'They are quick to protest if bomb dropped on Palestine': West Bengal BJP attacks Left over call for peace

On the occasion of 165th birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore, veteran CPI(M) leaders Biman Bose and Mohammed Salim on Friday delivered a message of peace amidst military tension between India and Pakistan.

 

Bose and Salim visited Jorasanko, the Tagore residence in Kolkata, to pay their respects to the 'Kaviguru.' Later, they spoke out against an outright war, invoking Tagore’s ideas of peace and humanitarianism. “The Indian Army’s initial response to the militant attack in Kashmir was appropriate. However, instead of escalating to war, it is now time for negotiation and diplomacy,” Bose, the former Left Front chairman and CPI(M)’s politburo member told the media. He added, "Even Rabindranath Tagore was against war, as he saw it as a symbol of destruction. That’s why he always advocated for peace over conflict.”

 

Mohammed Salim, the West Bengal secretary of the CPI(M), urged both the Indian and Pakistani governments to prioritise de-escalation, emphasising that it is the ordinary people along the borders who bear the brunt of armed clashes, with their lives becoming increasingly difficult and unstable.

 

Mentioning Tagore, he said, “Rabindranath is timeless. Through his poems, writings, teachings and philosophy, he has told us that humanity is invincible. Today, there is terrorism, warmongering and jingoism and with Indian and Pakistani mainstream media treating war like a video game. But war is not a video game.”

 

The CPI(ML) Liberation’s student wing, the All India Students’ Association (AISA), also organised a demonstration in Kolkata on Friday, urging de-escalation. The protesters stressed the need to pursue diplomatic, non-military solutions to address terrorism.

 

Meanwhile, the call for peace by Left leaders was strongly criticised by West Bengal BJP president and union minister Dr. Sukanta Majumdar. He accused the Leftists of duality and claimed that some Left leaders were trying to follow the footsteps of jailed student activist Umar Khalid.

“On one hand, the Leftists claimed at the all-party meeting that they were with the country, the Prime Minister, the Indian Army and they support the Army in the war which it is winning,” Dr. Majumdar said during a press conference at the BJP headquarters in Kolkata.

 

“Then there are some Umar Khalid-type new Left leaders who are opposing the Indian Army and trying to act like revolutionaries.” West Bengal Leader of Opposition (LoP) Suvendu Adhikari also attacked the Left, which he claimed mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media instead of condemning the attack on Hindu tourists in Pahalgam.

“They are quick to organise protests after a bomb is dropped on Palestine,” he alleged. “If the BJP is voted to power in West Bengal in 2026, we will take them out of Jadavpur [University] and throw them in Pakistan.”

India