The BJP has launched a scathing attack on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for holding it and the RSS responsible for the Murshidabad riots to reap narrow political dividends saying she was fast losing her credibility as the Chief Minister of the State.
Apparently finding herself in the receiving end of a “Khela” (game) that she had started to annihilate the Left Front, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrote an open letter to her target audience accusing the RSS and BJP for unloading a “basket of lies” to further their “vicious” game of divisive politics.
In a hard-hitting counterattack attack BJP leader Amit Malvya on Sunday blamed Banerjee for dumping her own failures on others. Referring to the communal riots in Murshidabad for which Banerjee held the saffron groups responsible Malvya wondered how her own police force had deflated her narratives that the riots were incited by outside forces.
Writing on the X handle he said, how Banerjee was “blaming the principal opposition party and a non-political organisation for her administration’s failures” despite the fact that “her own police force debunking her narrative that the anti-Hindu violence in Murshidabad was incited by external elements.”
Hours before on Saturday evening Banerjee wrote — in reference to the anti-Waqf Act protests and subsequent riots in several parts of Murshidabad — an open letter on her official letterhead as the Chief Minister of the State how the BJP and RSS had suddenly become aggressive in Bengal. She said that she had not mentioned the name of RSS earlier but on this occasion she was “forced to identify them” as they “together, they all have initiated a vicious false campaign in the state,” adding the BJP and RSS were unloading “a basket of lies, full of misinterpretations. Please do not believe them. They want to foment riots on Bengal… for their narrow divisive political game.”
She further wrote how the BJP and RSS were trying to use an “unfortunate incident that has occurred as a result of provocation. They are using it to play a divisive politics… a game of divide and rule… which is dangerous.”
Alleging that the saffron groups were brining “universal Hinduism,” — that embraced everyone from “Hinduism to Islam, from Christianity to Buddhism, from Jainism to Judaism,” — to disrepute, adding her Government and the police administration had taken strong action which was proved by the removal of police officers found deficient in their duties.
The Waqf riots that broke out in Jangipur, Shamsherganj, Dhulian and Suti towns of Murshiadabad district left three dead, five injured and many properties including livestock burnt to ashes. It forced hundreds of Hindu families to flee the district and take shelter in neighbouring Baishnabgar area of Malda and even Jharkhand.
Even as her letter exposed her vulnerability in an apparent catch 22 situation that she found herself in Malvya faulted Banerjee for her “unsubstantiated” and “politically motivated allegations” against the RSS.
Referring to the October 2014 Khagragarh blasts — in a TMC leader’s house — involving Jamaat operatives, Malvya said, “Without a shred of evidence, Mamata Banerjee hastily blamed the RSS to shield her vote bank. It seems that whenever her political standing is under threat, she resorts to targeting the Hindu community,” adding how “this raises a serious question of credibility and impartiality, As both the Chief Minister and Home minister of the state.”