'Islamic Caliphate of West Bengal': BJP slams Mamata govt for scrapping Vishwakarma Puja holiday

BJP says the move expressed 'Mamata Banerjee's anti-OBC mindset' and confirmed her nervousness

BJP IT cell head, Amit Malviya, came down heavily on West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) cancelled the official holiday allocated for Vishwakarma Puja to adjust and extend one more leave for the Eid festival.

A notice was issued by the KMC regarding holiday changes for Hindi-medium KMCP schools, which triggered a political controversy. The BJP IT cell head accused the Trinamool Congress government of appeasement politics.

Amit Malviya took to X (formerly Twitter) and said, “Welcome to Mamata Banerjee’s Islamic Caliphate of West Bengal. Now, Firhad Hakim, Mamata Banerjee’s close aide and a modern-day Suhrawardy, has ordered the scrapping of a holiday in Kolkata Municipal Corporation schools for Vishwakarma Puja—an occasion of great significance for Hindus, particularly the dominant OBCs—and instead allocated it for Eid-ul-Fitr, extending the holiday from one day to two.”

Welcome to Mamata Banerjees Islamic Caliphate of West Bengal.Earlier, the Chief Minister unilaterally slashed reservations under the OBC sub-quota and arbitrarily included Muslims, denying OBCs their rightful dues. The Calcutta High Court has rightly struck it down, and the pic.twitter.com/CBnkQPu2tw

Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) February 26, 2025

Malviya said the move expressed “Mamata Banerjee's anti-OBC mindset” and confirmed her nervousness. “She knows the Muslim vote bank she once took for granted is slipping, even in the Greater Kolkata Region. What she doesn’t understand is that Muslims don’t need endless holidays—they need education and employment. An additional day off means a loss of daily wages for Muslims, most of whom work as casual labourers in Bengal. It also deprives Hindus of their rightful observances. Mamata Banerjee’s Muslim appeasement is destroying West Bengal’s social fabric,” Malviya said.

On February 25, KMC issued a memorandum (Memo No. 025/KMC/Edn/2025) revising the holiday list for its Hindi-medium schools, scrapping the holiday for Vishwakarma Puja and extending the Eid-ul-Fitr holiday from one day to two.

However, after facing backlash, the civic body issued a corrigendum (Memo No. 026/KMC/Edn/2025) on February 26, cancelling the earlier notification, citing "typographical errors and procedural lapses”.