Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday launched a sharp attack on the Election Commission of India, alleging that its Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls has turned into a nightmare for citizens in West Bengal.
She claimed that three to four people are dying by suicide everyday in the state, due to anxiety over the ongoing SIR exercise.
Speaking at a programme marking the 129th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Banerjee claimed that more than 110 people have died in the state since the SIR began, with some allegedly dying by suicide due to fear and harassment.
“The torture people are being subjected to will one day come back to you. Had Netaji been alive, they would have summoned him too, saying he was not a voter,” she said.
Referring to a notice issued to Chandra Kumar Bose, Netaji’s grandnephew, Banerjee said: “Chandra is here and he has received a notice from the Election Commission.”
She alleged that three to four people were ending their lives every day due to fear of the SIR process and said the Election Commission and the Centre were answerable for these deaths. “Why should cases not be filed against the Election Commission? The Centre must take responsibility,” she said.
Claiming that 1.38 crore people have been summoned by the EC for the SIR hearings over logical discrepancy, she said that already 58 lakh names have been deleted in the draft rolls.
“The total number is two crore,” the chief minister asserted. The Chief Minister also targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party, accusing the Centre of insulting national icons such as Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and B R Ambedkar, and attempting to erase their contributions. She further alleged that the Centre was trying to alter history, culture and even food habits.
“We are noticing that attempts are being made to distort the history of India... Insult, intolerance, ingratitude towards them and an affront towards language; all these lie ahead of us,” she alleged.
She accused the BJP-led government at the Centre of having abolished the Planning Commission, “which was envisaged by Subhas Chandra Bose”, and replacing it with the Niti Aayog.
She also accused BJP leaders of ignorance of Bengal’s language and culture and appealed to youth and students to draw inspiration from Netaji’s ideals and resist injustice. Calling for renewed resistance, Banerjee said the time had come to again raise the slogan “Dilli Chalo” to establish humanity and end brutality.
Banerjee alleged that the BJP’s top leadership use teleprompters to say a few words in Bengali during their speeches before elections, and “insult the intelligentsia of Bengal by doing so”.