The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Saturday said there is "jungle raj" —lawlessness— in West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) government.
A fact-finding team of the BJP on Saturday visited party workers injured in clashes with the police during its march on state secretariat 'Nabanna' on Tuesday. Rajya Sabha MP Brij Lal, one of the five delegates, said he was "shocked" to hear accounts of the injured workers.
He said, "We are shocked after getting the first-hand information about the brutal police torture on our peaceful protesters who were going to 'Nabanna' to voice grievances of candidates who were deprived of getting school jobs despite having adequate qualifications. It seems that jungle raj prevails in the state and the police are acting in a partisan manner. There is a reign of autocracy in the state."
The BJP had organised the march on the state secretariat to protest aginst the alleged corruption in the Banerjee-led TMC government, with the focal point being the alleged school recruitment scam in which former minister Partha Chatterjee is an accused. However, the march turned violent and BJP workers pelted stones and the police baton-charged them and used water cannons and tear gas.
Besides Lal, the BJP team comprises former Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, Rajya Sabha MP Samir Oraon, Lok Sabha MP Aparajita Sarangi, and Sunil Jakhar.
The team met the injured party workers in a state-run hospital where they are undergoing treatment. Rathore also said the team will soon submit its report on the police action to party national president J P Nadda.
Responding to TMC National General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee's comments on BJP supporters’ attack on a police vehicle during the Tuesday protest march to the state secretariat, Lal said the remark showed the "fascist tendency" of the ruling party.
"Such comments will only encourage police and party men to crush any democratic movement with more brutality. This is not the hallmark of a civilised society. The TMC will face public fury in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls," he said.
Banerjee had on September 14 said democratic protesters would not torch a police vehicle or assault a cop who had only a walkie-talkie in his hand. He was talking to reporters after visiting Assistant Commissioner of Police Debjit Chatterjee, who was injured during the rally, at SSKM Hospital. Lauding the police, he also said that he would have shot protesters in the head if he would have been there.
BJP supporters had on Tuesday fought pitched battles with the police, threw stones at them, torched a vehicle and damaged a kiosk, while the cops used batons and water cannons to disperse the protesters. Several persons from both sides were injured in the melee.
However, TMC state spokesperson Kunal Ghosh described the visiting BJP leaders as "political tourists".
He said, "They are here to support hooliganism in the name of protests. They want to create instability in West Bengal which will never succeed."
Everyone knows the "way BJP activists vandalised state properties and attacked police personnel who were on duty", Ghosh said.
"They went on a rampage at several points on their way to Nabanna. Police exercised maximum restraint and this was pointed out by our leaders Mamata Banerjee and Abhishek Banerjee," he added.
(With PTI inputs)
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