Even as her Government was pulled up by Union Minister Maneka Gandhi for failing measurably to protect the Royal Bengal tiger that had strayed into the forests of lalgarh arguably from Odisha’s Simlipal National Park before being hunted down by the locals on the pretext of customary Shikar Utsav (hunting festival) Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday attacked the Centre for pouring scorn on her State for “narrow political ends.”
Playing the bizarre Dalit card Banerjee said the Union Minister’s criticism of Bengal Government was only an extension of “BJP’s anti-Dalit and anti-tribal attitude that is evident in its conduct all over the country.”
Maneka Gandhi had insulted not only the tribal people of Bengal but also the State itself by referring to the participants of Shikar Utsav as facilitators of poachers and smugglers, Banerjee said.
The Minister earlier attacked the Bengal Government for failing miserably in its duties to protect the national animal which was also an endangered species. She said the “Bengal Government should have stopped the hunting festival which it did not” for electoral reasons.
“They did not stop this festival because of panchayat elections,” she said adding the so-called animal hunters were not entirely taking part in a traditional festival but were acting as launch pads for the poachers and smugglers who have been killing thousands of animals in lalgarh and neighbouring regions, Gandhi maintained.
Bengal was the only State in India where people are allowed to kill endangered animals with impunity in the name of some festival, the Union Minister said.
The lalgarh Tiger which roamed the region inhabited by several lakh people for about 42 days but did not kill a human being save injuring a few apparently in self defense was hunted down last week by a group of 70 tribal people even as the police looked the other way.
“Despite names have been given to the police they have not arrested one person,” a Forest Department source said.
The Chief Minister “warn the Centre against bringing Bengal to disrepute. We will not tolerate insult of our tribal brothers and sisters.” Banerjee said the Minister was “talking about armed people going to forests. But what about their own Ram Navami processions when they take out people with bows and arrows.” The BJP only knows to divide the people for narrow political interests. “But I will not let them divide the people of Bengal,” she said.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated development the Calcutta High Court on Wednesday extended the stay on conduct of panchayat poll process by yet another day. The case will again be heard on Thursday.
In the wake of rampant violence during filing of nomination the BJP and the left and moved the Court drawing its intervention on electoral malpractices particularly when the State Election Commission on May 9 extended the deadline of nomination for a day only to take it back within hours following pressure from the State Government.