Minorities aggrieved at low presence in candidates list: Trinamool lawmaker

Claiming minorities have been traditionally deprived across sectors in West Bengal, ruling Trinamool Congress lawmaker Mohammad Nuruzzaman Monday said people are aggrieved with the party's Lok Sabha candidates list for the state which has only seven faces from the community.

Sharing the dais with expelled CPI-M leader Abdur Rezzak Mollah and retired IPS officer Nazrul Islam - both known for their antipathy towards Trinamool supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Nuruzzaman said: "Minorities are feeling aggrieved by the candidates list which has just seven Muslims."

The legislator from Deganga in North 24 Parganas had earlier raised eyebrows when he joined Rezzak's NGO, which is working for the rights of weaker sections including the minorities.

Sitting beside Nuruzzaman, both Rezzak and Islam attacked the Banerjee regime for "neglecting and exploiting minorities for electoral benefits".

The trio had assembled to launch "Udaar Aakash"- a compilation of essays that includes a couple of Islam's compositions.

While talking about the "administration's wrath" he had to face for his writings, Islam accused the ruling party of turning the police into a "tool of oppression".

"When the government even after threatening me and my publisher, filing court cases, could not get my writings banned, it initiated administrative proceedings, eventually denying me my due promotion," said Islam.

"If you go against the ruling party, you will have to suffer, no matter how just your claims are. But if you are in its favour, even your crimes go unpunished. In order to save democracy, it's high time we raised our voices against the police becoming a tool of oppression in the ruling party's hands," he added.

Sharing similar thoughts on deprivation and exploitation of the weaker sections by the wealthy and the mighty, both Rezzak and Islam vowed to fight for empowering and uplift of Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and Muslims.

Rezzak, who has floated an organisation "Samajik Nyayvivchar Mancha (Social Justice Forum) which is slated to field candidates in the 2016 assembly polls, derided the upper class hegemony in government, administration and political parties.

He reiterated his commitment to instill a Dalit chief minister and a Muslim deputy chief minister in the state.