The convoy of the BJP chief JP Nadda was attacked in West Bengal (Archive)
Calcutta:
The two senior Bengal officials, summoned by the state law and order center after an attack on the convoy of BJP president JP Nadda, will not attend Monday’s meeting, the state government said today.
The chief secretary and the general director of the police will not attend the meeting with the secretary of the interior of the Union because the incident “was already being examined,” the state government said in a letter to the center.
The Interior Ministry had said that the meeting had been called “to discuss the situation of law and order … including the recent attacks on category Z protected”.
“In fact, yesterday we had made elaborate arrangements for the security coverage of the protégés,” Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay said in the letter.
The center’s convocation followed Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s report to Interior Minister Amit Shah, detailing “the deterioration of law and order.”
Nadda’s convoy was attacked with bricks, stones and sticks near Calcutta on Thursday afternoon. Some leaders were injured and cars were damaged in the incident, which the BJP said was the work of supporters of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.
Seven people have been arrested and the police have presented three FIRs (First Information Report), one against a BJP leader.
The chief minister has accused the BJP of organizing the attack and falsely accusing the men of her party as part of a political conspiracy in the run-up to Bengal’s six-month elections.
When the incident occurred, Mr. Nadda’s convoy was heading to Diamond Harbor, the parliamentary constituency of the Chief Minister’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee. The cars were attacked with stones and sticks by a mob allegedly of Trinamool supporters. The BJP said its leaders like Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy were wounded.
“Bengal has descended into an era of tyranny, anarchy and darkness under the Trinamool government. The way in which political violence has been institutionalized and taken to the extreme in West Bengal under the TMC government is sad and disturbing,” Shah tweeted.
He said the central government was taking the incident “seriously” and that the West Bengal government “will have to answer to the peace-loving people of the state for this sponsored violence.”
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