Need to face all odds to ensure united India, says Mamata

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said India's basic essence is unity in diversity and urged everyone to shed differences and fight against the divisive forces to save the country.

Speaking on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day while addressing a programme at Deshapriya Park on Friday, she called upon people to remain united.

Banerjee said the day will be a success only if the country remains together and everyone can stay united in it. "Today is the day of taking oath that all of us will always fight to ensure the country's tradition of unity in diversity," said the Chief Minister.

Stating that no one can stay happy by hurting the motherland, she said: "This is the country where people of all religion stay together. The fight could be a tough one, but we have to continue it for the sake of the integrity of the nation."

Calling Bengali a 'sweet language', she added: "It is a language through which we can honour all other languages. We have equal respect for Hindi and all other languages of the world."

In a tweet on Friday morning, the Chief Minister wrote on the occasion: "On #InternationalMotherLanguageDay my best wishes to all. We love all the languages including our mother tongue." She also shared a poem composed on International Mother Language Day, in a Facebook post.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also laid foundation stones of two major projects from the dais of the programme in the city. She laid foundation stones of the common facility centres for shoe manufacturers at Janbazar and Bantala. The centres have been named as Charmatirtha.

Firhad Hakim, the state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister and Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay were present at Janbazar on the occasion.

On the other hand, in a unique move on International Mother Language Day, the Chief Minister introduced a scheme to provide a pension of Rs 1,500 per month to 15 elderly people who worked for years as models in Art College.

The move has come following a request of the eminent painters who participated in an anti-NRC painting exhibition at the Gandhi Statue a few days ago.

Eminent personalities including Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri, Abul Basar, Jogen Chowdhury, Subodh Sarkar, Pratul Mukhopadhyay and Nachiketa Chakraborty were present at the event. Indranil Sen, Minister of State for Information and Cultural Affairs, sang the anti-CAA song.

Swaraj Party leader Yogendra Yadav, who was also present, appreciated Banerjee's approach of speaking the common man's language. He also appreciated her as he found her allowing eminent people from the fields of art and culture to pay floral tribute at the "Bhasha Smarak" before others.

Hitting out against the move of NRC, Yadav said he would have lost his citizenship if he was caught a day before by an NRC official, as his name in the air ticket was printed as Jogendra Jadab, while the spelling of his name in the identity card is Yogendra Yadav.