The Mamata Banerjee Government finally agreed to let a four-member BJP fact-finding team enter the communally troubled parts of Raniganj and Asansol. The communal violence that rocked the region, allegedly over Ram Navami celebrations, claiming three lives and injuring many others including a senior IPS officer, was not spontaneous but created by the men in power in Bengal, party Vice-President OP Mathur, who led the group of four, said.
Mathur blamed the Chief Minister for looking right through the simmering situation and allowing the people to suffer for narrow political gains.
The four-member team that comprised Mathur, BJP national spokesperson Shahnawaz Hussein, former Jharkhand DGP VD Ram and MP Rupa Ganguly would submit a detailed report on the riots to BJP president Amit Shah, they said.
Though the State Government earlier said that it would not be able to supply adequate security as model code of conduct had been implemented post announcement of the panchayat elections finally relented in the face of a growing discontent in the masses, allowing the team to visit the disturbed zone, sources said.
Back from visiting almost all the violence-hit pockets, Mathur told reporters in Kolkata that the riots were produced by a joint venture of the Trinamool Congress-backed coal mafia and the State police which refused to act when the people were being attacked and their properties looted and ransacked.
“There is no law and order in the State,” Mathur rued, adding the State Government should have handled the situation with a sense of responsibility. “The relief works should start immediately and the victims should be adequately compensated,” he said, adding his team would submit a detailed report before Shah in Delhi.
Comparing the situation with that of Bhagalpur in Bihar, Hussein said, “There the BJP-JD(U) Government led by Nitish Kumar acted promptly and the top police officers including the DGP handled the situation within an hour but the Government allowed the situation here to simmer for days to reap political dividends.
Incidentally both the Congress and the left leaders had been denied permission to visit the area earlier. When asked to comment on the alleged “tacit help” from the State Government, the BJP leaders said “even we had been stopped from entering the region but finally they let us in --- why it is for them to reply.”