In what the political pundits called a “counter strategy” to the pre-election euphoria around the January 22 inauguration of Ram Temple at Ayodhya, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday played what many called the “Bangla card” even as she wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding “Indian classical language” status for Bengali much like Tamil, Malayam and Odiya.
Claiming that a four-volume research work encouraged by her Government had found that Bengali language was more than 2,500 years old the Chief Minister said it was high time the language should get the honour it merited.
The letter written to the Prime Minister read: “Government of India has already officially recognized six languages as having such classical status: Tamil n(2004) Sanskrit (2005), Telugu and Kannada (2008), Malayalam and Odiya (2014). While presenting the research papers establishing the antiquity of the Bengali language for your kind perusal, I will very briefly state the substance of our contention and submit how Bengali eminently qualifies as a Classical Language by the Ministry of Home Affairs. MHA may study our 4-volume documentation to appreciate value of our claim.”
The letter also said that “in consideration of the fact that 6 India languages have already been notified as Classical Languages, I would be grateful if you kindly issue necessary instructions to the Ministry of Home Affairs so that the claim of Bengali language as a Classical Language is accepted at the earliest.”
Replying to the questions of journalists at the State secretariat Nabanna, Banerjee further slammed the former Left Front Government for not taking any initiative in this regard.
“This initiative should have been taken much earlier … but thanks to the worthlessness of the people who ruled Bengal before us,” Banerjee said reminding the Pala rule when Bengali culture flourished. It however goes without saying that Palas came at the junction of late ancient and early medieval era dating back to about 1,300 years.
She also said that Bengali was already an international language and one of the largest spoken languages not only in India but also on earth and hence demanded a status that it deserved.
Historians also said that though the early Gupta rulers of Magadha like Maharaj Sri Gupta and his son Maharaj Ghatotkach Gupta initially ruled the areas of Mrigasikhavana roughly corresponding to modern Malda district of Bengal before migrating to Magadha with Patliputra as their capital there was little evidence that Bengali as a script and literature not crossed its nascent age.
Demand of Bengali as a classical language apart, the Chief Minister also renewed the demand of renaming West Bengal as Bangla which had been a long pending demand of the past several decades.
If Punjab could be the name of provinces of both in Pakistan and India then why West Bengal could not be christened Bangla regardless of the existence of Bangladesh as an Independent nation, she wondered adding “there is also a practical problem with the name West Bengal.”
She said, “in the meeting of states Bengal’s turn to speak comes almost in the last as its name starts with ‘W’ … by the time we speak the listeners lose interest and our problems do not get the attention that they deserve … hence from practical point of view too West Bengal should be renamed as Bangla,” adding she had written a letter to the Prime Minister in that context too.
In an apparent bid to take some wind out of BJP’s Temple sail’ the Chief Minister also faulted the Centre for its alleged indifference to the pilgrimages in Bengal.
“They spend so much after Kumbh Mela which in any case demands the attention it gets but they seldom give money for Ganga Sagar Mela affording it a national fair status,” despite the fact that unlike the Kumbh Mela, Ganga Sagar Mela came every year she said.
“We host between 80 lakh to 1 crore people here at Ganga Sagar Islands and the State Government has alone spent Rs 250 crore for it without getting any grant from the Centre when the people from all part of the country come here in lakhs,” she said reminding this year her Government had spent Rs 700 crore to develop pilgrimages in Bengal.
“We have spent Rs 165 crore to develop Kalighat Temple Rs 205 crore in building a replica of the Jagannath Temple at Digha … besides we have spent crores for development and maintenance of pilgrimage centres of Tara Peeth, Bakreshwar, Kankali Tala, Devi Chowdhurani Temple, Jalpesh Temple, Tarakeshwar, Kanak Durga Temple and many Muslim and Christian places of worship,” she said.