Chief Minister accused the BJP of trying to import a culture of communal division into the state asserting that such incidents will not be tolerated in tWest Bengal.
KOLKATA — West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday condemned the assault on two Muslim food vendors selling non-vegetarian patties near a “Gita Path” event in Kolkata, asserting that such incidents will not be tolerated in the state.
Speaking at a public meeting in Krishnanagar, Mamata said, “All of them (accused) have been arrested. This is West Bengal, not Uttar Pradesh. They beat up patty sellers. We arrested everyone last night,” PTI reports.
She accused the BJP of trying to import a culture of communal division into the state.
Kolkata Police arrested three men on Wednesday night for allegedly assaulting two food vendors at the ‘Paanch Lokkho Konthe Gita Paath‘ (Gita recitation in five lakh voices) at Brigade Parade Ground here on December 7. The arrests were made on the basis of two complaints lodged at Maidan police station, a senior officer said.
According to the complainants, hailing from Topsia in Kolkata and Arambagh in Hooghly district. they were attacked when they had gone to the venue to sell chicken patties. The accused reportedly threw away their stock and forced them to perform sit-ups while holding their ears. A video of the incident went viral on social media.
Referring to the mass Bhagavat Gita recital event held in Kolkata, which saw several senior BJP leaders in attendance, the TMC supremo slammed the saffron party for “invoking religious texts for political mobilisation.”
Training her guns on the saffron party, Banerjee said, “I do not believe in communal divisions. I want to walk with all religions. What is the need to hold a public meeting just to read the Gita? Those who pray to God or seek blessings from Allah do so in their hearts.”
Taking a dig at “those invoking religious texts for political mobilisation”, she added, “I want to ask those who keep chanting ‘Gita, Gita’ — what did Sri Krishna say about dharma? Dharma means to uphold, not to divide. They want to destroy West Bengal. ”
“They want to destroy West Bengal. They want to capture the state and stop people from speaking in Bengali. We all read and recite the Gita. What is the need to hold a meeting for that?” the CM said. — With inputs from PTI
