BJP bent on dividing masses along religious lines, imposing Aadhaar: Mamata Banerjee

Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday accused the BJP of dividing people along religious lines and called for ousting the party in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. She also alleged that the central government was trying to infringe on the Right to Privacy by imposing Aadhaar on ’everything’. “The BJP wants to divide people on religious lines. They are trying the same trick in West Bengal. We will never allow it. The youths and students are the future of the country and they have to lead the fight for ‘poriborton’ (change) at the Centre in 2019,” Banerjee said. [caption id=“attachment_3970723” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI[/caption] “Bengal will show the way. Bengal will give the slogan of ‘BJP hatao, desh bachao, Communalism hatao, desh bachao’,” she added. Addressing a rally organised by the Trinamool Chatra Parishad, students’ wing of the TMC, Banerjee accused the BJP-led central government of trying to infringe on the personal rights. “The Centre wants to impose Aadhaar on everything. They will have access to your personal details what you say, what you do, where you go, what you eat by linking Aadhaar with phone. What will happen if the data is hacked? What about the individual’s right to privacy? “In Bengal, they are trying to divide Ram and Rahim. Ram never fought Rahim, Ram had fought Ravan. Fake Ram has come from Delhi and Bam (Left) have joined them. They are trying to incite communal passion over Durga idol immersion and Muharram,” she said. Reacting to the RSS-BJP’s charge of appeasement politics being pursued by the state government by deciding not to allow immersion of Durga idols on the day of Muharram on 1 October, she said, “What is the harm in it? The immersion will be allowed on 2,3, and 4 October.” “Don’t we have any duty towards the minority community? We don’t believe in pursuing the politics of divide and rule. In our culture, immersion never happens on Ekadashi. Why is the BJP so insistent on having immersion on that day?” she said. Banerjee also took a jibe at the BJP government in Haryana for its failure to tackle the violence in Panchkula following the conviction of Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh, saying “They can’t tackle the incidents in Panchkula and they are giving us lecture on law and order. They can’t manage crib deaths in Uttar Pradesh either.”