‘Centre creating hype around coronavirus to divert attention from Delhi riots’, claims Mamata

The West Bengal Chief Minister also took a jibe at Home Minister Amit Shah who had claimed that the BJP would topple her government in 2021 Assembly elections.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Union government is creating hype around novel coronavirus to divert attention from the Delhi riots, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed while addressing a gathering of party workers on Wednesday.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee addresses an administrative review meeting at Kaliyaganj in North Dinajpur district, on Tuesday.(PTI Photo)

“No one knows how many actually died (in Delhi riots). And to make people forget the real ‘corona’ (the virus), they are using the TV (channels) to create a hype around coronavirus. So that people do not ask how so many people died and how would there would be justice?” Banerjee said in Malda district.

“They demand probes by CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) when a rat bites a person in Bengal. And here there is no judicial inquiry even after so many people were murdered. We demand a judicial probe to be led by a Supreme Court judge,” she said.

She said this after remarks at a rally in neighbouring South Dinajpur district that 700 people were still missing in Delhi following last week’s riots.

“The situation in Delhi is pathetic. There are heaps of bodies. So many people have become homeless. Bodies are being recovered from drains. Seven hundred people are still missing,” she said.

Banerjee also repeated her Monday’s remarks that Delhi riots were “genocide”.

“It has been camouflaged as a riot but was genocide,” she said and then told her supporters, “Don’t ever call it a riot. Campaign everywhere saying it was genocide.”

In an apparent jibe at Union Home Minister Amit Shah who had claimed at a rally in Kolkata that BJP would topple the Mamata Banerjee government in 2021. “Manage Delhi first. Think of Bengal only after that,” said the Banerjee.

She reiterated her strong objection to the controversial ‘goli maaro’ slogan shouted by a section of BJP supporters, first in Delhi, and later in Kolkata.

“How dare they shout ‘goli maaro’ on the streets?” she said, adding that many had been arrested. The police have so far arrested five persons in connection with the shouting of the controversial ‘goli maro’ slogan.