The BJP has hit out at Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee over her party's sustained protest against the alleged gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old Dalit girl in Uttar Pradesh's Hathras.
The BJP has said that West Bengal, under Mamata, has the "worst track record" with regard to crimes against women.
"The blatant hypocrisy of the Trinamool Congress and Mamata Banerjee is absolutely nauseating. Yesterday, the TMC took out a protest rally in Kolkata but at the same time a CPI(M) rally was attacked by TMC goons and the BJP was denied permission to hold a rally," said BJP MP and spokesperson Raju Bista.
Everyone in West Bengal is aware of how TMC has worked to erode the very basis of democracy in the state. Her government stopped following the Constitution a long time back," he added.
Mamata Holds Rally For Hathras
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee hit out at the BJP governments in Uttar Pradesh and the Centre at a protest march against the Hathras gang rape and murder in Kolkata on 3 October.
Banerjee's protest march, the first such march she's been a part of since the coronavirus pandemic hit, comes a day after a Trinamool Congress delegation was barred from meeting the victim's family in Hathras.
"COVID is a pandemic, but the biggest pandemic is the BJP. It is a pandemic of atrocities and I will support every effort to stop it. 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 Banerjee.
"I wanted to speak to the victim’s family but I was told their phones were taken away. How long will you stop us from reaching out to them? The Dalit girl is like my own," she added.
Further insinuating that the BJP is playing communal politics, Mamata Banerjee charged at the Yogi Adityanath government for curbs on Durga Puja.
“They campaigned saying Mamata Didi does not allow Durga Puja or Saraswati Puja. Then why did Yogi Adityanath not allow Durga Puja?” Banerjee asked.
On 2 October, on their way to meet the Hathras victim's family, a Trinamool delegation consisting of 3 MPs and one former MP, were stopped by the police 1.5kms from the victim's home.
In the scuffle that followed between the police and the TMC delegation, the party alleged that MP Pratima Mondal was "inappropriately touched" by male police officers. Visuals from the incident also show Trinamool MP Derek O'Brien falling to ground following an altercation with the cops.
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