BJP 'biggest pandemic', running a 'dictatorship' in the country: CM
Kolkata: After leading a protest march in Kolkata against the Hathras horror, West Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee targeted the BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh and the Centre for "torturing Dalits, minority communities and farmers". She said protest rallies against the party's 'dictatorial ways' will continue in state's blocks and districts amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
"Covid is a pandemic, but the biggest pandemic is the BJP party. The BJP is a pandemic of atrocities and I will support every effort to stop these atrocities. What do you (BJP) think, your police will not let us meet the family? I can meet the family tomorrow, and you won't even know. The daughter of Hathras is our daughter. If we are to brighten the country's future, we have to stand beside Dalits and minority communities... Today, I am not a Hindu, I am a Dalit," said the Trinamool Congress chief.
Addressing a rally — her first since the pandemic broke out in March — a day after a team of Trinamool Congress members were barred from entering Hathras to meet the victim's family and party MP Pratima Mondal manhandled by the police while Derek O'Brien was wrestled to the ground, she accused the BJP of talking big before elections, but keeping their reality "veiled".
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 (Friday)," she said.
"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.
"During elections, the BJP leaders go to a Dalit house, get food from outside, eat it and claim they have eaten at a Dalit home. After elections, they will torture Dalits, thrash them," she said.
"BJP has brought shame to the country. Shame-shame BJP for what has happened to our daughter. I wanted to talk with the Hathras victim's family on the phone, but their phone had been snatched... the commission showed up at Hathras, but how many commissions came to manage Delhi riots," she asked.
Banerjee added that any attempt to speak about minority welfare is labelled as "Muslim appeasement".
"Who are you (BJP) to give a certificate (of approval)? You saw the drama in Mumbai (over Sushant Singh Rajput's death). We want justice for Dalits, not drama," she said.
Stating that there was no democracy in the country under the BJP, but a "dictatorship" she said India was heading towards a "Presidential form of governance", and that the biggest "maha purush in the country was not Netaji or Gandhi or Ambedkar or Tagore or Bhagat Singh, but the BJP".
