Dilip Ghosh's remarks on Shaheen Bagh protesters show his lack of compassion: TMC

Ghosh courted controversy on Tuesday by asking why none of the people protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act at Shaheen Bagh have fallen sick, despite demostrating for over a month, braving the winter chill.

"Such statements show that the person lacks compassion. How can anyone wish for the death of those who are carrying out peaceful protests," TMC secretary-general Partha Chatterjee said here.

Ghosh, during a press conference on Tuesday, had wondered why the protesters, who include women and children, are not falling ill or dying despite sitting under the open sky for weeks together.

"We came to know that women and children are protesting against the CAA... during the cold winter nights in Delhi. I wonder why none of them have fallen sick. Why does nothing happen to them? Why has not a single protester died there?

"This is quite absurd. Have they consumed some sort of nectar that nothing is happening to them. But in Bengal, several people are claimed to have committed suicide due to panic," he had said.

TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has claimed that over 30 people committed suicide in the state out of panic over the CAA and the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens (NRC).

The Shaheen Bagh protests have inspired similar demonstrations at the Park Circus Maidan in Kolkata.