With next year’s Assembly election barely a few months away, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday went about mollycoddling minorities by upping the ante against “those who are spreading the culture of intolerance in India.”
This apart she announced formation of new districts and distribution of cheap rice among the poor.
Vowing to fight intolerance “till my last breath come what may to me” Banerjee told a gathering of Muslim community at Furfura Sharief arguably the largest such Muslim congregation in the State that “there are some people who are preaching hatred and intolerance to divide the population along communal lines.”
Without naming the RSS she asked “who are you to dictate as to what I should eat or what I should wear and where I should go!” adding “there are some political people who are attacking renowned artists like Amir Khan and Shahrukh Khan for raising their voice against the prevailing circumstances.”
These people were being asked to leave India and go to Pakistan, she alleged wondering “why I should go from India. After all this is my country. This is my place and I will go nowhere.”
Raising the issue of how “a famous Pakistani singer was not allowed to perform in India because of his religious affiliation” Banerjee said in her State she would “never allow such nonsense” and added “people from all religions are free to practice their religion because India is secular and I will ensure the safety and security of the minorities in my State.”
Banerjee was speaking at a function presided over by a Muslim religious leader Pirzada Twaha Siddiqi. Incidentally the cleric in the presence of the Chief Minister reminded that the fate of 48 Assembly seats depended upon him and “if any political party challenges me I can show my strength to that party.” He added nothing worthwhile had been done for his community in the past several years.
Earlier in the day the State Cabinet ratified an earlier decision of the Chief Minister to create five new districts in the State.
These districts are Kalimpong which will be carved out of Darjeeling district, Basirhat and Sunderbans which will be created by breaking North and South 24 Parganas, Burdwan Industrial which will be created by breaking Burdwan district and Jhargram till now a police district within the West Midnapore district.
The Chief Minister also decided to spread her `2 and `3-a-kg rice scheme among 7.2 crore people of the State, sources at State secretariat Nabanna said.