Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is playing a divide-and-rule policy by discriminating between the Indian and Bangladeshi Muslims, the BJP feels.
Reacting to a poser as to why the saffron outfit was frequently sending Central teams to the State to probe alleged political attacks, Siddharth Nath Singh, the BJP Central observer for Bengal who would also accompany a Central party delegation to the State on Sunday to probe the murder of a party worker at Ilambazar in Birbhum said, “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is playing a divide-and-rule politics in Bengal by discriminating between the Indian Muslims and Bangladeshi ones.”
Accusing Banerjee of persecuting the Indian Muslims for backing the BJP, the Central leader said, “the Chief Minister and her police have been victimising the Indian Muslims while treating the Bangladeshis as jamais (son-in-law).”
With Bengal suddenly scaling up the ladder in its list of priorities post general elections, the BJP is once again sending a delegation of its Central leaders on Sunday to the violence-hit Ilambazar where a party worker Sheikh Rahim was murdered last week allegedly by Trinamool Congress goons.
The team comprising BJP national vice-president Balbir Punj, MP Kirti Jha Azad, Siddharthnath Singh and its minority cell chief Abdul Rashid Ansari apart from State party president Rahul Sinha is the second such high-level saffron delegation sent from Delhi to inquire into the allegations of political violence within a month’s time.
The move thought to be a pressure-building exercise on the Mamata Banerjee Government is aimed at sending the right message to the party workers and the electorate in general ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections experts say.Going by the poll results the BJP is in the second position in as many as 34 Assembly segments in the State.
Earlier a central team comprising SS Ahluwalia, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi, Meenakshi lekhi, Siddharthnath Singh and Babul Supriyo had visited Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas where 22 party men were fired and injured by the Trinamool goons for celebrating Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s swearing-in.The Ilambazar team would inquire into the murder of Sheikh Rahim and submit a report to the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
“We will submit the Sandeshkhali report to the Home Minister on Monday and the Ilambazar report will also be submitted to him thereafter. Another copy of the second report will be submitted to the National Minority Commission,” Siddharthnath Singh said wondering why.
On whether there was a need of sending central delegations frequently or whether such delegations were being sent with an eye on the 2016 Assembly elections Singh said “sending delegations is not wrong but allowing the law and order to deteriorate at the cost of the people definitely is.”
Incidentally Zafarul Islam the local Trinamool block president and the prime accused in the Ilambazar murder case was still “untraceable” by the police while he was seen openly moving around with Trinamool MP Subrato Bakshi a few days ago in Birbhum.“They have falsely implicated my name in the case and I have nothing to do with the murder which was is known to be the outcome of a purely personal dispute” Islam said.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister on Thursday instructed the senior IPS officers to “act impartially without seeing any political colour in case of political violences.” She told this to the SPs, DIGs and IGs at a meeting held close on the heels of a left delegation meeting her at the State secretariat raising the issue of frequent attacks on the CPI(M) supporters.
Banerjee had also been concerned at such attacks which were forcing the left supporters to join the BJP — which was in the Centre — in hordes for protection. Her instruction to the police was the result of a fear that the left supporters joining the BJP could enlarge its support base and dethrone the Trinamool in 2016 experts say.