'BJP is the pandemic, torturing Dalits most': Mamata Banerjee at rally against Hathras row

Kolkata, Oct 03: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday launched a scathing attack on the BJP-led government at the Centre for running a "dictatorship" in the country and said the saffron party is a "pandemic" which is torturing dalits the most.

Banerjee, who held a protest march against the Hathras gang rape case, said she will stand by the Dalit community till the end as her caste is "humanity" and she does not believe in differentiation on the grounds of caste and religion. The march began at the Birla Planetarium and endedat the Gandhi statue at Mayo Road, about 2 km away.

The march, the first by the fiesty TMC supremo since March when the nationwide lockdown was declared to break the coronavirus infection chain, covered the 2-km distance between Birla Planetarium to Gandhi statue on Mayo Road here.

Sharpening her attack, Banerjee said, "COVID-19 is not a big pandemic. BJP is the biggest pandemic. It is the biggest pandemic of atrocities against Dalit and backward communities." "We should stand up against these atrocities...The kind of atrocities that are taking place are completely unacceptable," she said addressing the rally.

"A dictatorship is going on across the country. Instead of government for the people, it is running a government against the people, the Dalits and the farmers," she said.

Hitting out at the Centre for allegedly failing to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic, Banerjee said it seemed that the community spread of the disease has begun as people who don't venture out and stay in a protective atmosphere are also getting infected.

She had hit out at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh and said just as Goddess Sita had to go through 'Agni Pariksha' in the Ramayana after being abducted by King Ravana, the Dalit woman who died after being allegedly gang-raped and brutalised in Hathras was cremated in the dead of the night.