Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said the visit of paapishtho (sinners) caused the defeat of Team India in the World Cup final, not long before the Election Commission served a notice on Rahul Gandhi for using the word panauti (someone who brings bad luck) as an allusion directed at the Prime Minister in the context of the match.
The chief minister, who did not name match spectators Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Union home minister Amit Shah, said: “Paapishtho ra jekhaney jabey, shekhaneyi, money rakhbeyn… paapey kokhono baapereyo chharey na (Wherever the sinners go, there, remember.... sin does not spare even its own father. This is an adage.)”
“Wherever they go, the paapishtho, there is only defeat. Our cricketers played so, so well and remained undefeated (in 10 matches till the final). But when the sinners went, our boys lost,” the Trinamul supremo said at the Netaji Indoor Stadium meeting of her party’s rank and file in the afternoon.
Mamata also seemed to imply that the name of the venue of the World Cup final — the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad — had something to do with India’s defeat against Australia.
She asserted that India would have won the final had the match taken place at the Eden Gardens in Calcutta or the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
“I can say this even now, if India’s final had taken place in Calcutta, or at the Wankhede, we would have won. Our boys and girls are so great at the sport. Making them all wear saffron. Try to understand, they have made them all wear saffron,” said the Trinamul Congress chief.
She suggested, again without naming the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), controlled by the saffron regime through Union home minister Amit Shah’s son Jay Shah, had also tried to change the on-field jerseys from the traditional blue to saffron.
“Even when they (Team India cricketers) were going to play, they were told the usual colour, blue, couldn’t be worn. That was objected to by the players, which is why that (saffron colour code) was not put in place. But even on the blue (men’s ODI jersey of Team India), you will notice there is some prominent saffron (in the letters and numbers),” said Mamata.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who on Tuesday had issued a similar statement during the campaign for the Rajasthan Assembly election, was showcaused by the Election Commission of India for using the word “panauti”.
“Our boys were going to win the World Cup, but the panauti got them defeated,” the Wayanad MP had said.
The poll panel said the word attempts to make an elector believe they “will become or will be rendered an object of divine displeasure or spiritual censure”.
Mamata on Thursday went on to lash out at the Modi government and BJP leaders, again without naming anyone, for its allegedly insatiable appetite for publicity and credit, and the propensity to have all objects painted saffron.
“Saffron is (the colour) for the tyagi (ascetics, renouncers), you are bhogi (hedonists),” Mamata said, objecting to the BJP appropriating the colour saffron.
“They want everything named after themselves and painted saffron. From stadiums to statues.... in the fiefdom of these feudal lords,” she added.
