The Trinamool Congress has launched a frontal attack on the BJP for trying to politicise isolated incidents like the attack by the local villagers on three Ganga Sagar-bound sadhus in Purulia district.
Rejecting the saffron outfit’s claims that not only the common people but also the pious Hindus like the Sadhus were not safe in Bengal ruled by Mamata Banerjee, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh on Sunday said that the BJP was trying to use a misunderstanding and a resultant “stray” attack on sadhus as a political tool ahead of the 2024 general elections.
“The villagers had mistook the sadhus for child-lifters which is a common phenomenon in villagers … this misunderstanding led to the attack on the sadhus and the BJP is making it a political issue,” said Ghosh adding the saffron outfit had become so politically bankrupt that “they have to use even holy men to get votes … this whereas the sadhus themselves had said that it was matter of misunderstanding and praised the policemen who promptly visited the area and rescued them.”
The sadhus who were coming from Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh and were travelling to Ganga Sagar for a holy bath on the occasion of Makar Sankranti were detained and then beaten by people at Kashipur village.
The district SP Abhijit Banerjee subsequently said about the January 11 incident that the Sadhus had lost their way and had asked three minor girls for the right direction when the villagers got suspicious and attacked them. “The police immediately rushed to the spot and rescued them … the sadhus themselves aborted their journey to Ganga Sagar saying that their vehicle had been damaged and we let them go to from where they had come,” the SP said.
“Some people have gone mad … they are playing with the emotions of the people in order to bake their political breads … but at the end of the day they will miserably fail in their Endeavour because this is Mamata Banerjee’s Bengal,” said State minister Shashi Panja adding spreading rumors and then taking political dividend out of it was “BJP’s age-old practice.”.
Earlier comparing the incident to a previous one happening at Palghar in Maharashtra were some sadhus were lynched by the local villagers BJP national president JP Nadda on Saturday said that said that “when the whole country was becoming “Rammay (emotionally swept in the name of Lord Rama) … Mamata Banerjee’s men in Bengal are attacking the Sadhus … one does not understand what problem the TMC has with the santani people.”
BJP IT cell charge de affairs Amit Malavya said, that it was “absolutely shocking incident reported from Purulia in West Bengal. In a Palghar kind lynching, sadhus traveling to Ganga Sagar for Makar Sankranti were stripped and beaten by criminals, affiliated with the ruling TMC. In Mamata Banerjee’s regime, a terrorist like Shahjahan Sheikh gets state protection and sadhus are being lynched. It is a crime to be a Hindu in West Bengal.”
Meanwhile, in a parallel development senior TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the BJP saying that its policies would let it down in Bengal.
“They (BJP) have done immense harm to their cause in Bengal … this time not a single MP will go to Parliament,” Banerjee said.
Referring to the coming Budget session he said “the BJP MPs will go for the last time in Parliament in the coming Budget Session beginning January 31 and ending February 9 … thereafter they will not be seen in Lok Sabha again as not a single BJP MP will win from Bengal.”
He said that the people have been able to understand the BJP’s divisive politics and so they have united against them. “The BJP lives by the support of the ED, CBI and courts whereas TMC lives by the support of the people in whose hearts reside Mamata Banerjee and there is no way they can unseat her from their heart,” he said.