JP Nadda’s convoy was attacked with bricks, stones and sticks near Calcutta.
Highlight
- JP Nadda’s convoy was attacked with bricks and sticks near Kolkata
- BJP blamed Trinamool Congress for the attack
- Amit Shah may travel to Kolkata on December 19 and 20: Sources
Calcutta:
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar today presented his report on law and order in Bengal, requested by Interior Minister Amit Shah, hours after an attack on party chief JP Nadda’s convoy on Thursday . The Interior Ministry summoned the chief secretary and the state police chief on Monday.
“Both the chief secretary and the director general of the police were summoned on December 14 for the deterioration of the law and order situation,” a senior Interior Ministry official told NDTV.
The Interior Minister has also requested a report from the Bengal government on what he called “sponsored violence” after Nadda’s convoy was attacked with bricks, stones and sticks near Kolkata. 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.
Amit Shah may travel to Kolkata on December 19 and 20, sources say, as the party prepares to aggressively confront the Mamata Banerjee government over the incident.
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.”
Mamata Banerjee questioned why the BJP, with all the central forces at its disposal, could not protect its party chief and wondered if the attack was “planned”.
They are importing a new Hindu Dharma. That Hindu Dharma is not our Hindu Dharma. They are passing off a disgusting dharma as a Hindu dharma that neither you nor I have anything to do with. This is how Hitler became Hitler, this is how Ceausescu became Ceausescu. Mussolini became Mussolini. Today this Narendra Babu sarkar simply plans the drama, creates drama and submits videos of the drama that they have created themselves to the media. And the media has no power to question them, “he said.
“Every day (the BJP activists) come out (for the demonstrations) with firearms. They slap each other and blame the Trinamool Congress,” said the Chief Minister.
Political violence has escalated in Bengal in the months leading up to the assembly elections. There have been more than 40 murders since January and the BJP says that more than half were its members.
Trinamool alleges that more than 1,000 of its workers have been victims of political violence since 1998.
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