Union Home Minister Amit Shah compared the brutal tyrant from auteur Satyajit Ray’s beloved film “Hirak Rajar Deshe” to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Speaking at a public gathering in the Hooghly district on Wednesday, ahead of the fifth phase of voting in Bengal on May 20, Shah stated that if the renowned director had been living today, he would have directed a follow-up to “Hiraj Rajar Deshe” called “Hirak Rani.”
Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of the Opposition in the Bengal legislature and a prominent member of the BJP, has frequently referred to her as “Hirak Rani” and accused her of overseeing the embezzlement of central and public monies.
“Satyajit Ray was a worldwide acclaimed filmmaker and, as we all know, one of Bengal’s proud sons. His world-famous film “Hirak Rajar Deshe” is still warmly viewed and recalled today. Unfortunately, Ray wasn’t around when Mamata Banerjee took over in Bengal; had he known about her misrule, he would have written a sequel to “Hirak Rajar Desh,” called “Hirak Rani.”
Shah smirked as he declared, “Mamata Banerjee is the Hirak Rani,” during a campaign stop in the Hooghly district on Wednesday.
Released in 1969, the musical fantasy starred legendary actors Utpal Dutt as the despotic king “Hirak Raja” and Soumitra Chatterjee as the instructor “Udayan Pandit,” who challenged the monarch and inspired his subjects to rebel against his tyrannical
Hitting out at the TMC over the prevailing state of affairs in Bengal, the Union Home Minister said, “Violence, oppression and appeasement are rampant in the state.”
Shah noted, “It is sad how the Communists and the Trinamool Congress worked to finish off nationalism in Bengal, the state which gave us ‘Vande Mataram’, ‘Jana Gana Mana’, while also playing a prominent role in our struggle for independence.” He was highlighting the contribution of Bengal’s revolutionaries, many of whom are still unheralded to this day, to the freedom movement.
Expanding on the ‘oppression’ of people and the culture of political violence in the state, the Union Home Minister said, “They (TMC) took away the rights from poor, backward and Adivasis and gave them to infiltrators and their network of mafia and syndicates. As many as 53 of our supporters were killed in the last (2021) assembly elections in the state.”
Shah was campaigning for the BJP’s Hooghly candidate Locket Chatterjee, who is pitted against the TMC’s Rachana Banerjee, an actor and a popular show host, in her bid to secure a fresh term in the Lok Sabha.
Polling in Bengal is being conducted across all seven phases and the counting of votes is scheduled for June 4.