War of Words Heating up between TMC and BJP in West Bengal

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Dec 12: With the elections to the West Bengal state Assembly just about four months away, the war of words is heating up between the Trinamool Congress, the ruling party in the state, and the BJP which is giving a big push to oust the Mamata Bannerjee government.

The attack on the convoy of the BJP national president J P Nadda, allegedly by the TMC activists, when he was going to address a public meeting in Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency on Thursday, has provided the immediate fodder for an all-out war between the two parties aided by the West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who lately had been acting more as a political leaders than a constitutional head of the state.

In a rare move, the TMC government rejected the union home ministry’s summons to the state chief secretary and the state director general of police to Delhi to discuss the state’s law and order situation following the attack on Nadda’s convoy. The letter to the union home secretary Ajay Bhalla, who had issued the summoning order, refusing to present the two senior state officers, was written not by any government executive but by the TMC member of the Lok Sabha and the party’s chief whip Kalyan Bannerjee with the insinuation that it was the central government’s attempt to impose emergency in West Bengal.

Bannerjee wrote to Bhalla on Saturday saying that West Bengal’s chief secretary and director-general of police were summoned to Delhi over the attack on Nadda’s convoy with “political motive”, asserting that law and order is a state subject.

Banerjee alleged that the Centre was resorting to coercive means to intimidate the state administration, and the top officials were summoned at the instance of the Union Home Minister who was a politician belong to the BJP.

“We want to inform you that law and order is within the domain of the state under 7th Schedule of the State list…. How in respect of the law and order situation you can call both the officers for any sorts of discussion?” the TMC MP said in the letter.

“It appears that with a political motive and at the instance of your minister who is a political person belonging to the BJP, you have issued the said letter.

“You are trying to coerce the officers of West Bengal with political vindictiveness. It appears you are interfering with the federal structure,” Banerjee added.

He said in respect of law and order, the state government was accountable to the legislative assembly “but not to you or to your home minister.”

The TMC leader also claimed that a person, who is a convict in a case and named in 59 other criminal cases, was in the convoy of Nadda and “made provocative gestures” to the TMC supporters standing on the roadside.

“Laws have been thrown out in river by your action at the instance of Shri Amit Shah, BJP leader and Union Home Minister,” the lawmaker said, adding that indirect attempts were being made to impose emergency in West Bengal.

Banerjee said that with Parliament not in session, he was voicing strong opposition to the move by the Centre through the letter on behalf of his party.

BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, however, said everyone saw how Nadda’s convoy was attacked by alleged TMC workers on December 10 and Banerjee’s letter to Bhalla has “little merit”.

The MHA had on Friday summoned Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay and DGP Virendra asking them to present themselves on December 14 for an explanation on the law and order situation in the state, following Governor Dhankhar’s report on the attack on Nadda’s convoy. The chief secretary wrote to the Union home secretary saying that he has been directed to request to “dispense with the presence of the state officials” in the meeting convened on December 14.

Nadda’s convoy was pelted with stones and he being in a bullet-proof vehicle, was unharmed but several BJP leaders including Vijayvargiya suffered injuries in the attack, the party claimed.

The governor who had strongly criticized the Mamata Bannerjee government over the attack on Nadda’s convoy, in an interview on Saturday “assured the people of West Bengal” of “free, fair and violence-free polls in the state” and made an appeal to “sanitise power corridors of intruders”.

“Free, fair and violence-free election is my assurance to the people of West Bengal as they are entitled to it. We must work for it. The real stakeholder is the voter and they’ll contribute to it,” Dhankhar said.

In an apparent swipe at the ruling TMC, Dhankhar said “I am concerned when unauthorised people take control of political power without legal authority. It is then I make an appeal, sanitise power corridors of intruders. Otherwise, whoever does politics, is their lookout, not mine.”

On Friday, Dhankhar had submitted a report to the Centre over the “extremely disturbing developments that do not augur well for democratic values.” He alleged that violators of law in the state have the protection of police and administration.

The law-and-order situation in the state has been a matter of concern for quite some time and the subject has come to spotlight again following the attack. The BJP has blamed the TMC for the attack on its convoy. The Union ministry of home affairs (MHA) later summoned the state’s chief secretary and police chief to New Delhi on Monday over the law-and-order situation in the state. However, the ministry was informed about the top bureaucrats’ refusal to appear before it.

The union ministry, however, on Saturday recalled three Indian Police Service (IPS) officers responsible for Nadda’s security cover during his two-day visit to West Bengal, back on central deputation from the state, officials said. Superintendent of police of Diamond Harbour, Bholanath Pandey, additional director general of police of South Bengal, Rajeev Mishra, and deputy inspector general of police, Presidency Range, Praveen Tripathi, were deputed for the BJP chief’s security in the state when his convoy was attacked at Shirakol in Diamond Harbour.