Chief minister Mamata Banerjee, speaking at a church in the Dooars on Tuesday, highlighted attacks on Christians and churches in Manipur and stressed she would not let such persecution happen in Bengal.
Mamata, who is staying at a private resort in Chalsa some 60km from here in Jalpaiguri district since early Monday, walked into the Mercy Fellowship Church in the vicinity on Tuesday.
The bishop and other members of the community welcomed her and handed her a memorandum of their demands, to which she said she would speak after the elections. Instead, she focused on the need to keep Bengal safe from violence.
“In Manipur, 200 churches were burnt down. Also, stones were thrown at mosques and even temples. We won’t let such incidents happen here in Bengal. We believe in amity and peace and would uphold it at any cost,” said the chief minister, addressing the gathering.
Mamata's reference to Manipur is significant ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. Ever since ethnic conflict started in Manipur last year in May, the Trinamul rank and file has time and again questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stoic silence on the issue and his not making a single trip to the troubled state so far.
In recent months, this is the second time that Mamata has reached out to the Christian population of north Bengal. On January 29 this year, she held a meeting with representatives of the community at Uttarkanya, the branch secretariat of the state in southern Siliguri. Around six lakh Christians live in north Bengal.
In her speech, Mamata also appreciated the Christian community for their role in education.
“You have played an excellent role in imparting education in tea estates, in the hills and, in fact, across Bengal. Educating people and building generations is an important task which you have done,” she said, emphasising that religious minorities were safe in Bengal.
Mamata spoke about the earlier violence in Jungle Mahal and the hills and said her government had managed to bring about a change in both places.
"In the hills, violence would break out and the tourism industry had to take a beating. Since 2011, we have managed to change the situation. There is peace everywhere. When violence erupted in the hills earlier, people of the Terai and the Dooars also had to face inconveniences. Let us make it clear that we don’t make any distinction between the people of the plains and the hills,” she said.
Mamata underscored that she would not allow any violence during festivals. On March 30 last year, during Ram Navami celebrations, Howrah, Hooghly, Dalkhola and some other smaller pockets of Bengal erupted in violence. This year, Ram Navami falls on April 17.
“All of us here stay together and are free to celebrate our festivals. But if any political party tries to perpetrate violence during any festival, we will not allow it. We want peace to prevail across the state,” said Mamata.
She met inmates of an old-age home and joined a tribal dance troupe that performed in her presence.
“I will be here (in north Bengal) till April 6. I will come again later,” she said.