‘What happened in Delhi will never happen in Bengal’: Mamata continues attack on BJP

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Updated: Mar 03, 2020 16:09 IST

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee continued to attack the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government on Tuesday, targeting them for the riots in Delhi and the controversy around the amended citizenship act.

After an initial silence over the Delhi clashes, Banerjee took a jibe at the BJP on Monday, a day after Union home minister Amit Shah stung her Trinamool Congress (TMC) government on issued related to law and order during a public meeting in Kolkata.

Banerjee had alleged on Monday the Delhi riots, in which more than 40 people have died, were a “planned genocide”. On Tuesday, she urged people to “be watchful that no outsider manage stoke a riot here.”

“What happened in Delhi will never happen in Bengal,” Banerjee said while addressing a public gathering in North Dinajpur district in the northern part of the state.

“I am pained by what happened in Delhi. There have been so many deaths! Bodies are still being recovered from drains. But see that the Centre has not yet sought a single apology. They have not said that they are ashamed, hurt or pained with these deaths,” she said.

“We don’t want Delhi, we don’t want UP (Uttar Pradesh). You people burn down houses and destroy everything,” Banerjee added.

In the Bangladesh-bordering district where the Muslim population is slightly above the Hindu population and Hindu migrants from Bangladesh form a significant chunk of the population, she reiterated her government would never allow the implementation of the of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) or National Population Register (NPR).

“Do not worry. Do not panic. No one can touch people in Bengal. If anyone comes knocking your door seeking documents or information, just tell it on their face that you have a voter ID card and that it was enough,” she said.

In Kolkata, TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said that the party will organise protests against the Union government’s role in the Delhi riots in all the 343 community development blocks and more than a hundred towns across the state on Wednesday.

“We must protest Delhi genocide. We will not remain silent,” Chatterjee said.