Resist BJP onslaught on Bengal's heritage: Mamata

Kolkata: Without naming the BJP, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee came down heavily on the party and urged people to put up a united resistance and foil the onslaught on Bengali language and Bengal's rich heritage and tradition by those who are doing this in a very calculated manner.

"Forget about me. Please get united and foil this monstrous attempt that is forcing us to forget our language and the attempt to malign and defame Bengal with an ulterior motive."

She was addressing a gathering at the Hare School ground in connection with the re-installation of the statue of Pandit Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar at Vidyasagar College which was vandalised by a group of people who had attended the road show of BJP national president Amit Shah on May 14.

Without naming the saffron party, Banerjee said: "By demolishing the statue of Vidyasagar they had actually tried to force us to forget our heritage and culture. Can you wipe out the name of Vidyasagar by pulling down his statue?"

Banerjee maintained: "What are they up to? Are they trying to convert Bengal into Gujarat. We have a lot of respect for Gujarat. We should love our own culture and language and respect the culture of others. There is no harm in loving our own language and culture."

The Chief Minister alleged that there is a deliberate attempt to malign Bengal. She said some days ago an actor had come to meet her and said during his recent visit to Delhi some people had asked him why every person in Bengal carry arms with them. "This is being done in a very calculated manner. They have purchased a section of the media. In the past few days, 25 Yadavs have been killed in Uttar Pradesh. But did you get a single line in any newspaper? They have spent crores of rupees to buy them."

She further said: "What do they expect from us. Few days ago, they criticised Raja Ram Mohan Roy, the first modern man. Should we sit quietly and digest what they have said or raise our voice against the canard. Bengal was the epicentre of India's freedom movement. We had foiled the attempt to partition Bengal by Curzon. Gandhiji had spent August 15, 1947, in Kolkata. We should resist any attempt to defame our state."