Kolkata: Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee criticised right-wing forces, accusing them of spreading hate through religion and damaging India’s social climate. He shared an archived video of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee urging rulers to follow raj dharma and ensure equal treatment across birth, caste, and creed.
The remarks came as the body of Juel Sheikh, a migrant worker from Murshidabad in West Bengal, returned to his village after a lynching in Sambalpur, Odisha. Police in Odisha described the killing as the outcome of a personal dispute. A witness and another injured worker alleged attackers demanded proof of nationality after suspecting the workers as Bangladeshi.
Banerjee wrote on X accusing right-wing groups of poisoning public life and targeting Dalits, Scheduled Tribes, and minorities through fear, lynching, threats, and hate using religion as cover. He said power shields perpetrators and rewards protectors of violence, turning impunity into policy.
He described the situation as moral collapse and said such attacks violate the Constitution and damage India’s plural fabric. He warned silence equals complicity and history records such moments.
The shared video shows Vajpayee seated beside Narendra Modi, then Gujarat chief minister. In the clip, Vajpayee speaks of raj dharma and urges rulers to treat all citizens equally without bias linked to birth, caste, or creed. Banerjee used the clip to underline his demand for moral responsibility in governance and accountability from those in authority.
