Delhi violence state-sponsored planned genocide: Mamata
Kolkata: Describing the recent communal conflagration in Delhi as "state-sponsored planned genocide", Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed an attempt was being made by the BJP to replicate the "Gujarat model of riots" across the country.
Addressing the event launch of "Banglar Gorbo Mamata" at Netaji Indoor Stadium on Monday, she said: "Delhi's violence was not a communal riot but a state-sponsored planned genocide that was later portrayed as a riot. Delhi Police is under the Central government and forces like the CRPF, CISF, Army and SSB are at their disposal. Then why after the Sikh riots in Gujarat, such a major riot took place in Delhi? The BJP didn't even seek an apology."
Banerjee condemned the violence in Delhi and said she is deeply pained by the killing of so many innocent lives being killed. She instructed her party MP Derek O'Brien to constitute a fund so that some sort of contribution could be handed over to the victims of the recent Delhi violence. "There are people who have lost their near and dear ones and have been rendered helpless because of the Delhi violence. We will extend whatever assistance is possible from our end. Many people have fled their homes in fear. We are ready to shelter them in Bengal as we always welcome people in distress with open arms," Banerjee maintained.
She even questioned the police probe in the Delhi violence led by the then Commissioner of Police and claimed that there should be a judicial enquiry into the matter. "The police stood as mere spectators so I am calling it a state-sponsored genocide," she added.
Banerjee further added that time has come for the nation to be vocal in protest against the autocratic BJP government at the Centre as they are bent upon pushing the country into disaster by engineering riots. "They have replicated the Gujarat model of riots in Uttar Pradesh. We take a pledge to throw out the autocratic BJP government and we will fight till the end," she added.
"In Delhi, BJP leaders who gave provocative slogans have not been arrested, but I got three of the BJP workers arrested (on charges of raising 'Desh ke gaddaron ko...' slogans in Kolkata) on Sunday night," she said.
Banerjee maintained: "The slogan is incendiary, provocative and illegal. It's Kolkata, not Delhi. It's Bengal. If we spare a single person, others would be encouraged to act in a similar manner." The Kolkata Police have arrested three BJP workers, identified as Surendra Kumar Tewary, Dhruba Basu and Pankaj Prasad.
