West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday accused the BJP of trying to "distort" the country's history to create a rift among the masses on religious lines.


India's history and culture do not promote "sectarianism or bigotry", she asserted while addressing a public programme in Cooch Behar.  "Those trying to distort our secular history should know that the people of Bengal will neither encourage nor allow divisive politics," the chief minister said.


Banerjee also lashed out at the BJP-led government in Assam and the Centre for leaving out names of 40 lakh people from the 'complete draft' of the National Register of Citizens.


"In Assam, they (BJP) are trying to drive out 40 lakh people, including Bengalis, by omitting their names from the NRC draft. "There had been reports of suicides by people who found their names missing from the draft. I wonder what will their counterpart (BJP Bengal unit) here will have to say about this" she asked.


Drawing parallels between the NRC exercise and exodus of Bihari migrants from Gujarat, Banerjee said both the BJP-ruled states are trying to divide people on the basis of caste, creed, race and religion.


"While they are driving away Bengalis in Assam, they are also ousting Biharis from Gujarat.The Constitution of our country teaches us to treat everybody equally. We cannot differentiate between people on the basis of caste, creed and religion," she said.


The rape of a 14-month-old girl in Gujarat's Sabarkantha district on September 28 and the subsequent arrest of a labourer from Bihar for the crime led to sporadic incidents of violence against Hindi-speaking people in the western state. More than 60,000 Hindi-speaking migrant labourers have fled the state. -- PTI