BJP leaders defy ban, visit riot-hit areas, slam Mamata

Kolkata: A four-member BJP delegation has hit out at West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her government for failing to tackle the violence during the Ram Navami celebrations in Asansol and Raniganj in Burdwan West after taking stock of the ground situation in the riot-hit areas on Sunday by defying the district administration’s prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code.

They will submit their report to BJP president Amit Shah, who sent them on the fact-finding mission, in New Delhi on Monday. The BJP team members were national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussain, two Rajya Sabha MPs Roopa Ganguly and Om Prakash Mathur and Palamu MP Vishnu Dayal Ram. Their visit came a day after West Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi visited the violence-affected areas.

Lashing out at the Trinamul Congress supremo, Mr Hussain accused her of meeting UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and NCP leader Sharad Pawar in New Delhi while the clashes erupted in the two industrial towns last week. Comparing Ms Banerjee with Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, he argued that while Mr Kumar succeeded in controlling the trouble in his state, the West Bengal CM had failed in her duty.

In the evening, Mr Hussain said at the state BJP office: “We wiped the tears of pain we found rolling down the eyes of the affected people during our visit. Mamataji inflicted pain upon them. But we tried to give them medicines. She cheated the people. But we stood by the people. With Trinamul and the police being hand in glove, it was a government-sponsored riot, not a mere communal clash.”

He went on: “Several poor people were targeted by the combine of Trinamul, government and coal mafia. The administration remained mute spectators for a long time. Mamataji was busy having chai and papad in Delhi then. She held meetings with Soniaji and Sharadji.” While visiting the riot-hit areas, Mr Hussain had earlier said: “We came to Bengal to know about her pain. Our visit was for peace.”

Mr Hussain added: “The state government is not devoting its attention to the injustice happening here. Mamataji remains busy in Delhi over lunch and dinner. And here the children are suffering. Is not it the job of the government to look into it? How did Nitish Kumar control the situation in Bihar where trouble broke out there? Why is the situation not being controlled here?”

He underlined: “The difference is that there is a gap in the government’s intention here. We have seen the sufferings of the affected people and we will submit our report about it to Amit Shahji.” In the morning the BJP team, accompanied by state leaders, left for Asansol from Kolkata. While leaving, Ms Ganguly said: “We will travel to Asansol to take stock of the ground realities. If the district administration tries to stop us, we also have our ways to reach there. They need to explain why we would not be allowed to go there.”

They were, however, stopped near Banshra More and Kalipahari by police personnel, accompanied by a magistrate-level official, who informed them that Section 144 CrPC had been enforced in the area. But the BJP team members ignored them and got down from their cars. They walked ahead to relief camps and took stock. They also spoke to the affected villagers, who narrated their troubles to them.