Bengaluru: Let’s accept it. Mamata Banerjee is a leader who doesn’t mince words in criticising others, if she feels her state is being humiliated. 

But in the hurry to criticise others, if she compromises on her facts and figures, she ends up only humiliating herself. 

Take for the example the issue of retaining Gujarati in the JEE exams and dropping other languages like Urdu and Marathi. On Wednesday (November 6) she tweeted, “Joint Entrance Exams so long were conducted in English and Hindi languages. Surprisingly, now only Gujarati language has been added. Such a step is not at all praiseworthy.” 

However, to mend fences, she did give a rejoinder. She tweeted further, “I love Gujarati. But why have other regional languages been ignored? Why injustice is being meted out to them? If Gujarati has to be there, then all regional languages including Bengali must be there.”

Today (November 7) the NTA (National Testing Agency) responded to her allegations. It said it continued with Gujarati because none of the other states approached the NTA with the request to provide the JEE Mains with any other regional languages. 

It further added that Urdu, Marathi and Gujarati were added in 2014, but continued with Gujarati apart from Hindi and English. 

Moreover, as per the NTA, it sent a request to all the states asking if they wanted to admit students to state engineering colleges through JEE Mains. 

But in 2016, Maharashtra withdrew the admission and subsequently, the translation of Marathi and Urdu was stopped. 

BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya called Mamata “Divider Didi” and added Bengal never sought to add Bengali as a language. 

Mamata’s nephew and party MP Abhishek had also expressed similar views on the matter.