Mamata: Marx, Lenin are not untouchables

Apr 10, 2012 |

Age Correspondent

Kolkata

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that she did not consider Communist icons like Karl Marx and Lenin as “untouchables”. Her statement assumed significance because of the recent controversy which was triggered by the state government’s plans to drop chapters on Marx, Engels and Communism from the history syllabus of Class 11 and 12.
Ms Banerjee made the above observation while unveiling the portrait of Prafulla Chandra Sen who was the chief minister of West Bengal from 1962 and 1967. Sen’s birth anniversary falls on Tuesday but since she had to leave for Delhi on Monday, she unveiled the portrait a day ahead. Ms Banerjee lamented that the walls of the Assembly lobby were bereft of the portraits of Sen or some other towering political figures. She said that on April 14, she would also unveil the portrait of another former chief minister Ajay Mukherjee.
Ms Banerjee said that although she adored the nationalist movement but she also admired the Left movements like the Tebhaga movement.
The chief minister explained that one could like or dislike someone but there should be no discrimination in giving respect to eminent personalities. “If one does not like someone then it does not mean that he will have to be discarded,” she added.

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