Kolkata: The political situation gets ever so tense in West Bengal, as on Wednesday both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) cried foul at each other for chanting ‘violent slogans’ in their election rallies.
Less than 12 hours of the time when all the opposition parties slammed the ruling Trinamool Congress for their violent slogan at a rally in South Kolkata, the same chant of "‘Desh ke gaddaro ko, goli maaro saalon ko’ (Shoot the traitors!)" was heard from the rally of BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari at Chandannagar.
Notably, the ‘goli maaro saalon ko’ hate slogan was heard in Delhi last year in January, and was raised by union minister Anurag Thakur while commenting on the anti-CAA-NRC protestors at Shaheen Bagh.
Taking a potshot at the ruling party earlier this day, BJP West Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh said that the TMC is synonymous to violence and their chants echo the same.
“The TMC carried on with the legacy of the former Left Front government and violence is common at every corner of West Bengal, now even their chants resemble the same,” slammed Ghosh.
Countering Ghosh, TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said that an alert has been sent to the TMC workers urging them not to repeat the slogan.
“This slogan is BJP culture. A central minister started it against those protesting NRC at Shaheen Bagh last year. Instruction has already been issued to the party worker for not repeating this slogan. Our party does not approve of such slogans and such culture. This is the culture of BJP,” mentioned Roy.
BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said that the BJP is justified while chanting the slogan, but it does not suit the TMC.
“Anurag Thakur said ‘desh ke gaddaro ko’ (traitors of the country), but the TMC says ‘Bangal ke gaddaro ko’ (traitors of Bengal). Who does the TMC think are traitors? They even named our state party chief Dilip Ghosh and chanted the slogan! This is not acceptable,” Bhattacharya mentioned.
CPI(M) leader and senior politburo member Sujan Chakraborty slammed both the parties and said, “BJP is a party of hooligans. And the chanting of the same slogans proves that the same DNA is also present in TMC. Both the BJP and the TMC are pushing the country and Bengal to the worst,” said the CPI(M) MLA.
