West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Thursday, at a programme on the International Mother Language Day, said that efforts were taking place to produce an “inhuman” religion in the country on the basis of divisive politics, in a veiled attack to the country’s ruling party, BJP, as per a report by PTI.
Without directly naming it, accused the party of trying to impose its choice of food, clothing and religion on the people and then deciding who would stay in the country and who would be thrown out, as per the report.
“They are trying to create an inhuman religion based on their belief and decide who are going to stay in the country and who will leave. They are deciding in which language people will speak, what the people will eat and wear. They are trying to change the history of the country,” she said, as per the report.
“If some people are trying to implement one law as per their will, we will not let them do so. We don’t support this theory of divisive politics…,” she was quoted as having said.
Banerjee urged people not to pay heed to provocations meant to create differences among them and stay united.
“United India is what we want. Let’s think and speak about unity…. There must not be any divide and rule policy,” she said.
She said she does not believe in the politics of dividing people on the basis of their religion, caste and creed and criticised the threats that a Kashmiri medical practitioner in Kolkata received following the Pulwama attack.
“We cannot ask a Kashmiri medical practitioner to leave because an incident had happened. How audacious they are to order one doctor who is practising here for more than 20 years to leave for one single incident,” she said.
She asked people to use their mother tongue to protest the move to divide the country.
On February 14, an attack on a CRPF convoy in Lethpora area along the Srinagar-Jammu highway in south Kashmir’s Pulwama district killed 49 CRPF personnel. The attack was claimed by militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad.
Following the news of the attack, Kashmiris living in India have been facing xenophobia, hate, terminations and suspensions.
A mob threatened to set a Dehradun college on fire if the institute didn’t terminate a Kashmiri dean. Abid Kuchay, college Dean of the Alpine Institute has been terminated.
“The college asked for it. I agreed for the betterment of the college,” he said. Abid’s resignation has been asked for his role of getting Kashmir students admitted in the college.
Moreover, four Kashmiri students were suspended on Saturday by the National Institute of Medical Science (NIMS), Rajasthan for sharing a WhatsApp status in which they were allegedly celebrating the Pulwama attack which left 49 CRPF personnel dead.
The second-year students — Talveen Manzoor, Iqra, Zohra Nazir and Uzma Nazir — were suspended soon after they shared as a WhatsApp status allegedly celebrating the killings of the CRPF personnel in the attack
Earlier, Shridev Suman Subharti University in Dehradun suspended a Kashmiri student after his alleged WhatsApp chat regarding the Pulwama attack went viral.
Meanwhile, Aligarh Muslim University also suspended a Kashmiri student over a ‘highly objectionable tweet’.
Omar Saleem Peerzada, AMU PRO said: “We have come to know of the highly objectionable tweet. Taking immediate cognizance the student has been suspended by the university administration,” he said.
Moreover, 15-20 Kashmiri female students had locked themselves in a hostel room in Dehradun after a mob surrounded the campus area, demanding the management to ‘throw them out of their rooms’.
Shazia Hamid, one of the students, told Free Press Kashmir that she and other Kashmiri female students, fearing the mob, have locked themselves in a room.
Following Free Press Kashmir’s news story the women were provided safety by the Dehradun police who dispersed the crowd peacefully.
Earlier, former chief minister Omar Abdullah had appealed to the Home Minister of India Rajnath Singh to direct all state governments to take ‘special care of areas where Kashmiris as residing or studying.’
Following the reports of attacks on Kashmiris in various parts of India, Government of India on Saturday asked all the states to ensure safety and security of the students and people from Jammu and Kashmir.
ALSO READ: When Basant Rath ‘came to the rescue’ of Kashmiri students in Dehradun
