'Insult to India': Mamata Banerjee urges people to protest after BJP leaders' remarks on Netaji

Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday lashed out at the BJP for “hurling insults to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his legacy”, urging people to come together and register protests against such statements.

Banerjee’s statement came barely a day after Netaji’s grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose resigned from the TMC, declaring himself "disillusioned" with mainstream political parties and asserting that he found "no difference" between the politics practised by the ruling BJP and the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit.

“I was aghast at the way BJP leaders spoke about Netaji, our national hero. I am deeply disappointed and heartbroken at the way Netaji Subhas Bose is being insulted; it’s an insult not only to Bengal but to the whole country,” Banerjee said during a Facebook Live session.

Mamata calls for protests over Netaji remarks

“I urge the people to come together and protest against the insult that is being meted out to Netaji,” she added.

Banerjee’s comments on the controversy were ostensibly based on recent criticisms voiced by the BJP state president Samik Bhattacharya who hit out at the Forward Bloc, a party formed by Bose, calling its members “goons”, in the context of the freedom fighter’s political differences with Sangh Parivar ideologue Syama Prasad Mookerjee.

The comment drew criticism from opposition parties and sections of Bose's family, who described them as disrespectful.

The BJP has denied that these episodes reflect any disrespect towards Netaji, framing them instead as political disagreements rather than attacks on Bose’s legacy.

TMC chief backs Gen Z protesters

Banerjee also expressed solidarity with the Gen-Z movement, alleging that the young generation who protested against exam irregularity are being branded anti-national and tortured, while their families were being threatened.

She alleged that several thousand TMC workers have been jailed in Bengal post the election results.

“The BJP has turned the entire state into a mega prison,” she said.

On the day that former TMC MPs who rebelled and joined the NCPI and held meetings of the NDA, as well as with Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari in Delhi, the TMC supremo alleged her MPs and MLAs were being threatened.

“The police are coercing them to either join the BJP or face imprisonment. Does this job fall under the purview of the police?” she said.