being made to recreate the brand of toxic Dravidianist politics in Bengal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke out on the matter at a rally in Mau, Uttar Pradesh. He criticized the silence of North India based parties on the matter.
Narendra Modi said, “I had thought the way Mamata didi is targeting people from UP-Bihar, calling them outsiders for her politics, Behen Mayawati will surely condemn it, but this did not happen.”
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The Prime Minister also committed himself towards realizing Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s vision and promised to reconstruct a grander statue at the same place where it was vandalized. He accused the TMC of vandalizing the statue in the first place.
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Earlier, Mayawati had come out in support of Mamata Banerjee. She had said, “It is clear that PM Modi, Amit Shah and their leaders are targeting Mamata Banerjee. This is planned targeting. This is a very dangerous and unjust trend and one which doesn’t suit the PM of the country.”