West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee penned a poem hitting out at the government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the poem penned in Bengali and translated in Hindi and English, the Trinamool Congress chief hit out at the Modi government over a host of issues but principally on that of illegal immigrants.
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Through the poem, divided into six passages, Banerjee raises key questions on burning topics. Titled ‘Identity’, Banerjee writes that the situation in the country is such that those opposing the ruling government are branded “traitors”, “illegal immigrant” or “extremist” and are asked to leave the country.
This is what Banerjee wrote:
IDENTITY
What’s your surname?
Your father’s name?
What language do you speak?
What is your religion?
What do you eat?
You don’t know?
Go away then,
This world has no room for you.
Who are you?
What’s your identity?
Where do you live?
Where did you study?
Tell us.
Or else you’re a traitor.
Who are you?
Whom do you support?
Have your previous five generations been registered?
What do you wear?
Do you have a ‘Gobar-Dhan’ account?
No?
You must be an illegal immigrant.
Do you listen to ‘mann ki baat’?
Do you write against the ruler?
Does your phone have Aadhar?
Are you a member of the ‘Pay-B-Team’?
Have you registered all documents? Are you against the oppressor?
Then there’s no place for you.
Then you are an extremist.
What kind of food you take?
Where all do you go?
Do you belong to different religion?
Are you a Dalit?
Are you Christian?
Are you a minority?
You don’t support Ravana?
Then you go to solitude.
Do you know the power of the ruler?
Do you know the agencies of the oppressor? Are you vocal in protest?
Are you against the ruler?
Then you are anti-national.
So you get lost.
The poem comes in the backdrop of Banerjee’s opposition to the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam which has left out the names of 40 lakh residents of the state creating confusion over citizenship and fear of deportation to Bangladesh.
The BJP-led NDA government has assured the people whose names do not figure in the NRC stating that it is not the final list. Banerjee, however, has been vociferously protesting against the NRC alleging that it has failed to include the names of Indian citizens.
The West Bengal CM had on 5 August accused the BJP and its ideological parent Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) for “spreading misleading statements against the Supreme Court” over the NRC.
Read More: Mamata Banerjee accuses BJP-RSS of ‘spreading misleading statements about SC’
Banerjee has also claimed that the NRC will drive a wedge between India’s ties with Bangladesh.
“The NRC will destroy relationship between India and Bangladesh. Out of 40 lakh people whose names are not in the list of NRC, only 1 per cent could be illegal infiltrators. But the BJP is trying to show that all those not included (in NRC) are infiltrators,” Banerjee told reporters in New Delhi during her three-day visit to bolster opposition unity against the BJP.
The West Bengal CM has upped her criticism of the BJP while continuing her attempts at bringing together all anti-BJP parties ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to create a formidable opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
