Mamata Banerjee hit out at detractors and denied any rioting in West Bengal saying this was all ‘wrong information’ on social media.
NDTV reported the Chief Minister saying that “in the last 15 days, social media is running wrong information on an incident which did not take place at all.”
Mamata Banerjee was at a program in Kolkata and this comment was made in connection with the media coverage of the Dhulagarh riots on which her administration had earlier said that they would take strict action against those who unleashed violence. It had also claimed that granting compensation to the victims will commence soon.
Hinting at the controversy which broke out after an FIR by her government against Zee News journalists she said:
“In order to break a news one must not act irresponsibly. If something has really happened then you (media) have every right to report but I think a field survey must be conducted.”
Dhulagarh riots have stunned the nation as the rioters attacked minority Hindu community while the Mamata Banerjee administration kept denying that any riots took place. The rioters also raised slogans of ‘Hindu Hatao’ (cleanse Hindus) and ‘Pakistan Zindabad’ (Long Live Pakistan) while they torched properties of the hapless minorities.
Subhash Chandra was left fuming after Zee journalists bore the brunt of not remaining silent while others complied with the West Bengal administration.
The riots broke out during Prophet Mohammad’s birthday celebration this month. West Bengal has been seeing many incidents, however, the opposition has largely stayed quiet while people took to social media to narrate the many cycles of violence which have not been adressed or covered by media and politicians.
Hindus in most of the districts in WBengal live in this condition
Incident:Dhulagar Dewanghat, Howrah. Dt. 13,14 Dechttps://t.co/Tab2sXRmQb— Tapan Ghosh (@hstapanghosh) December 22, 2016
West Bengal had earlier seen riots in Kaliachak, Malda when thousands of Muslims, led by Anjuman Ahle Sunnatul Jamaat (AJS), turned violent and rioted while protesting against the ‘gay’ remark made by Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari on Islam’s Prophet. Tiwari made the statement after Azam Khan said that RSS members were homosexuals.
Mamata Banerjee failed many times:
West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee has seen other communal skirmishes as well like during Ramzan a Hindu Temple was not allowed to use loudspeaker leading to protest by Hindu community. Then there were communal tensions on the construction of Mosque near a Temple. West Bengal which has been a den of intellectual activity for long was left stunned when Mamata Banerjee’s own party man Sanaullah Khan lodged a complaint against a rationalist blogger leading to his arrest. The reason for the complaint was ‘hurting the Muslim sentiments,’ however, no one’s sentiments were hurt when a West Bengal village with majority Hindu population was not allowed to celebrate Durga Puja for four years!
So Mamata Banerjee may feel that West Bengal under her is doing well and preserving communal harmony by denying the existence of any communal tensions, but all that her silence does is paint her as the modern day Nero whose national ambitions are blinding her to communal flare-ups in her own home.
P.S. Mamata Banerjee, as we mentioned in the beginning, was in Kolkata for a program, this was just a few kilometers away from Dhulagarh where she says that no riots took place but let’s not talk about Nero here. But what is good for her regime is that she has no opposition in her state, so the Nero in her can breath easy.
