West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
Credit: PTI Photo
Mumbai: As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee slammed the BJP-led Centre over Waqf (Amendment) Act, the NDA allies, including Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena and Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United), got together to demand the dismissal of the Trinamool Congress government.
Shiv Sena MP and spokesperson Naresh Mhaske said that the West Bengal government has failed to protect Hindus from "repeated" communal violence.
“To safeguard her Muslim vote bank, Mamata Banerjee has become helpless. Her silence today is criminal. She’s no different from Tahawwur Rana (one of the masterminds behind the 26/11 Mumbai attacks). From now on, she deserves the name ’Mamata Rana',” he said.
“Hindu families are being terrorised and driven out of their homes. After the Centre enacted the Waqf Amendment Act, elements from a particular community have openly attacked Hindus. In Murshidabad, anti-social mobs invaded a Hindu household, murdered members of the family in front of the police, and torched their property and vehicles,” said Mhaske, who is MP from Shinde’s bastion of Thane.
“This is a state-sponsored failure. Mamata Banerjee has not just turned a blind eye, her silence shows she’s complicit in the crime. Her government must be immediately dismissed,” he said and announced that a Shiv Sena delegation would soon visit West Bengal to meet the affected families and assess the situation firsthand.
Further, he accused Banerjee of prioritising minority appeasement over justice.
Hitting out at Shiv Sena (UBT) head Uddhav Thackeray, Mhaske questioned his silence. "He claims to stand for Hindutva, yet he once hosted Mamata Banerjee at Matoshree. Where is his outrage now? Why hasn’t he condemned the atrocities against Hindus in Bengal?”
Janata Dal (United ) spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan Prasad slammed Mamata citing a comparison with the government in Bihar. “The situation in West Bengal is a matter of concern,” he said, adding that while in West Bengal the situation is "out of control", Bihar is "peaceful". “In 20 years, there has been no riots in Bihar,” he said.