Houses were looted and police vehicles torched after communal tension aggravated on Tuesday into full-blown clashes between two communities at Baduria, Swaroop Nagar and Barasat in North 24 Parganas forcing the Centre to rush three companies of paramilitary forces.
Within hours, the situation sucked into its vortex with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee launching a scathing attack on Governor KN Tripathi for “insulting” her, moments after he rang her up. Tripathi refuted Mamata’s charges and expressed surprise over her allegations.
Both the Governor and the Chief Minister are constitutional posts, said Mamata, adding, “We are not his servants and neither has he made me the CM. I am on this post because of the people whereas he is a nominated person. I was so much pained at the way he spoke to me that for a moment I thought of quitting. He acted like a BJP man — a BJP block president.
“It has become a regular affair that people from the BJP or the Bajrang Dal approach him with false allegations and he becomes active immediately.”
The Governor, however, said he had only enquired from the Chief Minister as to why the State Government was not bringing in Central forces when the situation was deteriorating fast. He said he is “surprised” by the CM’s “public reaction” about a private conversation. It is not possible for the Governor of a State to remain silent on such occasions, he added.
In Delhi, BJP general secretary and State-in-charge Kailash Vijayvargiya sought Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s intervention, charging the West Bengal Government with failing to control the law and order situation in the State. He alleged that “over 2,000 Muslims attacked Hindu families and BJP offices at several places were set on fire”.
The tension was triggered by a controversial picture posted by a teenager on the Facebook which went viral, bringing the two communities of this communally volatile zone — notorious for international cow-racketing and smuggling — nose to nose. Three police jeeps — including the ones belonging to the district SP, ASP — were burnt.
While the SP scampered to safety, the ASP and an SI sustained injuries TMC people attacked ASP when he went to control the charging crowd.