Bengali Asmita

Bengali speaking people of West Bengal want to enjoy the reflected glory from Bangladesh on 21 February on a wrong premise.

To talk of ‘Bengali identity’ by bringing the Hindus and Muslims of West Bengal (and Bangladesh) together is not only false, but also ludicrous.

The subtle sermonizing on our festivals was not enough, that now the backdrop of our festivals has again become an opportunity for some to divide us on linguistic fault lines.

Prima Facie, it would look like any regional linguistic movement, like Shiv Sena's Marathi Maanoos (Person) and Marathi Asmita (Pride) movement, or Tamizh Pride that Dravidian Parties project. But if we scratch the surface we will observe that it is a very smartly devised separatist movement under the guise of linguistic regionalistic sub-nationalism.