Mohammad Salim. File
| Photo Credit: The Hindu
Communist Party of India (Marxist) West Bengal State secretary Mohammad Salim has ridiculed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s claims of upholding Bengali identity. He added that the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh have for many years been targeting regional identities and accused Ms. Banerjee for “waking up to the issue now” in a bid to win the 2026 Assembly elections.
“This is not a new issue, BJP and RSS have always been targeting the most marginalised sections using various State and non-State machineries to profile and single-out the poorest of the poor. Ms. Mamata stayed mum for all these years, now she has suddenly woken up and realised she can use this to win the 2026 elections,” Mr Salim told The Hindu.
He accused that if the Trinamool Congress party chairperson, Ms. Banerjee cared about the Bengali language and Bengali identity she would work to strengthen the public institutes which teach and impart the language to the young generations. “The Bengali language has been ruined in schools and colleges under her, lesser students enroll to study the subject. Bengali language is already under threat under her,” Mr Salim added.
Addressing a press conference, Mr Salim also dismissed the annual Shahid Dibas (Martyr’s Day) celebration that the TMC conducts annually on July 21 is more of an “annual picnic” which is organised for TMC workers under the watch of the Kolkata Police. He accused that for all the crimes that the TMC workers conduct throughout the year, they are rewarded through this annual “excursion day”.
His remarks came in response to Ms. Banerjee holding her final Martyr’s Day address at the heart of Kolkata addressing her workers and supporters and setting the political narrative for the upcoming State Legislative Assembly elections in the State. Bengali language and Bengali identity took centre stage as TMC kept dialing up the heat on BJP for attack of Bengali-speaking migrants in multiple BJP-ruled States.
From the Martyr’s Day program, Ms Banerjee also gave a call to start a language movement in West Bengal from July 26. Reacting to this call given by the CM Mr. Salim said, “Language movements happen when one language is being forcefully imposed on another community, like it happened in Tamil Nadu for Hindi imposition or in Bangladesh for Urdu imposition. This discrimination based on language that is happening against Bengalis calls for a political movement.”
Mr. Salim said that Ms. Banerjee has ruined Bengali language, culture, and traditions and brought established Bengali writers into her party and have degraded their standards. He stated that if a language needs to be saved, then it should be done through education, respect, and institutional support, not political addresses.
Senior CPI(M) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said Mamata is now scared of CPI(M) because the recent programmes of their party are gathering support.
Published – July 22, 2025 04:20 am IST
