Chief Minster Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that those living in Bengal must learn to speak Bengali, intensifying her movement against the BJP which she accuses of trying to defame Bengal and its culture. The chief minister vowed not to allow the BJP to “corner” Bengalis and the minorities by importing its “Gujarat model”.
The topic is now trending on social media, an Twitterati from across spheres have laughed, cried, and become wary. Netizens both within Bengal and across the country are worried about Banerjee's ultimatum to 'outsiders' when she said she would 'never allow Bengalis to become homeless in Bengal'.
Bangalore-based author and historian Vikram Sampath reacted to Mamata Banerjee's ultimatum to 'outsiders', whom she asks to speak in Bengali if they wanted to stay in the state
Anshul Saxena, a Programmer known to have become a celebrity overnight after he launched a cyber attack on those who posted hate comments on the terrorist attacks in Pulwama, The ‘Hacker followed by PM Modi spoke about the chief minister’s Kachrapara speech on the imposition of Bengali.
Others like actress Koena Mitra and author Shefali Vaidya condemned Banerjee's order, and expanded on the communal angle.
Koena Mitra took snippets from the speech and said that the chief minister’s ‘appeasement politics’ will ‘destroy’ her and her ‘Urdu speaking goons’.
Shefali Vaidya, author and speaker, posted a picture of the chief minister’s letterhead which read in Bengali, Hindi, Urdu, and English, and said that the chief minister’s imposition of Bengali contradicts her use of Urdu on her letterhead.
The Governor of Meghalaya, Tathagata Roy however took a jab at Banerjee and told her that his state has a large population of Bengali, Assamese, Hindi, and Nepali-speaking people who cannot speak the local languages Khasi and Garo, and that it was a matter of ‘great concern’ as governor.
Former UNESCO Chair of International Water Cooperation and professor of peace and conflict research at Uppsala University Ashok Swain said that the situation will be worrisome for the union government, as the Bengali language was rooted in the divide that made Bangladesh an independent country.
Others like satirist Akash Banerjee, who is a host at the YouTube show TheDeshBhakt, a popular political and social satire platform, used his humour to lighten the mood.
