Even as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) held a public meeting in Kolkata on completing 50 years on Saturday; the central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) Mohammad Salim said the Sangh Parivar does not consider people as humans, they dehumanise them.
“The Sangh parivar is using the issue of conversion to convert non-Hindus so that they can be used as ingredients to create a Hindu State. They [the VHP] are trying to excite people in the name of religion… In the past three years, communal forces have been on the rise in West Bengal,” Mr. Salim told media persons.
On being questioned if the CPI(M) would prioritise its fight against the BJP or the All India Trinamool Congress, he said, “We cannot choose between Didi [Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee] and Modi [Prime Minister Narendra Modi].
We have to strengthen the party to drive away both the forces from the State and restore secularism in Bengal,” Mr. Salim said.
Earlier in the day, a breakaway Left group held a public meeting in front of iconic Coffee House in central Kolkata under the banner Aamra shobai Bharatbashi [We are all Indians] to counter the VHP’s ‘We are all Hindus’ slogan.
Leaders blamed the BJP at the centre for rising instances of communal tensions and said that government figures suggested that more than 700 riots had occurred in India after the BJP came to power in May.
Expelled CPI(M) leader Abdur Rezzak Mollah blamed the erstwhile Left Front and the AITC for the proliferation of saffron flags in Bengal.
“While the Left Front wanted to rule the State with people belonging to upper castes, the AITC believes in the policy of appeasing minorities and goes all out in helping the Muslim population in the State,” Mr. Mollah said at the meeting.