New Delhi: The Kolkata Police have lodged an FIR against former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in connection with a speech she made during her five-day sit-in at Dharmatala in March over the deletion of voters as part of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR).
The 7 June FIR was registered at the Hare Street Police station on the basis of a complaint by one Tushar Kanti Das, a Kolkata-based businessman. According to the FIR, accessed by The Print, Mamata has been booked under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) sections related to rioting, criminal intimidation and intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace.
On 9 March, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief staged a protest at Dharna Mancha in Esplanade. The FIR said: “Accused person Smt. Mamata Banerjee delivered misleading speech pertaining to criminal intimidation intending to provoke breach of peace affecting public tranquility, communal harmony, and the democratic structure of the state.” The complainant alleged that Mamata threatened “communal harmony” and “peace”.
According to Mamata’s statements, the sit-in, in which several of her MPs and ministers also participated, was in support of those “wrongfully deleted from electoral rolls in the run-up to the election”. In her 9 March speech, she said, in an apparent reference to the BJP: “Why do you keep saying that I or we have brought Muslims into the state? If someone is to be questioned for that it should be Gandhiji, during Independence. Ask Nehruji, question Rajendra Prasad. Question Ambedkar.”
Switching from Hindi to Bengali, she went on to say that there was social harmony in the state because TMC was in power. “It is because of us that you all are doing well. If a day comes when we are no longer here, it will take just one second…If a certain community unites and surrounds you, it will take just one second, they will completely finish you off.”
Mamata later said that citizens of different states of the country can stay peacefully in Bengal. “Citizens of all states are absolutely safe in Bengal, no one will disturb you. This is our Shonar Bangla.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)