“Some BJP-cornered media misrepresenting facts. Don’t mislead. In Bengal each one has the full freedom to celebrate 70 years of our freedom,” Mamata wrote on her Twitter handle. “All schools in #Bengal ARE celebrating #Independence Day as per their choice. In their own special way,” Mamata Banerjee added.
CHIEF MINISTER Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that all schools in West Bengal will celebrate Independence Day in their own way. The statement comes a day after reports that the state government has ordered schools to ignore a Union government circular and follow their usual mode of celebrating August 15.
“Some BJP-cornered media misrepresenting facts. Don’t mislead. In Bengal each one has the full freedom to celebrate 70 years of our freedom,” Mamata wrote on her Twitter handle. “All schools in #Bengal ARE celebrating #Independence Day as per their choice. In their own special way,” she added.
Ahead of Independence Day, the Centre had written to all states to organise events in schools towards creating a “patriotic mood” and a “mass fervour” to help realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “New India” vision. Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had alleged that West Bengal had instructed its schools to desist from following the Centre’s circular. He had termed the decision of the Trinamool Congress government as “unfortunate”.
Meanwhile, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) — students’ wing of RSS — will organise a ‘Tiranga’ rally in Kolkata on Independence Day to pay tribute to the Army and freedom fighters. The ABVP members, who will also take out a 300-feet-long National Flag to mark the occasion, will protest against the state government’s move not to allow schools in West Bengal celebrate Independence Day as per Centre’s directives.
“A tiranga rally has been planned for tomorrow (Tuesday). We will take out a 300-feet-long flag to celebrate Independence Day. Recently, we saw how the state government, by issuing a circular, asked schools not to celebrate Independence Day as per the directive of Union HRD Ministry. We strongly condemn this and tomorrow, we will register our protest against this,” said vice-president of state ABVP, Subir Haldar. The tiranga rally will be taken out from Garia and conclude at Jadavpur on Tuesday.
