KMC to pull down signboards sans Bengali text, says Mayor

Kolkata: At a time when the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is accusing the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of being anti-Bengali, Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim on Friday issued a strict ultimatum to traders and hoteliers to ensure signboards carry Bengali text prominently, or face removal.

Addressing the media, Hakim said the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) had earlier directed all commercial establishments to include Bengali on their signage. “However, not everyone is complying. Some, including big hotels, are putting up small Bengali signboards as a token gesture. That won’t do,” Hakim said. “The Bengali text must be of substantial size and clearly visible.” He warned that signboards lacking Bengali content will be taken down.

The KMC had first issued this directive in 2024, shortly after the Central government recognised Bengali as a classical language in October of that year. Shop owners, restaurant operators and business establishments were instructed to incorporate Bengali alongside other languages already in use.

This is not the first such initiative. In 2007, then Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya had also urged traders to include Bengali on

their signage.

The latest push from KMC comes against the backdrop of a recent controversy. BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya stirred public outrage by stating on social media that “there is, in fact, no language called Bengali.” His remark came amid reports that Delhi Police allegedly referred to Bengali as a “Bangladeshi language” while profiling Bengali-speaking migrant workers.

The TMC condemned Malviya’s statement as “linguistic apartheid” and an attack on constitutional values. The party highlighted that Bengali is not only constitutionally recognised but also the second-most spoken language in India.

Malviya’s remarks have drawn strong criticism across social media platforms, with many Bengalis defending the cultural and constitutional status of their language and demanding a public apology.