Drawing attention to the alleged ‘TMC terror’ against minorities in West Bengal, a delegation of BJP leaders on Thursday requested Union Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi to send a delegation to the State to collect “first hand details” of the incidents and “to restore confidence” in the minds of the affected community.
The five-member BJP delegation, including party national secretary and in-charge of West Bengal, Siddharth Nath Singh, Minister of State for Urban Development Babul Supriyo and senior party leader and Rajya Sabha member Chandan Mitra, lok Sabha MP from West Bengal SS Ahluwalia and State party leader Shishir Bajoria, submitted a memorandum “on atrocities on minorities” in the State to Naqvi in his Parliament House office.
The delegation alleged that attacks on minorities have “intensified” in West Bengal since July 16, 2014 with “the ruling Trinamool Congress goons particularly targeting minorities who have joined BJP or have become BJP sympathisers”.
The BJP leaders said most of the districts of West Bengal have been effected by “TMC terror and intimidation”. They charged that the TMC was backed by the local police in former’s attempt to unleash terror on BJP supporters.
It was alleged that the State Government has “effectively” made the State Minority Commission and the State Human Rights Commission completely defunct and “are very nakedly used for the benefit of the ruling TMC”.
The districts of Medinipur, Hooghly, Burdwan, North 24 Parganas and Birbhum are worst effected as many villages which were earlier supporting the TMC have now moved to the BJP, they claimed.
“Regular threats, financial extortion and atrocities resulted in the villagers, belonging to the minority community, turning to the BJP as their saviour. Moreover, they never saw any ‘poribortan’ under Mamata Banerjee’s regime and were keen to support and become part of Modi’s call of sab ka saath sab ka vikas,” the memorandum said.
It alleged that in the last five months, five BJP minority members have been killed in Birbhum district, in the area covered by police stations of Ilam Bazar and Pauri and more than one hundred have been injured of whom 25 very seriously. About 50 families, all BJP members/supporters have been made homeless, lost their source of earning and are living in dire straits, the memorandum alleged.
The BJP leaders pointed out that on October 27 the West Bengal police had invoked prohibitory orders under Sec 144 CrPC in many villages in Birbhum district, restricting gathering of 5 or more people and prevented BJP to enter the villages for relief and welfare. But TMC supporters were permitted to enter the village freely “to continue the reign of terror unabated”, they said.
The memorandum alleged that on November 30 SK Anarul of Harishpur village received bullet injury at the hands of TMC miscreants as he was preparing to leave for Kolkata for the Uthan Diwas rally of BJP president Amit Shah