CM Mamata Banerjee in South Dinajpur Wednesday. (Express photo)
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday accused the Centre of creating panic over coronavirus to divert attention from Delhi riots. The Trinamool Congress chief, who addressed rallies in Buniyadpur and Malda in north Bengal, also demanded a judiciary inquiry into the Delhi riots by a sitting Supreme Court judge, claiming that “over 700 people” might be missing after the riots in the National Capital.
“No one knows how many actually died [in Delhi riots]. And to make people forget the real ‘corona’ [the virus], they are using the TV channels to create a hype around coronavirus. So that people do not ask how so many people died and how there will be justice. Those who died in Delhi didn’t die of coronavirus or any other disease. If they had died from the virus, we would have at least known they died due to a dreaded disease. But healthy and happy people were mercilessly burnt to death and killed,” Mamata said at a rally in Buniadpur in South Dinajpur.
“The situation in Delhi is pathetic. There are heaps of bodies. Thousands of people have become homeless. Bodies are being recovered from drains. Seven hundred people are still missing,” she said, repeating her Monday’s description of the Delhi riots as “state-sponsored, planned genocide”. “It has been camouflaged as a riot, but it was a genocide... Don’t ever call it a riot. Campaign everywhere, saying it was a genocide in Delhi,” she told party workers.
Demanding a judicial probe by a Supreme Court judge, Mamata hit out at the BJP, saying, “They demand a probe by the CBI when a rat bites a person in Bengal... And here no judicial inquiry has been ordered even after the killing of so many people... The BJP did not express any remorse or say sorry about the deaths of so many people in Delhi. Think of the arrogance. Instead, that they are bringing out rallies here and chanting “goli maaro...” Let me warn them, Bengal is not Delhi or UP.”
“How dare they shout ‘goli maaro’ on the streets of Bengal,” she said, adding that many have been arrested by Kolkata police for doing so ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s rally last Sunday.
In an apparent jibe at Shah who had claimed at a rally in Kolkata that BJP would topple the TMC government in 2021 Assembly polls, Mamata said, “Manage Delhi first. Think of Bengal only after that.”
Mamata said that she was misquoted by a section on media on Tuesday over the citizenship issue of Bangladeshi people who have settled in India.
“I never said Bangladeshis who have come to this country are Indian citizens. During (1947) Partition, many from Pakistan came to our country, to Punjab, Gujarat and Delhi, and many people from Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) came to Bengal. After these (refugees) came, Nehru-Liaquat Pact was signed which granted citizenship to them. Again, in 1971 during the (Bangladesh) Liberation War, there was a treaty between Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman which granted Indian citizenship to refugees from that country. I was speaking about them,” she said.
Mamata said she was referring to these people, who are bonafide citizens of this country.
(With PTI inputs)
Don’t create panic over coronavirus: CM
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday told people to not create panic over the coronavirus outbreak. Speaking at a rally in South Dinajpur, she said, “Today, some people are shouting corona, corona (coronavirus) a bit too much. Yes, it’s a dreaded disease, but don’t create panic... Do report when it occurs. We don’t want the disease to spread, but don’t create panic.”
A total of 28 COVID-19 positive cases have been detected in India so far, according to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan. None of these is in West Bengal. ENS