West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee attended a massive rally of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind (JUH) in Kolkata on
Thursday, where she extended support to Bollywood actor Aamir Khan who
is at the centre of a controversy over his remarks on ‘growing intolerance’ in
the country.Addressing the rally, Mamata asked, “What right do his attackers
have to decide if Aamir is wrong or right?” The controversy arose after Khan
said at the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism award in New Delhi on
Monday that there is a growing sense of intolerance and despondency in the
country.Referring to the controversy over consumption of beef, she said, “Why
should someone be killed for eating beef? I have had chicken. How will you deal
with me? They had sent me a letter requesting a ban on cow slaughter during the
pujas. Why? Would you stop having potatoes or fish (during another festival)?”Banerjee
today joined the long list of political heavyweights Siddiqullah Chowdhury,
general secretary of the West Bengal unit of JUH, has invited to address his
flock over the years.She was the chief guest at the massive minorities’ rally
in central Kolkata where she bashed the Narendra Modi-led Central
government and dwelt at length on intolerance to multiple rounds of applause.The
JUH leadership predictably refrained from criticising the Trinamool Congress
government, setting the stage for Banerjee to lambast the BJP and CPI(M)
for ‘denying Muslims their due.’On JUH invitation to Mamata to attend the
rally, Siddiqullah said that she was at the helm of the state and Muslims had
no option but to turn to her for a solution to their problems. Mamata too said
that she was asked by the media why she would attend the JUH rally and she shot
back that nobody questioned her when she visited Ram KrishnaMission or Bharat
Sevashram Sangha.With assembly elections due early next year, not surprisingly,
both Chowdhury and Banerjee skirted topics on which they differed until
recently. Chowdhury, who had declared that her government would face the same
fate as the Left Front if she didn’t check police excesses against Muslims,
today said that she was trying to introduce reservation for Muslims in
educational institutions and ensure that they were not denied government jobs.Mamata
returned the favour by saying that it was perfectly acceptable if Chowdhury criticised
her for not honouring all her promises.For Mamata, it is important to ensure
that she gets as much of the 30 per cent Muslim votes in the forthcoming polls
and she is leaving no stone unturned towards that end. Over one lakh Muslims
who gathered at today’s rally have been so pleased with the achievements of the
present government which ‘Didi’ paraded before them that they didn’t seem to
mind the CM’s usual misnomer of ending her speech with ‘Khuda Hafiz, Insha
Allah’, although they well know the juxtaposition of these phrases is
meaningless.
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