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  Mamata Banerjee attacks Centre, BJP over dalit violence

Mamata Banerjee attacks Centre, BJP over dalit violence

Published : Jul 22, 2016, 6:32 am IST
Updated : Jul 22, 2016, 6:32 am IST

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday launched a scathing attack against the Modi-led NDA government at the Centre as well as the BJP.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday launched a scathing attack against the Modi-led NDA government at the Centre as well as the BJP. Strongly condemning the recent attack on the members of the dalit community in Gujarat, she also slammed the RSS’ recent initiative to count the number cows in every household in West Bengal and vowed to tackle it with an iron hand.

In her nearly hour-long speech at the massive Martyrs Day rally, she barely paid attention to her main political opponents in the state — the Congress and the Left Front. She reserved all her vitriol for the BJP. Accusing the Centre of destroying the federal structure, Ms Banerjee also slammed it for saffronising everything, including education.

“The Centre is interfering in everything. It is destroying the federal structure. The Constitution has clearly defined the roles of both the Centre and the state. But they are interfering in our working and constantly threatening us,” she said, adding that because of the Centre’s wrong fiscal policies, the states had been pushed to the brink. “They (the Centre) is trying to intimidate every one. But they must not forget that if they are in power today, the people of the country may dethrone them in future,” she warned.

Accusing the BJP of doing communal politics, Ms Banerjee warned that her party would not allow it to play its divisive games. “We strongly condemn the brutalities perpetrated against the Dalits in Gujarat. In the name of cow protection, they are attempting to create communal strife in society,” she added.

She also voiced her strong displeasure over the counting of the number of cows, she said it was an attempt to incite violence. “We will not allow any attempt to divide the country just for the sake of winning an election,” she said.

She attacked the Centre for using agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) to hound political opponents. She also claimed that 80,000 industrialists had been forced to leave the country because of the harassment by central agencies. “The black money was not brought back as promised but now the white money has left the country,” she added.

She also took digs at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet ‘Swachch Bharat’ and other central schemes “The Centre is only taking credit for everything through advertisements. While the state government carries out development works, the entire credit is going to Mr Modi. He talks about Swachch Bharat but where is it ” she asked.