A day after a blast in a factory at Sujapur in Malda district left six people dead, the ruling TMC dared the BJP to impose President’s Rule in Bengal and face the consequence. The two parties traded intense fire after Union Minister Babul Supriyo accused the State administration of complicity in recurring incidents of blasts all across the State and made indirect reference of Article 356.
Referring to the falling law and order situation in the State, he said, “More than 130 BJP workers have been killed in Bengal in the last three years. There is a complete law and order failure in the State. BJP does not indulge in violence. Bengal is always in news due to violence. There have been several attacks on our leaders,” adding if Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee thought that the Centre was weak in cracking the whip she was wrong.
“If Didi thinks, she can do anything then there are constitutional provisions which can be used to remove her. It would be better if Mamata maintains the essence of democracy and the Constitution ahead of the polls,” Supriyo said, reminding there were enough constitutional provisions to tame a brutal Government.
Hours later the Trinamool Congress reacted with equal venom daring the Centre to impose President’s Rule in the State.
“We dare them to impose Article 356. If they have the courage let them go ahead with their plans and see the consequence,” Bengal Minister Bratya Basu said referring to Sujapur blast.
He said whenever there was an accidental blast in Bengal, the BJP floats a number of theories to polarize the electorate but they forget that similar accidents do take place in Gujarat too. In June 2019 there was a blast in a factory in Bharuch that killed 4 people, he said.
“ We did not question it as we knew it was an accident… but they will always raise communal questions whenever there is an accidental blast in Bengal,” he said.
A special task force is probing the factory blast at Sujapur that killed 6 people on Thursday.
Attacking the BJP for claiming itself as champions of patriotism Basu said. “The forefathers of these people were washing the feet of the British rulers when our men like Kshudiram Bose, Benoy, Badal Dinesh, Surya Sen and others were sacrificing their lives in freedom struggle… today cells in Andaman and Nicobar are named after Vinayak Damodar Savarkar the alleged freedom fighter who gave five undertakings of good conduct to the British whereas nothing in the names of the freedom fighters like Barin Ghosh from Bengal.”
Senior TMC MP Saugato Roy, however, would not want to attach much importance to Supriyo’s statements saying “Babul Supriyo should not be given much importance because everyone knows why he is making such statements … He is trying to scare the TMC workers so as to bring down their morale … but this tactic would not work … there are provisions for President’s Rule following a Governor’s report but the Supreme Court has made it clear under what circumstances Article 356 can be imposed.”
Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya said Bengal was not perfect case for 356 while CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakrabarty said by making such statements the BJP was helping the Trinamool.
Incidentally, Supriyo’s statement was soon modified by Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh who said the party did not want Article 356 to be imposed in the State but at the same time “blasts like the one that shook Malda should be probed by central investigation agencies.