PTI, KAMARPUKUR, AUG 5, 2025 : Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday asserted that no one should try to play with or insult the Bengali language. Mamata also asked whether there can be an India without West Bengal.
The Chief Minister pointed to Bengali litterateurs Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote the national anthem, and Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, who penned the national song of India. “Nobody should try to play with our language or insult it,” she said, asking: “Can there be Bharat without Bangla?”
Pointing to the teachings of Ramakrishna Paramahansa, she said that he taught all to live in harmony. “I believe in Ramakrishna Paramahansa’s teaching of harmony of all religions,” Banerjee said, after laying the foundation stone of a guest house of Ramakrishna Math and Mission at Kamarpukur in Hooghly district. “There is no division among us, we have learned from Ramakrishna Paramahansa to live together with everyone,” she added.
Stating that Swami Vivekananda had taught that ‘unity is strength’, the Chief Minister said that his mother tongue was Bengali, just as it was for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose or Raja Rammohan Roy. “Dharma is to treat other religions with love and respect,” she said.
Urging all to read Ramakrishna Paramahansa’s ‘Kathamrita’, the Chief Minister said that people call water by different names, but it is the same. “Likewise, mother is called by different names, but she is the same,” she said, before embarking on a visit to flood-hit Ghatal in Paschim Medinipur district.
The Chief Minister also declared the formation of the Jairambati-Kamarpukur Development Board, with Swami Lokottarananda, the secretary of the Ramakrishna Math, Kamarpukur, as its chairman.
In a related development, the Chief Minister on Tuesday alleged that the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar was the brainchild of the BJP-led central government with the connivance of the Election Commission.
Mamata also asserted that Bengali-speaking Indian citizens were being branded as Bangladeshis and sent to the neighbouring country. “This (SIR) has been planned by the central government, keeping the Election Commission with it. We do not agree with it,” she said, contending that it is not possible for everyone to preserve parents’ birth certificates for the exercise.
The Chief Minister said she will not accept any attempt to introduce the SIR in West Bengal, where assembly polls are due in 2026. “People practicing all religions will suffer if the special intensive revision is introduced in the state,” Mamata claimed.
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