BJP slams Kolkata Police action against protesters

The BJP on Wednesday condemned the Kolkata police action against people protesting the attack on minorities in Bangladesh and called it “the height of appeasement” politics by the Mamata Banerjee Government in West Bengal.

It also criticised the Congress and other opposition parties, alleging that their silence on the issue reflects their “silent endorsement” to the lynching of a Hindu man, Dipu Chandra Das, on the streets of Bangladesh. This came a day after hundreds of supporters of a pro-Hindutva outfit tried to march to the Bangladesh deputy high commission in Kolkata on Tuesday and clashed with the police when they were stopped. The police resorted to baton charges to disperse the protesters who breached barricades in their attempts to move closer to the Bangladesh deputy high commission office at Beckbagan in central Kolkata. At least 12 protesters were arrested. Slamming CM Banerjee over the police action, BJP national spokesperson Pradeep Bhandari said protests were held in different parts of the country, including Delhi, against the lynching of a Hindu worker in Bangladesh. but it is only West Bengal where police resorted to lathi charge at protesters.

The police did not spare even “our sadhus and saints,” Bhandari told a press conference at the BJP headquarters here. “Police, which had extended support in the foundation laying of Babri masjid in West Bengal, beat up with lathis Hindus protesting against the barbaric killing of a Hindu in Bangladesh.

“This is the biggest communal model emerging in West Bengal because Mamata has outsourced her government to the fundamentalists,” he alleged. The BJP spokesperson also hit out at the Congress and other opposition parties, questioning their silence on the issue. “To appease their vote bank, the Mamata Government resorts to lathicharge on protestors, while Congress leader Digvijay Singh justifies lynching of a Hindu in Bangladesh by calling it ‘action-reaction' and Rahul Gandhi keeps mum in Germany,” he charged.

“The entire opposition hates Hindus. That's why they are silent,” the BJP spokesperson claimed.