The convoy of BJP national president J P Nadda, which also included vehicles of other senior BJP leaders, was attacked with stones and bricks on the way to Diamond Harbour in Kolkata on Thursday. A number of cars, including that of BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya and West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, were damaged in the attack.
‘Trinamool workers sporting party flags and armed with lathis attacked our convoy at multiple places. Stones and bricks were hurled by TMC workers. Several cars have sustained damage.
Police were mute spectators in some places and missing elsewhere,’ said Ghosh.
In defence, TMC MP Sougata Roy said: ‘It is not possible to cover every inch of the route with policemen. Spontaneous protest by the people may have happened in some places. That is what I saw.’
On Wednesday, the state BJP president, in a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah, had informed about probable protests being planned by the ‘goons of TMC’ at different places ‘on the way towards Diamond Harbour from New Town’. He also alleged security lapses in state during Nadda’s Wednesday events in the state. In the letter Ghosh said, ‘Today during his (Nadda’s) different programmes in Kolkata, it was observed that there were serious lapses in security arrangements, purportedly due to negligence and/or casual approach of state police department.’
According to reports, Trinamool Congress workers were protesting against the farm law near Sirakhol on Thursday. When the convoy approached, stones and bricks were thrown at the cars that had slowed down as to the narrow two lane road. A number of cars, including that of Vijayvargiya, Ghosh and security officers sustained damages and their windowscreens smashed.
Nadda is in West Bengal to participate in an ongoing mass outreach campaign, which has been taken up ahead of the 2021 assembly elections.
The BJP has also alleged that the saffron party workers were beaten up by cadres of the ruling TMC in Diamond Harbour area of West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district ahead of Nadda’s visit there. Banners of the saffron party were torn at the venue of Nadda’s programme and some of its workers were also beaten up by the ruling TMC, the state BJP sources said. Local TMC leaders however denied the allegations, saying that those were ‘baseless’ and ‘politically motivated’.
In the letter to Shah, Ghosh also alleged that at the BJP’s party office in Hastings, ‘there was a mob of 200-plus with sticks, bamboos, etc. demonstrating by raising black flags’. ‘Some of them climbed the cars parked outside the office and raised slogans. Police dod not intervene to stop them and casually allowed them to come within a close perimeter of Naddaji’s vehicle,’ he wrote.
He also alleged that Nadda’s convoy was stopped at various traffic junctions causing ‘serious concern’ for ‘potential security hazards’.
BJP national vice president Mukul Roy lashed out at the state administration, saying that a ‘jungle raj’ is going on in West Bengal. ‘The rule of law has ceased to exist in Bengal. The opposition parties are not allowed to conduct their programmes. A jungle raj is going on in the state,’ Roy said.
While participating in an outreach programme, Nadda had on Wednesday, accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of being synonymous with ‘intolerance’ , and exuded confidence about forming the next government in the state winning more than 200 seats. He criticised the ‘dynastic politics’ of the TMC and other parties in the country, and asserted for the BJP ‘party is family’.
‘Today, I want to recollect what Syama Prasad Mookherjee had said about discipline and tolerance…it is very pertinent in the present situation in Bengal. For West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee….thy name is intolerance,’ he said after inaugurating nine party offices across various districts of the state.
He accused the West Bengal government of ‘minority appeasement’. ‘When the entire country was watching the ‘Bhoomi Pujan’ (of Ram temple in Ayodhya), Mamata Banerjee imposed a lockdown in West Bengal on August 5 to prevent people from being part of the occasion at the local level.In sharp contrast, the lockdown was withdrawn for Bakr-Eid, on July 31. This shows that the state government’s policies are driven by appeasement politics,’ he said.
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