As West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday continued with her tirade against the Centre accusing it of “non-cooperation” in maintaining law and order in the riot-hit areas of the State, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) strongly countered her stating it was her Government that had, in fact, returned the additional 400 paramilitary BSF troops sent for deployment in the trouble-torn North 24 Parganas district.
MHA sources also said that the Mamata dispensation was not even deploying its own security forces like the Eastern Frontier Rifles at its disposal and was instead blaming the Central Government.
Holding a Press conference in Kolkata, Mamata announced setting up a judicial enquiry into the Basirhat-Baduria communal riots and said, “We have all the reports on who provoked the communal tension and will take strong action against those who did it after the judicial commission submits its reports”.
The Chief Minister also announced that her Government would take action against two national TV channels for showing “fake” videos and “fomenting trouble”. “Video clips of an incident in Comilla, Bangladesh and a Bhojpuri film were being shown as if these incidents had taken place in Bengal,” she alleged. “There is ‘Fakebook’ happening in the name of Facebook. I respect Facebook but not ‘Fakebook’,” she said.
While Banerjee saw “foreign hands having good relations with the BJP” creating disturbance in border areas, she also alleged that the Centre is not cooperating even in the situation of Darjeeling.
However, MHA sources said four BSF companies (comprising 100 jawans each) were sent to Basirhat and two days back, four additional companies were also dispatched, but these were returned by the West Bengal Government. In violence-hit Darjeeling too, 11 companies of paramilitary personnnel were sent by the Centre, including one company consisting of women. The Mamata Government, however, conveyed to the home ministry that the all-woman company should be withdrawn, they said.
In the meantime, one BJP worker was reportedly killed after clashes broke between BJP and TMC workers in North Dinajpur region of West Bengal. Report said that four other people were also injured in the incident. The clash happened during a BJP rally in Chopra. Cops and RAF were reportedly rushed to the spot. However, no official confirmation was made by the police yet.
Mamata’s statement came almost in tandem with the State police blocking the passage of three saffron MPs who came as a part of the BJP delegation to find facts on ground zero. The three MPs, Satpal Singh, OP Mathur and Meenakshi lekhi, were arrested at Michael Nagar in North 24 Parganas and released.
Miles away in Kolkata another saffron brigade, this time a huge protest rally led by senior party leaders, were stopped from marching to Esplanade by the police. The leaders then led a deputation to State Governor KN Tripathi with an appeal of clamping Article 356 in Bengal.
A fuming lekhi said the State Government was stopping those who were trying to understand the situation for the sake of peace and allowing the riot mongers a free run in the disturbed zone.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal BJP submitted a memorandum to the Governor demanding imposition of President’s Rule.
In a related development, North 24 Parganas SP Bhaskar Mukherjee has been removed and C Sudharkar Rao has been posted in his place.