BJP running dictatorship in the country, torturing Dalits the most, says Mamata Banerjee

The West Bengal Chief Minister Sunday took out a protest rally in Kolkata against the Hathras alleged gangrape case, and said she would stand by the Dalit community.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee | Photo: ANI

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday took out a protest rally in the city against the Hathras alleged gangrape case and launched a scathing attack against the BJP, which is in power in Uttar Pradesh, calling it the “biggest pandemic” torturing Dalits the most and running a “dictatorship” in the country.

Banerjee said she would stand by the Dalit community till the end as her caste is “humanity” and she does not believe in differentiation on the grounds of caste and religion.

The rally, the first by the fiesty TMC supremo since March when the nationwide lockdown was declared to break the coronavirus infection chain, covered the 2 km distance between Birla Planetarium to Gandhi statue on Mayo Road here.

Sharpening her attack, Banerjee, who has been a strident critics of BJP, said, “COVID-19 is not a big pandemic. BJP is the biggest pandemic. It is the biggest pandemic of atrocities against Dalit and backward communities.”

“We should stand up against these atrocities … The kind of atrocities that are taking place is completely unacceptable. The kisan samaj, youth, students, minorities, Dalits are being pushed towards darkness, but we will lead them towards the light,” she said, addressing the rally.

Continuing her tirade against the saffron camp, Banerjee said, “The country is going through super autocracy as democracy has been murdered by BJP.

“Dictatorship is going on across the country. Instead of government for the people, it is running a government against the people, the Dalits and the farmers. This is super autocracy,” she said.

Referring to the TMC delegation being stopped by the Uttar Pradesh police from meeting the victim’s family at Hathras on Friday, Banerjee said she felt like “running to UP and standing by the family of the victims”.

She said, “My heart is in Hathras. I feel like running to that village and standing by the Dalit family in their fight against injustice. Our representatives went to Hathras but were stopped a km from the village.

The women members were beaten, even journalists. It has come to my notice that journalists are receiving threats since yesterday,” she said.

Banerjee said she wanted to speak to the victim’s family but was told that their phones were taken away.

“How long will you (UP govt) stop us from reaching out to them? The Dalit girl is like my own. Either today or tomorrow, we will reach there,” she said.

BJP state president Dilip Ghosh had on Friday asked TMC to stop politicising the death of the Hathras woman and instead take a look at its track record in tackling crimes against women.

A 19-year-old Dalit woman was allegedly raped at a village in Hathras by four men on September 14. After her condition deteriorated, she was referred to the Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital where she breathed her last on Tuesday.

She was cremated in the early hours of Wednesday with her family alleging the local police forced them to conduct the last rites in the dead of the night.

Local police officers had, however, said the cremation was carried out “as per the wishes of the family”.

She indicated that the three farm sector reform bills and atrocities against Dalits will be the major poll planks of TMC in the next assembly polls.

Banerjee asked party workers to go to scheduled castes, Dalit and tribal villages of the state and speak to the people there about BJP’s atrocities on them.

Banerjee referred to the encounters in Uttar Pradesh in the past few years and wondered whether the victims of such incidents and journalists killed in the state had received justice.

“We have not forgotten the Delhi riots. If you ask them (the Centre) how many people were killed, they will say no data. If you ask them how many migrant workers had died, they will say no data. All they have is data against Bengal,” she hit out.

In an oblique reference to Union Home Minister Amit Shah having lunch at the house of Dalit families in Bengal in 2018 befor the Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee said BJP leaders do so during elections.

BJP leaders go to houses of Dalits and have food brought from outside. “After the polls are over, they perpetrate acts of cruelty on the Dalits and backward community,” she alleged.

“A criminal offence can happen anywhere and we condemn it regardless of where it takes place. But people expect justice when these things happen. But what happened there (Hathras)? Without giving the woman’s body to the family, police burnt it.”

Reminiscing about the murder and killing of Tapasi Mallick during the Singur anti-land acquisition movement, Banerjee said she had gone on a 26-day hunger strike in 2006 in protest against it.

TMC workers should fan out to every corner of the state and speak against the draconian farm laws and atrocities against the Dalits. “The BJP should be unmasked. We don’t want them to repeat similar incidents in the state,” she said.

Hitting out at the Centre for allegedly failing to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, Banerjee said it seemed that the “community spread of the disease” has begun as people who do not venture out and stay in a protective atmosphere are also getting infected.

“We (TMC govt) were lectured about what to do to tackle COVID-19. But what are they (the Centre) doing? It seems that the community spread of the pandemic has started,” she said.

Raking up the issue of GST compensation, she criticised the Centre for not releasing the money and said “It is a strategy of BJP to rake up a warlike situation before the polls and sell PSUs like BSNL and Air India after the elections.