Centre’s only job is to divide people, conduct cow census: Mamata Banerjee

The CM accused BJP of using Facebook and Twitter to spread communal hatred and requested her “brothers and sisters of the minority community not to fall into their trap”. “Members of the minority community should not forget that BJP had gained political mileage by fuelling riots. We don’t want riots in Bengal. People of Bengal will never forgive those who try to spark riots for political gain,” she added.

India, she said, was like one big joint family where several religions have been living as brothers for decades. “If one of our brothers falls sick, other brothers can not stay well,” Mamata said.

Watch Video: What’s making news

Referring to the incident of a Dalit family being flogged in Una for skinning a dead cow, Mamata said the BJP is resorting to spreading fundamentalism by initiating “cow census” by Gau Rakshaks, even irking Hindus. “Even Hindus are not being spared. As a Hindu, I am saying that I don’t want this and I believe we should live together,” she added.

“This is a secular country. Every citizen has his or her right to preach, practice and propagate any religion of his or her choice. No one has the right to disrespect any one else’s religion,” Mamata said.

She accused the government of withholding funds for minority development by citing “lame excuses”. “Last week, when I had gone to New Delhi, I inquired why the funds for the minority development have been withheld by citing lame excuses such as that the web portal they had developed for allocation of funds was not working. Why are there problems in the portal? Either you fix such technical problems or do not stop funds citing such lame excuses,” Mamata said.

The CM announced a slew of projects for development of students of minority communities. She also inaugurated a new girls hostel of Aliah University and a mobile app ‘Haj Sathi’. She claimed that over the past five years, the TMC government had provided loans to 5 lakh unemployed youths, given scholarships to 1.07 crore students and trained 60,000 people in skill development.

Mamata added that 37 Muslim candidates had cracked the West Bengal Civil Service (WBCS) exam in one year.