New Delhi: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government at the Centre should quit Delhi and "relinquish power." She made the comments while paying homage to Mahatma Gandhi on the 81st anniversary of the Quit India movement.
"We had told the British to quit India. Today, we want the BJP-led government at the Centre to quit Delhi and relinquish power," she said while speaking at an administrative programme in the tribal-dominated district ofJhargram.
She also accused BJP of spreading communal hatred and ethnic discord across the country.
Taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for using Mahatma Gandhi's 'Quit India' slogan and attacking the 'INDIA' alliance, Banerjee said, "They are saying 'Quit India'. We don't need to quit. We belong to this country. I belong to this country. It (Quit India) is a movement. They have forgotten (Mahatma) Gandhiji. The British were made to leave India by the freedom fighters. We wanted freedom," she said.
Slamming Modi, Banerjee said that the PM has failed to fulfill the promises he had made before the elections.
She also blamed the BJP-led central government for failing to address the situation in ethnic strife-hit Manipur and urged people across the globe to pray for them.
Notably, ethnic clashes first broke out between Kukis and Meiteis in Manipur on May 3 and since then more than 160 people have lost their lives.
Bengal CM also denounced the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). She said, "Suddenly they (the BJP) have started talking about the need to introduce UCC. Why should someone follow their set of rules while getting married? Nobody can force anything on us. We won't accept the UCC."