Bethuadahari/Siliguri, April 6 Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif's threat to target Kolkata unexpectedly opened a new front in West Bengal's bitter election battle on Monday, allowing the TMC to turn the BJP's campaign themes of nationalism, infiltration, and national security back on the saffron party.
With barely two weeks left for the first phase of assembly polls, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee launched a coordinated attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, accusing him and the BJP leadership of remaining silent over Pakistan's threat to target Kolkata in the event of any future conflict.
For months, the BJP has sought to frame the election around infiltration from Bangladesh, border security, appeasement of minorities, and the charge that the TMC has turned Bengal into a safe haven for illegal migrants.
On Monday, the ruling party attempted to seize the same terrain of nationalism and security, asking a pointed question: if the BJP claims to be the sole custodian of national security and invokes Pakistan and Bangladesh in every election speech, why was the Centre silent when a Pakistani minister directly threatened Kolkata?
Addressing a rally in Bethuadahari in Nadia district, Mamata demanded to know why the Prime Minister had not uttered a word on the issue during his rally in Cooch Behar the previous day.
"You come to Bengal during elections and attack Bengal. But when Pakistan threatens Bengal, you remain silent. Why? You should resign," she said.
Referring to Asif's remarks that Pakistan would "take it to Kolkata" if India undertook any "future misadventure," Mamata asked why Modi had not publicly promised retaliation.
"When Pakistan's defence minister says they will attack Kolkata, why did the Prime Minister not say that strict action would be taken? Why did he remain silent? We will not tolerate any threat to Kolkata just as we do not tolerate any threat to the country," she said.
The TMC supremo questioned how a Pakistani minister could dare to mention Kolkata and demanded an investigation.
Hours later, in Siliguri in the northern part of the state, Abhishek Banerjee, considered number 2 in the Trinamool Congress hierarchy, amplified the same line, turning the issue into a full-fledged campaign plank.
"He is sitting in Pakistan and threatening to attack Kolkata, while Modi is busy campaigning in Cooch Behar and asking people to remove the TMC," Abhishek said.
The TMC national general secretary also attacked Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for remaining silent.
"Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh are silent. Shah calls us Bangladeshis and Pakistanis every day, but when Pakistan threatens Kolkata, he becomes a mute spectator. Is this your 56-inch chest?" he said.
Abhishek asserted that if an INDIA bloc government headed by Mamata Banerjee came to power at the Centre, India would respond to Pakistan in its own language.
"The day Mamata Banerjee goes to Delhi, and there is an INDIA alliance government at the Centre, we will hit them by entering their territory," he said.
The political significance of the controversy lies not merely in the remarks of a Pakistani minister, but in the way the TMC is trying to redraw the contours of Bengal's election discourse.
Till now, the BJP had largely succeeded in making infiltration, the CAA, border districts, and questions of identity the centrepiece of its campaign, particularly in Nadia, North 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Malda, and Cooch Behar.
Monday's counterattack suggested the TMC has sensed an opportunity to puncture that narrative by portraying the BJP as selective in its nationalism – aggressive when attacking political opponents, but hesitant when confronted with a direct threat from Pakistan.
By shifting the focus from infiltration in the border belt to a threat aimed at Kolkata, Bengal's emotional and political heart, the TMC also appeared to be broadening the issue beyond the BJP's traditional areas of strength.
The controversy marks perhaps the first time in this election that Pakistan, rather than Bangladesh or infiltration, has entered Bengal's political discourse so directly.
The BJP dismissed the TMC's attack as an attempt to divert attention from corruption allegations and from the party's campaign on infiltration and law and order.
Yet, in a campaign already marked by shrill rhetoric, religious polarisation, and competing claims of nationalism, the Pakistani minister's remarks have handed Bengal's political class a fresh and unexpected weapon.
With barely two weeks left for polling, even a remark made hundreds of miles away in Sialkot has now become part of Bengal's fierce war of narratives.