Left-Congress joint protest march demands resignation of Shah

Left parties and the Congress on

Monday organised a protest march against communal riots in Delhi last week which claimed 42 lives, and demanded the resignation of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The parties, which had also hit the streets on Sunday during Shah's visit to Kolkata, alleged that the BJP and the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal have an understanding.

CPI(M) politburo member and Left Front chairman Biman Bose, state Congress president Somen Mitra and other leaders of the two parties marched down streets of central Kolkata - from Raja Subodh Mallick Square to Esplanade.

"We are protesting the carnage which took place in Delhi. I heard that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee described the Delhi deaths as genocide," Bose said.

 

Earlier in the day, the Trinamool Congress supremo described the communal conflagration in Delhi as "state- sponsored planned genocide".

At least 42 people were killed and over 200 injured as frenzied groups of people torched houses, shops, vehicles, a petrol pump, and pelted local people and police personnel with stones earlier this week, the worst riots in Delhi in over three decades.

Delhi Police is under the Union Ministry of Home.

"She (Banerjee) hardly uttered a word when the violence was going on in Delhi. Now that everybody is speaking up against it, she decided to say something," Bose claimed.

The senior CPI(M) leader also accused the Trinamool Congress supremo of having an understanding with the BJP.

He said Banerjee and Amit Shah had lunch together in Bhubaneswar.

Shah and Banerjee had lunch together on Friday at Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik's residence, where they were also joined by Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. The lunch was hosted by Patnaik after the Eastern Zonal Council meeting there.

"We demand the resignation of Amit Shah as he failed as the Union home minister," Mitra told reporters.

CPI(M) and Congress activists took out rallies in various areas of north, central, and south Kolkata on Sunday during Shah's visit. The activists waved black flags outside the airport. The Union minister's effigies were also burnt in Park Circus area.