“Bratya says the removal of the TMC stage evokes memories of Dhaka.”

“The BJP alleged that the ruling party leader insulted the Indian Army by drawing parallels with Pakistan’s military.”

“On Tuesday, Bengal education minister Bratya Basu, speaking in the Assembly, likened the army’s removal of the Trinamool Congress protest stage on Mayo Road to Operation Searchlight — the 1971 crackdown by the Pakistan army in Bangladesh.”

“The BJP slammed the ruling party leader for allegedly belittling the Indian Army through a comparison with Pakistan’s army.”

“Yesterday, when the army disrupted our party’s movement and nearly tore down our camp, it brought to mind March 25, 1971, sir — the night when the Pakistani army stormed into Dhaka and began shooting and killing civilians,” Basu said in the Assembly.

The minister made the remark during a discussion on a motion that condemned attacks and atrocities against Bengali-speaking people in several BJP-ruled states. Parliamentary affairs minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay introduced the motion on Tuesday, prompting the Assembly to convene the session.

Although Basu didn’t explicitly mention “Operation Searchlight,” he clearly referred to the Pakistan Army’s 1971 military crackdown. This operation targeted the Bengali nationalist movement in what was then East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. It unleashed widespread violence and sparked the Bangladesh Liberation War. The Mukti Bahini started an armed struggle to drive out Pakistani forces, which eventually led to the creation of an independent Bangladesh.

During his speech, Basu, known in Trinamool as one of its most effective speakers, talked about the history of language movements in India. These movements led to the creation of multiple states. He also discussed how the language movement helped shape the identity of neighboring Bangladesh.

“In our neighboring country, Bangladesh, from 1947 to 1952, people debated whether to identify as Islamic or Bengali. On February 21, 1952, after four protesters were shot and killed, they chose to identify as Bengalis. After their struggle against Pakistan, they created an independent state called Bangladesh. Today’s Bengali language and identity came from that history,” Basu said. He then compared the Indian Army’s removal of the protest site in Calcutta to the actions of Pakistani forces in 1971.

Soon, Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP MLAs stood up and started shouting. They demanded that Basu’s comment be taken out of the Assembly record. They chanted slogans praising the Indian Army and condemning what they saw as its humiliation.

Amid loud protests from the Opposition, Speaker Biman Banerjee urged BJP MLAs—especially Suvendu Adhikari—to stay calm and allow Basu to finish his speech. When Adhikari refused to back down, Banerjee suspended him for the remainder of the session. The special session will conclude on Thursday, and the ruling party plans to pass a resolution addressing attacks on Bengali-speaking migrant workers before it ends.

“Minister Bratya Basu compared the Indian Army’s action yesterday to the Pakistani Army’s atrocities in Bangladesh in 1971. We asked the Speaker to strike this unacceptable comparison from the Assembly records. When he refused, we started chanting slogans to honour the Indian Army,” said Adhikari.

The Bengal BJP called for a statewide protest in every mandal, or gram panchayat area, to oppose what the party described as the humiliation of the Indian Army. A source mentioned that the BJP was planning a significant movement in response to Basu’s comment.

Political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty said the comparison between the army’s actions in Calcutta and the Pakistani army’s massacre in Bangladesh was completely inappropriate and warned it could backfire on Trinamool.

I don’t understand why Bratya Basu made this comparison since it doesn’t really connect. There could be two reasons. First, he might have unintentionally made the comparison while discussing the torture of Bengali migrant workers. Second, he might have done it on purpose to earn political favor with Mamata Banerjee,” Chakraborty said.

Unlike Basu, Mamata did not blame the army on Monday. Instead, she repeatedly stated that the army was not at fault and accused the BJP and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh of using the army for political gains.

“Today’s issue will definitely go against Trinamool,” said Chakraborty.