‘Jungle raj’ prevails in TMC-ruled Bengal: BJP

KOLKATA, (PTI): Jungle raj’ prevails under the TMC rule in West Bengal, a BJP delegation member said on Saturday after visiting saffron party workers injured during its recent march to state secretariat Nabanna.

The five-member BJP team, comprising Rajya Sabha MP Brij Lal and former Union minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, met the injured party workers in a state-run hospital where they are undergoing treatment.

”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,” Lal said after meeting the saffron party workers.

He also said, ”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.” Rathore also said the team will soon submit its report on the police action to party national president J P Nadda.

Responding to Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s comments on BJP supporters’ attack on a police vehicle during the September 13 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.

”Had I been present at the spot where the vandals poured petrol in a police vehicle and set it ablaze, I would have fired at the head of the attackers…. I am speaking only as an ordinary man angry with such rowdyism, not as a member of a force under TMC rule which is sensible, restrained and humane,” Banerjee said.

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.

Apart from Lal, the former DGP of Uttar Pradesh, and Rathore, Rajya Sabha MP Samir Oraon, Lok Sabha MP Aparajita Sarangi, and Sunil Jakhar, a BJP leader from Punjab, are other members of the delegation.

However, Trinamool Congress state spokesperson Kunal Ghosh described the visiting saffron party leaders as “political tourists”.

”They are here to support hooliganism in the name of protests. They want to create instability in West Bengal which will never succeed,” he said. 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. (PTI)