Mamata Banerjee on Friday tore into the BJP over the saffron colour of the Indian cricket team’s practice kit, the attack coming two days before the World Cup final and at a time India is in the grip of cricket fever.
“Renaming everything… painting everything saffron,” the Bengal chief minister said while addressing the inauguration event for several Jagaddhatri Pujas at Posta Bazar.
“We are proud of our Indian players and I believe they will be World Cup champions. Usko bhi gerua bana diya (That too they have turned saffron)! Their practice colours are now saffron. I have never seen anything like this.”
On November 6, Mamata had taken a dig at the Prime Minister, without naming him, in the context of the name of the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad where Sunday’s World Cup final between India and Australia will be played.
Mamata had said: “I don’t get stadiums built in my name. I need no publicity…. I do not need it.”
On Friday, she picked up from where she had left off, saying she didn’t feel the urge to have anything done in her name, or in the name of her parents.
“After my parents passed away, many had suggested… I had refused. Neither had they (her parents) ever desired it nor have I,” the Trinamul Congress chief said, adding that she desired nothing more than being able to live a truly humane life.
She continued to mock the BJP-led Centre over its fondness for publicity. “Those whom the common people remember will be truly remembered by one and all…. Have you noticed? Even the Metro stations are being painted saffron,” she said.
Bringing up Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati’s statue of herself in Uttar Pradesh, Mamata said she had never heard or seen anybody else attempt such things in India.
“Now, everything is in the name of NaMoste (apparently an allusion to the Prime Minister). Not namaste to the people. This simply cannot go on. Do it in the name of the country, I have no issues,” she said.
“Do it in the name of some leader from Gujarat, I have no objection, as long as that person is truly a leader of the nation. Pick somebody from Uttar Pradesh or Bihar or Rajasthan or from south India, any place, go ahead and do it.”
Punning on the Hindi word “cheez” (thing) and the English “cheese”, she said: “But what is this? Yeh kya cheez hai? Yeh khane ki cheese nahi hai, dikhaney ki cheez (What is this thing? This is not the cheese meant for eating, this is for showing off).”
She reminded the BJP of the transient nature of political power in a democracy, and accused it of having neglected the art of winning people’s hearts by prioritising the winning of elections by hook or by crook.
“Showing off can sometimes bestow some benefits, but not permanently,” she said.
She urged the people: “Stay united, listen to none. They do riot-mongering ahead of elections. We work, they advertise…. The country is being sold off. No work is being done.”
Mamata ended her speech with the assertion that Bengal would lead the country once again.
“I am proud to say that Bengal will lead the country once again when the country has any problems,” she said.
Mamata had earlier during this World Cup expressed her displeasure to party and government colleagues about the BJP-controlled cricket board’s handling of key tasks such as the allocation of stadiums and distribution of tickets.
She has in the past expressed annoyance at the BJP’s efforts to completely control the Board of Control for Cricket in India, more so since the unceremonious departure of Sourav Ganguly from the helm of the BCCI last year.
