Kolkata, Jul 29 (PTI) Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) chairperson Mala Roy has ordered all councillors to ask questions only in Bengali during monthly sessions, echoing TMC’s state-wide campaign to safeguard “Bengali identity and resist linguistic marginalisation” in BJP-ruled states.
The order came days after a TMC councillor posed a question in English at the July session, prompting Roy to immediately instruct Mayor Firhad Hakim to respond in Bengali, a move that now signals a larger political and cultural assertion.
“From now on, all proceedings during monthly sessions must be conducted in Bengali,” Roy announced on the floor, moments after Hakim completed his reply.
Later, she reiterated the directive through an official message to Mayor-in-Council members and councillors, and instructed her office to ensure that all internal communication, including documentation of proceedings, be carried out in Bengali.
“Speaking in Bengali has become a crime in BJP-ruled states. Bengalis are being branded as Bangladeshis for simply conversing in their mother tongue. This is nothing short of linguistic persecution. We must resist this with all our might,” Roy told reporters on Tuesday.
She also said that TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has already instructed MPs to speak in Bengali during the ongoing parliament session.
“So if MPs can speak in Bengali, ask questions in Bengali, then why can’t councillors speak in Bengali during the KMC session,” she said.
The directive is part of the TMC’s intensified campaign against what it calls the Centre’s “backdoor NRC” attempt through electoral roll revisions and the alleged targeting of Bengali-speaking migrants in states like Assam, Karnataka, and Delhi.
Launching the ‘Bhasha Andolan’ from Bolpur on Monday, Mamata Banerjee vowed to “give up her life but not her language”, triggering a fresh wave of identity politics rooted in Bengali ‘asmita’ (pride).
The immediate trigger for the KMC directive was a TMC councillor’s decision to submit her question in English during last Friday’s session.
“There was no bar on using English so far. But now that a clear instruction has been issued, I will submit all future questions in Bengali,” she said.
TMC insiders say the move is also designed to draw a sharper contrast with BJP-led civic bodies and institutions where, they allege, Hindi is being imposed at the cost of regional languages.
However, the directive has drawn sharp reactions from opposition councillors.
“Why limit this ‘Bengali-only’ order to just monthly sessions? What about the Urdu signage across Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s buildings? Why do official KMC letterheads still have Urdu on them?” asked Sajal Ghosh, BJP councillor from Ward 50.
“Why hasn’t the Chairperson spoken on the Mayor’s past statement where he said he would be happy the day 50 per cent of Kolkata’s population speaks Urdu?,” Ghosh said.
CPI(M) and Congress councillors, while not objecting to the use of Bengali, have also sought consistency in policy and accused the TMC of playing to the gallery with selective cultural posturing.
The TMC, meanwhile, appears determined to push ahead with its linguistic assertion, sensing growing resonance among Bengal’s electorate, especially among the state’s estimated 70 lakh migrant workers, many of whom faced discrimination or even violence in other states over their language or identity.
Political analysts say Mamata Banerjee is trying to re-ignite the same emotional connection that defined the Bengali Language Movement of 1952 in then-East Pakistan, a historical reference that evokes deep sentiments of resistance and pride.
The Bhasha Andolan may have begun as a reaction to alleged harassment of Bengali migrants, but it’s quickly morphing into a full-blown identity campaign, one that merges cultural nostalgia, regional pride, and political pragmatism.
And in this narrative, the insistence on Bengali inside the state’s most powerful civic body is more than symbolic.
According to TMC leaders, it’s a message that the language of governance, like that of protest, will be unmistakably Bengali. PTI PNT RG
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