In what is being seen as a nervous reaction to the BJP’s fast-growing support base in Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress continued to attack saffron workers with increased vengeance and brutality.
As many as 20 BJP men were seriously injured on Wednesday when Trinamool goons attacked them while they were on their way to a party rally at Dak Bungalow Ground in Bolpur, near Shantiniketan. The rally was to be addressed by State BJP president Rahul Sinha and singer-MP Babul Supriyo.
“BJP workers, who were travelling in buses, were pulled out of the vehicles, beaten up with rods and sharp weapons even as the police looked the other way,” Birbhum district party president Dudh Kumar Mandal said, adding that despite all efforts to deter them, thousands of Trinamool supporters were joining the BJP.
About 22 buses were damaged in the attack and vehicle owners were warned of more such attacks if they dared to carry Opposition workers to rallies, sources said.
Rahul Sinha, who addressed the mammoth rally despite news of attacks on all nearby villages from where the workers were coming to the meeting, later said: “The attack was pre-planned and the criminals from the ruling party targeted our men with clear-cut instructions to spread terror and stop people from coming to the meeting.”
However, the people still braved the attacks and joined the rally in large numbers, he maintained, adding: “22 buses were damaged and many of our workers were beaten up so badly that they had to be hospitalised as they were in a serious condition.” Some of the injured men were admitted to Bolpur Hospital while others were taken to the Government hospital at the district headquarters in Suri.
Birbhum has been in the news on account of hate speeches given by senior Trinamool leaders, including district Trinamool president Anubrata Mandal and party MlA Munirul Islam. While Mandal, who has repeatedly been hailed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as an “able organiser who is being victimised by the media” in a public rally last year asked his men to attack the Opposition houses and bomb police vehicles if they intervened, Islam in a similar meeting confessed to having murdered three CPI(M) activists and threatened to behead a local Congress leader “if you do not mend your ways.”
A Special Investigation Team headed by the State DGO upon the orders of the High Court however gave the two leaders a clean chit, taking their names off the charge sheet filed in two cases of murder, one against Mandal and the other against Islam. Petitions seeking a CBI enquiry in both the cases were still pending in Calcutta High Court.
With the steady rise of the BJP, the Trinamool seems to have turned its guns on the saffron outfit, while leaving the CPI(M) alone. As many as six BJP men have been killed in the past few months. As many as 22 people were injured when they were indiscriminately fired upon by Trinamool goons. A party worker was killed in South 24 Parganas recently while another was murdered in Birbhum itself.
Reacting to Wednesday’s incident, BJP leader Samik Bhattacharya said: “The people of Bengal wanted a change, but now they are realizing what they have done. But no one can stop the rise of the BJP in the State.” However State Minister Madan Mitra said the stated attacks were a “stage-managed affair by the BJP to malign the Trinamool Congress.”
CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakrabarty said “only time will tell whether the people are with the Trinamool or not, but as of now the Trinamool is with people like Mandal.”