Kolkata: All-India Students’ Federation (AISF) leader Kanhaiya Kumar Wednesday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of playing with religious sentiments. He alleged that both Mr Modi and Ms Banerjee are donning the role of protectors of Hindus and Muslims respectively.
Mr Kumar said the young people of the country want jobs and not religion.
“What Mr Modi is doing in the country from Delhi, Didi (Banerjee) is doing the same sitting in Kolkata,” Mr Kumar alleged at a public meeting here to mark the 94th foundation day of the Communist Party of India (CPI).
“We will fight against anybody who wants to destroy the democratic fabric of the country, whether Modi or Didi,” he said.
Mr Kumar said that Bengal’s demography, with around 30 per cent minority population, is a blessing but can also become a curse.
Stating that Bengal is a multi-cultural state where people have lived together for thousands of years, Mr Kumar claimed that the BJP and RSS finds it necessary to break the social fabric of the state to gain a strong foothold in West Bengal.
“There is a conspiracy and people should see through it. Why is Didi trying to be the protector of Muslims and Modi of the Hindus?” he questioned.
Stating that neither Hindus, nor Muslims are in danger in the country, he said that it is the humans, humanity and the Constitution which are in danger at present.
The young people of the country want jobs and not religion, Mr Kumar said, adding that while five lakh pass out as engineers every year, only one lakh of them are able to get some job.
He said that farmers are committing suicide for not getting proper price for their produce and claimed that the Central government has “failed” to do anything to alleviate their plight.
Mr Kumar said that while all the opposition parties may not agree on all points, but there are many common issues on which there can be agreement and they should get together on these to fight against the saffron party in the general elections next year.
Speaking on the occasion, Gujarat MLA and Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani alleged that the BJP and RSS have the agenda of tampering with the social fabric of the country.
Asking whether the Left parties should ally with the Trinamul Congress, Mr Mevani said that he and Mr Hardik Patel, belonging to the Dalits and the landowner Patel caste in Gujarat respectively, have come together in an unprecedented alliance to fight the BJP.
“What we are facing in the country is an unprecedented crisis and this will lead to unprecedented alliances to defeat fascism,” Mevani said, while terming BJP a fascist party.
Giving the example of the Bhima Koregaon incident, he alleged that progressive people of the country are being put behind bars to shut out any dissenting voice.
