It was an enthusiastic encore of the Shiladitya Chowdhury incident, when a Jangalmahal farmer was arrested last year for raising a question on rising fertiliser prices before Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
On Sunday, reported Trinamool Congress supporter Pratap Naskar was picked up by the police at the instance of State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim. Naskar had dared to ask a question or two while the Minister was visiting Maheshtala to inspect relief work after a massive fire gutted 700 shanties there, affecting about 2,000 people.
Naskar’s fault was he asked why the Chief Minister herself had not turned up to share their agony. He was released after questioning and said, “I had only asked the Minister as to why Didi had not come, before suggesting in such instances that the people wanted to see her only.”
Hakim, whose name has recently been dragged into a host of controversies, reportedly directed South 24 Parganas Superintendent of Police Praveen Tripathi to arrest the “CPI(M) mole who is trying to fish in troubled waters”.
Hakim himself said, “I only asked the police to take him away from the area as he was an outsider and was trying to incite the locals. It was not the time to create a commotion, but to help the people who have been affected.”
Curiously, the Chief Minister had, on Saturday, called the fire a “small incident,” before promising rehabilitation for those affected.
Meanwhile, the Opposition left, Congress and BJP demanded a thorough inquiry into the fire, alleging conspiracy. locals alleged a builder-politician nexus to grab the 5 acre land and demanded immediate arrest of Maheshtala municipality chairman Dulal Das. Das is the father-in-law of Kolkata Mayor and Trinamool MlA Sobhan Chatterjee. He was away in Tripura and denied any hand in the incident.
locals also lodged an FIR against Trinamool councillor Dipika Dutta and local leader Rafiq Mollah, apart from 10 others.
“The incident should be thoroughly probed as names of many big people are coming into it,” said CPI(M) State secretary Biman Bose, while Congress leader Deepa Dasmunshi wondered whether “this is the way democracy is functioning in the changed Bengal”.