Ridiculing the BJP’s claim that a Bengali-speaking person would become Chief Minister if it forms the government in West Bengal, Trinamul Congress leader Bratya Basu says the saffron outfit lacks a credible face and will have to import someone if such a situation ever arises in the state.
Exuding confidence of his party retaining power with a comfortable majority, state education minister Basu said that the BJP has no leader, who can match the political stature of Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee.
“The BJP has been mum about launching a specific ‘face’ suited for the chief minister’s post in West Bengal simply because they have nobody whom people can accept here,” said the eminent actor-playwright-turned politician, who is contesting the polls from the Dum Dum constituency, that has elected him to the state Assembly on the last three occasions (2011, 2016 and 2021).
The Union home minister, Amit Shah recently said the party will give the state a chief minister who is from Bengal and has studied in a Bengali-medium institution.
Dismissing Shah’s remarks, Basu said: “On the contrary, they will import someone and make him or her the chief minister if they come to power in West Bengal.”
Basu also accused Shah and other BJP leaders of spreading “Islamophobia” and using hate speeches to tear apart the secular fabric and tolerance Bengal is known for.
He was responding to Shah’s promise that if voted to power, the BJP will implement the Uniform Civil Code and effectively abolish practices such as Triple Talaq and instances of four marriages among the Muslims in the state.
“They are spreading Islamophobia and delivering hate speeches in a bid to bring about a Hindu-Muslim polarisation. This is dangerous.
However, it will not help them (BJP) much,” said Basu, winner of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 2021 for his compilation, Mir Jafar O Onyanya Natak (Mir Jafar and other plays).
The 56-year-old Presidency College alumnus ruled out any anti-incumbency against the ruling party, saying allegations of corruption, including those related to land and job scams, would not impact the election outcome.
“These are not going to affect the poll results at all. People will vote for us, and we will win. I will not comment on the number of seats we will get. However, I can say that we will again form the government with a comfortable majority,” he said.
Basu termed the widespread agitation after the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital here in 2024 as a “BJP-led movement”.
“Irrespective of what the protestors were saying at the time, these protests were politically motivated. The victim’s mother is contesting from the Panihati Assembly constituency. Nothing more needs to be said. It was a clear BJP-led movement aimed to reap political benefits in West Bengal,” he said.
Basu described the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls as a ‘’genocide of voters carried out by the Centre and the Election Commission of India.”
“They have omitted 91 lakh people who have valid documents. This was done solely to let the BJP have an electoral edge in this election,” stated Basu, formerly a professor of Bengali at City College, Kolkata.
He also warned that if the BJP comes to power, detention camps like those in Assam could be set up.
“They will create detention camps for those people left out from the electoral polls. On the other hand if we come to power we will fight for those who have been purposefully left out of the electoral process,” Basu added.