Mamata Banerjee on Thursday vowed against allowing the implementation of the saffron regime’s plans such as the contentious citizenship matrix and the uniform civil code in Bengal and urged the minority community to stand by the Trinamul Congress in the fight against the BJP.

The Bengal chief minister, in her annual address at the Red Road prayer congregation on Eid al-Fitr in the morning, tried to reach out to the minorities in the state — a crucial one-third of the electorate — with a wide range of messages.

“You know I never miss this. It is a blessing from above, me being able to meet you here every year,” said Mamata, reminding the audience about her association with the Red Road event.

“I do not know how to hate, how to spread hatred, deliver hate speech, cause division… I want everyone to live in harmony and peace, in an atmosphere of brotherhood. I am against injustice,” she added, to cheers from the crowd.

Mamata said she wouldn’t bring up elections and electoral choices in her address at such an event, had it not been poll season.

“Remember this well, the fight here is directly between us and the BJP. After the election, nationally, what happens in the alliance (INDIA), we will see. But here, nobody else is fighting the BJP, so do not waste even one vote by casting it in favour of anybody else,” she said.

Her Red Road address, in the election season, was observed in political circles with keen interest, given the importance of largely undivided minority support to her party.

“You can throw me behind bars, you can slit my throat…. I learnt this from you: we are not afraid of death, death is afraid of us,” she said, as slogans lauding her — such as “Abki baar, Didi sarkar (This time, Didi’s government)” — were heard repeatedly.

“I am ready to have my blood shed for the nation, but I am not ready to tolerate any atrocities on its people,” added Mamata. “You live in peace, in comfort, it is our responsibility to secure your lives. As long as we are here, nobody will be able to torture you.”

Mamata lambasted those allegedly trying to thrive electorally by engineering riots in the poll season and urged minorities against getting ensnared by such sinister plots to polarise.

“If somebody is trying to incite, inflame, keep your cool…. Even if a firecracker bursts, they send the NIA to arrest everybody,” she said.

The Trinamul chairperson also attacked the BJP-led Centre for its alleged misuse of probe agencies to politically corner parties actively opposed to the saffron regime.

“Some want to scare everybody into submission, with
the NIA, the CBI, income-tax, the ED…. I say it’s better
if you build one large prison, and put everybody in it.
But India has 130-plus crore people, will you be able to incarcerate them all?” she asked. “We fight like royal Bengal tigers.”

She reassured the minorities that none would be affected by the citizenship matrix, as she wouldn’t allow its implementation in Bengal, just as she wouldn’t allow the imposition of the uniform civil code.

“I know many of you have questions…. We will not accept any imposition whatsoever,” said Mamata.

“The head of this is the CAA, the tail is the NRC, the gut is UCC,” she added.

Mamata’s nephew and Trinamul national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee,
who accompanied her, delivered a message of inclusive pluralism, peace and brotherhood, stressing the importance of love over hatred.

Citing lines from several Urdu poems, to thunderous applause from the audience, the Diamond Harbour MP said he was certain that there would be change at the helm of the Centre this time.

“This dark night will end, the sun will inevitably rise…. The nation will change, without a doubt, once again,” he said.