Kolkata, 12 January (H.S.):

West Bengal Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee on Monday questioned the role of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government over alleged attacks on minority communities in Bangladesh, saying no visible steps have been taken to address the issue.

Speaking to reporters while attending a programme at the Assembly on the occasion of Swami Vivekananda’s birth anniversary, Banerjee directly asked what actions the Centre was taking in this regard. “Isn’t the central government seeing what kind of attacks are taking place on Bengali minorities there? People are being drowned in water and killed, and some are celebrating it. What kind of country is this? What is the role of the Prime Minister in this matter?” he said.

Banerjee clarified that the West Bengal government has no role in the issue, as it concerns two sovereign nations. “So many Bengali minorities have been beaten and subjected to various forms of atrocities. What steps are being taken against this?” he asked.

Reacting to remarks by Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari, who had said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is trying to implement Swami Vivekananda’s ideals, Banerjee hit back, saying, “I don’t think Suvendu Adhikari truly understands these issues. He has not understood what Swami Vivekananda stood for, which is why he is making such statements. These remarks are purely politically motivated.”

He further said he was unaware of any concrete action taken by the Prime Minister in this context. “What the Prime Minister did, what he said, and in what context, is not clear to me. There is no visible contribution from the central government. On the contrary, funds due to our state government have been withheld,” Banerjee alleged.

On a separate issue, reacting to the BJP raising objections over a photograph at Swami Vivekananda’s house in which Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee was described as ‘Yuvraj’, the Assembly Speaker gave a brief response, saying, “That should not have happened.”

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh