KOLKATA: Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress sparred with BJP Sunday over the waqf law-linked violence in Murshidabad, alleging that the clashes may have a “cross-border” connection sparked by sections of “an opposition party and BSF”.
TMC’s tirade followed BJP MP Jyotirmay Singh Mahato writing to home minister Amit Shah, urging the Centre to declare Murshidabad, Malda, Nadia and South 24-Parganas as “disturbed areas” under the contentious Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. The MP alleged repeated attacks on the Hindu community there.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh termed the demand to clamp Afspa in four districts “unconstitutional”.
“We are receiving grave complaints that the masterminds (of the violence in Murshidabad) may have cross-border links. A section of a political party, along with a section in BSF, helped arsonists enter and return across the border (with Bangladesh),” he said.
“Locals reported that some faces were not from the neighbourhood. Nobody could identify them. This is a much deeper conspiracy. The more they make these demands for Articles 355 and 356, and now Afspa, our suspicion gains credence.” Ghosh insinuated that BJP would “gain” by “showing Bengal is burning”.
“Waqf Bill was passed with an intention to provoke. Our appeal is that one should protest, but within democratic and legal means, and not fall into this trap laid by BJP,” he said.
In his letter to the home minister, Mahato said that in keeping with TMC’s “appeasement politics”, the state administration had “turned a blind eye” to alleged violence against Hindus in districts like Murshidabad, Malda, Nadia and South 24 Parganas.
Another BJP MP, Jagannath Sarkar, wrote to Shah accusing the Bengal govt of remaining silent when tension was building up in Murshidabad.
Sarkar’s contention echoed the observations by a special division bench of Calcutta high court. It said at a hearing Saturday that measures taken by the state to control communal unrest in Murshidabad district over the previous few days were inadequate.
Bengal BJP took out a procession from College Street to Esplanade in Kolkata to protest the violence and loss of teaching and other jobs in state-run schools after Supreme Court’s verdict on the SSC recruitment scam.
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