Kolkata: The political temperature in election-bound West Bengal kept soaring as the major parties pointed at each other for chanting ‘violent’ slogans at their rallies.
After the opposition slammed the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) for ‘violent’ sloganeering at a rally in south Kolkata, similar chants of ‘desh ke gaddaro ko, goli maaro saalo ko’ (shoot the traitors) was heard from BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari’s meeting at Chandannagar.
Notably, the hate slogan of ‘goli maaro saalo ko’ was used by Union minister Anurag Thakur in Delhi last January when he was commenting about protestors at Shaheen Bagh, who were agitating against the implementation of NRC and CAA.
BJP’s West Bengal chief Dilip Ghosh quipped that the TMC is synonymous with violence, as their chants prove.
“The TMC has carried on the legacy of the former Left Front government and violence is common in every corner of West Bengal… now even their chants resemble the same,” Ghosh said.
TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy countered Ghosh, saying that TMC workers have been asked not to repeat the slogan.
“This slogan is BJP culture. A central minister started it against those protesting against NRC at Shaheen Bagh last year. Instruction has already been issued to party workers not to repeat this slogan. Our party does not approve of such slogans and such culture. This is the culture of BJP,” Roy claimed.
BJP spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya is of the opinion that the BJP is justified in chanting the slogan, not 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 argued.
CPI(M) leader and senior Politburo member Sujan Chakraborty slammed both the parties.
“BJP is a party of hooligans. And the chanting of that slogan proves the same DNA is also present in TMC. Both BJP and TMC are pushing the country and Bengal to the worst situation,” said CPI(M) MLA.
