Those living in Bengal should learn Bengali, says Mamata

Kanchrapara: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Friday insisted that those living in West Bengal will have to learn to speak in Bengali as she accused the BJP of targeting Bengalis and minorities to replicate the "Gujarat model" to capture power in the state.

She said she would never allow the BJP to turn West Bengal into Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah, and asserted that "we will never allow Bengalis to become homeless in Bengal".

Banerjee, a vocal critic of the prime minister, said, "We have to bring Bangla (language) forward. When we go to Delhi we speak in Hindi, when we go to Punjab we have to speak in Punjabi. I do it. When I go to Tamil Nadu, I don't know the Tamil language, but I know a few words. So in the same way if you are coming to Bengal you have to speak in Bengali...We would not allow that people will come from outside and beat up Bengalis."

The Trinamool Congress supremo was addressing a rally in Kanchrapara in North 24 Parganas district.

"In Naihati, Kakinara, Barrackpore, houses of Bengalis have been ransacked. We will not tolerate this. Our party cadres didn't ransack houses of non-Bengalis here. We are against this sort of violence," she said.