Amid the political crisis in Bangladesh, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has called for the deployment of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force in the neighbouring country.
She has also sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to assure the safety and security of the religious minorities there.
“The Government of India can take this matter up with the United Nations. So a peacekeeping force can be sent to Bangladesh,” Mamata Banerjee said on Monday while addressing the West Bengal Assembly’s winter session.
“We have families… properties… and loved ones in Bangladesh. We accept whatever stance the Government of India takes on this…but we condemn atrocities on religious grounds anywhere in the world and appeal to the union government, and the Prime Minister, to intervene,” she added.
Her comments came days after Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Das was arrested and charged with sedition in Bangladesh.
The chief minister also said that she had spoken to the chief of ISKCON’s Kolkata unit and extended her support.
“We will not tolerate if Indians are attacked in Bangladesh,” she said.
Stating that there was an urgent need to rescue persecuted Indians and rehabilitate them on this side of the border, the chief minister said, “If required we can rehabilitate the Indians attacked in Bangladesh. We have no problem sharing our ‘one roti’ with them if the need arises. There will be no shortage of food for them.”
The CM stressed that she wished for harmony, fraternal ties and cordial relationships between all communities living in Bangladesh and elsewhere.
Reacting to Banerjee’s comments, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called it “crocodile tears” and alleged that she herself had targeted the Hindu religious organisations to “consolidate her Muslim vote bank”.
“Mamata Banerjee should stop shedding crocodile tears for Hindus in Bangladesh…Not too long ago, she had personally targeted monks and Hindu religious organisations like the Ramakrishna Mission, Bharat Sevashram Sangha and ISKCON in West Bengal, to consolidate her Muslim vote bank. Thousands of saffron-clad sadhus and lakhs of Hindu devotees had hit the streets in Kolkata, in protest,” BJP leader Amit Malviya said in a post on social media platform X.
