Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: On a day West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerji was finalizing the list of her acolytes to reward them with ministries, Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) staged demonstrations against her government across the USA and other countries, protesting against what they called ‘genocide of Hindus’ by the workers of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) after it returned to power a week ago.
NRIs, including the Bengali diaspora, staged protests in more than 30 American cities, condemning the post-poll result violence in a disturbed West Bengal, media reported on Monday.
Similar protests were organized in many other countries.
Scores of incidents of violence were reported in the state after the May 2 announcement of assembly poll results. The BJP alleged that many of its workers were killed or injured by the TMC activists after the elections to take revenge on them for voting against the ruling party.
The Centre rushed an officials’ team to West Bengal to submit a report. BJP President JP Nadda also visited the restive areas of the state to take stock of the situation.
Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had summoned the state Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police (DGP) to express concern at the rising incidents of violence.
Reacting to the unprecedented post-poll violence targeting the Hindus, Indian-American protestors carried placards reading “Hindu Lives Matter”, “Protest Against Hindu Genocide” to draw attention to the killings that followed soon after the poll results.
According to reports, Judhajit Senmazumdar, a technology entrepreneur from Silicon Valley who frequently travels to West Bengal, said the anguish felt by the diaspora was palpable.
“After the results were announced, my friends and I got frantic calls for help from people facing targeted attacks; shops were being looted and bombs were being thrown inside houses,” media reports quoted him as saying.
Angered by calls from their family and friends in West Bengal, the NRIs organized spontaneous protests in the major cities of the US, the UK, and many other locations.
BJP’s IT cell in charge Amit Malviya said on Sunday that the ‘systematic annihilation’ of BJP workers and supporters in West Bengal under the patronage of the administration has the Bengali diaspora up in arms against Mamata Banerjee.
Widespread protests held across the US, Canada, UK, Nigeria, Thailand, etc demanding #MamataStopViolence, he tweeted.
The protestors demanded, “justice and a probe” into the widespread violence in West Bengal.
“My mind recoils at the manner in which Hindu women have been dragged by the hair, flung on the floor, battered and raped,” said Houston-based author Sahana Singh.
“I grew up in Calcutta and soaked in the culture of the Divine Feminine. So, I cannot fathom how a state with a woman at the helm of affairs can sanction such cruelty and vendetta against women simply due to differences of political opinion”, Singh said.
“I had heard of the immense atrocities committed during the Partition, but I have never seen such post-poll violence that is occurring in West Bengal after the declaration of election results (on May 2),” Nadda said last week.
“We are committed to democratically fight this ideological battle and the activities of the TMC, which is full of intolerance,” he told reporters in Kolkata.
The BJP has claimed that at least six of its workers and supporters, including a woman, were killed in violence allegedly unleashed by the TMC. The TMC also claimed that its three supporters have been killed in violent incidents.
Even other parties, including the Left and the Congress, attacked the TMC for the violence in the state, which they said has been aimed at their members and sympathizers as well. The TMC, however, denied the charges.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier asked people to show restraint and not be involved in any form of violence.