With the war of words continuing between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party over the murder of a labourer from Malda in Rajasthan, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday warned her party leaders not to use offensive language against BJP leaders.
Her remarks come a day after TMC Birbhum district chief Anubrata Mandal had threatened to have “burnt the offender alive” had the incident happened in Bengal. Mohammed Afrazul, the labourer from Malda district, was hacked and burnt to death in Rajsamand district of Rajasthan last week.
Call for amity
“BJP is using the language of communalism. We would not reply to them in that language. We have many other languages to communicate. We prefer to talk in those languages,” Ms. Banerjee said, addressing a public rally at Kaksa in Burdwan.
Referring to the Rajasthan development, she said, “One person from our State was burnt alive in Rajasthan. How long will this keep happening? I do not want to know whether he was Muslim or Hindu. In West Bengal, we do not create differences between Hindus and Muslims, between Sikhs and Christians.”
She exhorted people not to let anyone create differences between the Hindus and Muslims in the State.
The Chief Minister also addressed the phenomenon of people of Bengal going to the other States to find work, in a reference to BJP State president Dilip Ghosh’s recent comments that such migration was happening because the TMC government in the State had failed to create jobs.
On migration
“Youths from Malda will go to other States and youths from outside will come here, this is natural. Can we tell our brothers and sisters from Rajasthan to leave Bengal?” she asked.
(With PTI inputs)
