Amid claims that normalcy had returned in Darjeeling and allegations that Trinamool Congress was shooting from alien shoulders to bleed the saffron force, armed miscreants allegedly backed by breakaway Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) leader Benay Tamang on Thursday roughed up Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh and brutally beat up his followers, barely a furlong away from a police station in central Darjeeling where he had gone to attend a meeting.
The police administration that had been informed in advance about Ghosh’s meeting but apparently chose to doze off, said, “Some scuffling took place on the road, while some Opposition people gathered at the meeting venue and raised slogans. The police have lodged an FIR and investigations are on.”
Ghosh, however, complained, “We had informed the police about the meeting but no security was provided to us,” adding supporters of Benay Tamang “suddenly started raising “go back” slogans and “assaulted our men with sticks, rods and shoes.”
An anxious BJP national president spoke to Ghosh and asked him to send a detailed report to him, sources said.
The State BJP president, who was holding a meeting at DGNS hall, was literally forced to call off the meeting midway and come out on the street where he along with a senior State leader Jayaprakash Majumdar were chased by an armed band. When party men tried to intervene they were kicked, boxed and shooed up, sources said adding there was not a single man in khaki to be seen around lending great credence to claims that “Trinamool Congress which is running the Government got the supporters of Benay Tamang attack us.”
Tamang was recently expelled from the GJM by party president Bimal Gurung for “anti-party activities” after he defied party lines and went ahead with holding talks with the State Government to solve the vexed Darjeeling issue.
The Hills witnessed violent unrest over strikes by the GJM in past few months and on Sep 26 GJM called off the ‘indefinite’ shut down in the hills after 104 days following the appeal of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh.
While, Ghosh and his supporters called off the Thursday’s meeting and came out on the streets the mob suddenly attacked him without any provocation BJP sources said adding BJP leaders were escorted by some local party men to the nearby Chowk Bazar police station where Ghosh said, “It was a pre-planned attack by the TMC and Tamang’s men, while the police provided no security. There was not a single policeman to be seen around.”
He added, “The Government is claiming that there is peace in the Hills which I came to see for myself but today’s incident will show all and sundry and the tourists who are planning to come to Darjeeling on whether peace is prevailing in the region.”
Bystanders said the attackers looked to be under, “Specific instruction to push around the BJP leaders and assault the workers to teach them a lesson.”
Soon their claims were buttressed by tenor of what Siliguri MlA Gautam Deb and his senior leader and Minister Partho Chatterjee said. In a “serves-them-right” tone they said the incident was waiting to happen as BJP had been “trying to fish in troubled waters in Darjeeling.”
Quickly however Deb added, “TMC is not involved in the incident as we believe in democratic and peaceful coexistence.”
Reflecting his party line Chatterjee said “He (Ghosh) went there to create problems. He was giving inflammatory speeches in Darjeeling. He was responsible for today’s incident. Still the police have rescued them.”
laying into the State administration local BJP MP SS Ahluwalia said the Government had posted a “platoon at the house of Benay Tamang and gave not a single policeman for the protection of Dilip Ghosh State president of a national party.”
Meanwhile, BJP national president spoke to Ghosh and asked him to send a report on the incident, while supporters took out an instant protest rally jamming Central Avenue in Kolkata.