News Analysis India

Tag: BJP

  • Poll violence: Three arrested so far for killing of two BJP workers, Mamata government tells SC

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: The West Bengal government informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday that three people have been arrested in connection with the alleged killing of two BJP workers in poll-related violence on May 2 in the state and FIRs have been registered in these cases.

    The state government told a vacation bench of Justices Vineet Saran and B R Gavai that investigation is going on.

    The apex court asked the respondents, including the Centre, West Bengal government and National Human Rights Commission, to file counter affidavits on the plea by the victims’ kin seeking court monitored probe and transfer of cases to the CBI or Special Investigation Team (SIT).

    “You file your counter affidavits. We will have it after two weeks,” the bench said.

    Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for West Bengal, told the top court that a five-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court is dealing with the matter related to post poll violence in the state and it had also passed some directions on May 18.

    “FIRs stand registered and they are under investigation. Three persons have been arrested in these cases which were lodged based on the complaints,” Luthra said.

    He said the issue regarding post poll violence was listed for hearing today before the high court.

    Luthra said the matter could not be taken up for hearing by the high court today and it would be heard on Wednesday.

    The bench asked Luthra and counsel appearing for other respondents to file their counter affidavits and posted the matter for hearing after two weeks.

    ALSO READ | Post-poll violence against women in Bengal: NCW asks state DGP to appear before it

    On May 18, the apex court had issued notices to the Centre, West Bengal government and others seeking their responses on the plea filed by Biswajit Sarkar, whose elder brother was killed and co-petitioner Swaranalata Adhikari, whose husband was also killed in poll related violence.

    Senior advocate Mahesh Jethmalani, appearing for the petitioners, had said that this is a very serious case and the state has not been taking any action into the brutal killing of two BJP workers, which happened on the day of counting of votes for assembly elections.

    He had argued that matter required to be probed by an agency like the CBI or a SIT under court supervision, as the state police has not been taking any action despite a complaint being made.

    The plea, field by advocate Sarad Kumar Singhania, has alleged that Abhijit Sarkar was killed on May 2 by a mob comprising of 20 supporters of the All India Trinamool Congress party.

    It said that mob had entered the house of Biswajit Sarkar, dragged his elder brother Abhijit and killed him in front of his mother and other family members.

    “Petitioner No.1 (Biswajit Sarkar), his mother who was also molested are the eye witnesses of this gruesome murder, while Petitioner No.2 (Swaranalata Adhikari) is the widow of Haran Adhikari, who was a local booth worker at Booth No. 199A at Sonarpur Dakshin Vidhan Sabha.”

    “He was attacked with bricks, sticks, spade, shovel at his home and brutally killed in the presence of his 80-year-old father, who was also kicked”, the plea said.

    It said that the petitioners, who are both victims and eye witnesses, have been constrained to invoke the extraordinary writ jurisdiction of the apex court seeking fair investigation by a court-appointed SIT into the murders and large scale incidents of violence unleashed at the behest of a particular political party.

    The plea has said the court should also examine “the failure of the state administration which while identifying itself with this vengeful cause of the ruling political party in the state has chosen to turn a blind eye leaving victims of these crimes remediless as the entire genocidal attacks are part of a well thought of political design of the party in power to take political revenge after declaration of results of assembly elections on May 2, 2021”.

    It has alleged that there are series of such well-planned attacks with the active connivance, knowledge, support and at times participation of the local police under the instructions of the state government.

    The plea has also sought direction to monitor the investigation, trial and the progress of criminal cases emanating from the incident and attacks occurring in the aftermath of the assembly elections in the state of West Bengal.

    It has also sought transfer of these two murder cases registered in police station Narkeldanga and Sonarpur to be transferred to CBI or SIT as may be appointed by this court.

    Mamata Banerjee led All India Trinamool Congress had won 213 seats out of 292 seats in West Bengal assembly elections in the hotly contested polls while BJP won 77 seats.

    Several violent incidents were reported after supporters of Trinamool Congress and BJP allegedly clashed in various parts of the state since May 2, killing at least 16 people and triggering alleged exodus.

  • BJP leaders face ire of businessmen during visit to hospitals in Jammu and Kashmir’s Rajouri

    By PTI
    JAMMU: Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina and MP Jugal Kishore on Monday faced the ire of agitating businessmen during a visit to different hospitals in the twin districts of Rajouri and Poonch.

    The Rajouri unit of the Congress accused the BJP leaders of violating the COVID-19 SOPs for “cheap publicity” although the BJP president defended the visit, saying they are touring different hospitals to inspect the facilities being provided to COVID-19 patients and bring any shortcoming to the notice of Lt Governor Manoj Sinha.

    “We voted for BJP en masse but nothing changed on the ground do something good for the society and do not ignore the people,” a local leader of the business community said to the visiting BJP leaders at Sunderbani market in Rajouri district the hometown of Raina.

    Amid slogans of ‘shame shame’, the businessman alleged that a poor shopkeeper is being slapped with an FIR and a fine of Rs 5,000 if he opens his shop for a few hours to sustain his family during this pandemic.

    “Have we voted to get FIRs registered against us,” the agitated businessman asked, claiming there is no one to listen to them.

    However, the protesting shopkeepers dispersed peacefully and later the BJP leaders visited Government Medical College (GMC) hospital Rajouri and other health institutions where they took stock of the facilities being provided to the COVID patients.

    The Rajouri District Congress Committee (DCC) described the visit of the BJP leaders as a “cheap publicity stunt” and said the COVID-19 protocols and social distancing norms were violated by them.

    “The BJP leaders came for a cheap publicity stunt after neglecting the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch as far as the health sector is concerned,” DCC president and former minister Shabir Ahmad Khan and other senior leaders of the party said in a joint statement.

    Referring to the Sunderbani protest, the statement said the BJP leaders faced the wrath of angry people for their “lies and neglect” as the people of two border districts are facing hardships due to the alleged failure of BJP leadership in the timely creation of the required health facilities.

    “The MP and BJP leaders could have invited the principal GMC and medical superintendent and administration for discussion regarding the health facilities in the Dak bungalow but indulged in photo opportunities and the drama to get cheap publicity, after more than hundred of people have lost their lives,” the statement said.

    The Congress leaders said the GMC Rajouri lacks facilities in terms of manpower and logistics due to “utter neglect”, while the sanctioned 3,000 LPM oxygen plant is yet to made operational and the recently commissioned 1000 LPM oxygen plant does not cater to the need of the hospital and the present requirements of two districts.

    “There is no trained staff to make the ventilator supported beds to be fully operational as a result patients suffer,” the statement said.

    Interacting with media persons outside the GMC Rajouri, the J-K BJP president said the second wave of the pandemic has affected all parts of the country and his party workers are risking their lives to provide assistance to the people.

    “We are in a grave situation and trying to reach out to the people braving the risk to our lives. We are visiting different hospitals to inspect the facilities and look for any shortcoming so that the issue is raised timely with the Lt governor for redressal,” he said, responding to a question about complaints of SOP violations against them.

    He said BJP workers are driven by the feeling of serving humanity and it is because of the efforts of the BJP that the GMC Rajouri is functional with an oxygen plant to provide succour to the people of the border districts who otherwise had to visit Jammu for specialised treatment.

    “This is not the time for politics, to level allegations and counter the allegations,” he said and saluted the doctors, para-medical staff and other corona warriors for their service to the society.

  • Trinamool turncoats welcomed into BJP by neglecting old-timers will quit one by one: Tathagata Roy

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: Continuing his tirade against a section of the party leadership, senior BJP leader Tathagata Roy on Monday said those TMC turncoats who were welcomed into the saffron party by neglecting old-timers have shown their “true colours” and will return to their old party one by one.

    TMC turncoats Sonali Guha, Sarala Murmu and Amal Acharya, who had joined the BJP before the West Bengal assembly elections, have expressed their desire to return to the ruling party in the state and said they regretted their decision to join the BJP.

    “My words have proved to be true. Those who were welcomed into the BJP with open arms, those new entrants who were granted such rousing reception while old-timers of 20-30 years were given short shrift and subjected to total neglect, are now set to return to the TMC one by one,” Roy, known for his controversial statements, said.

    After the BJP’s poor performance in the assembly elections, in which it bagged only 77 seats while the TMC won 213 constituencies, the former governor of Tripura and Meghalaya said that “unwanted elements” from the ruling party in West Bengal had joined the saffron camp ahead of the polls.

    On the TMC turncoats’ wish to return to their old party, senior leader and MP Sougata Roy said that in his opinion, these turncoats should not be inducted into the Trinamool Congress within the next six months.

    “Chief Minister and party chief Mamata Banerjee will take the final decision in this regard. But, in my view, they should not be inducted into the party within six months’ time.”

    “Our grassroots level activists had worked so hard during poll campaigning against the BJP’s sustained adverse campaign and money power. We may look into their sentiments,” Roy said.

    TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said the party is preoccupied with the fight against COVID-19 and does not have time for other issues.

  • Post-poll violence in Bengal: Retired judges, diplomats, women lawyers others write to President Kovind, CJI Ramana

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Blaming “state terror” for political violence in West Bengal, a group of citizens has written to President Ram Nath Kovind and called for a Special Investigation Team (SIT) probe monitored by a retired Supreme Court judge for a fair investigation and speedy justice.

    Referring to the “targeted political killings” and violence after the West Bengal assembly elections and “deficient and inappropriate” response of the local administration and police, they demanded that these cases be handed over to the NIA to deal with the “anti-national” onslaught on the culture and integrity of the country as it is a border state.

    Nearly 150 people, including retired judges, diplomats, bureaucrats, police officials and veterans, have submitted this memorandum to the president on Monday.

    The memorandum said, “We are greatly disturbed by the mindless instigation of reported violence in electoral vengeance against the people who exercised their democratic right to vote for one political party or the other.”

    “Media reports, largely substantiated by eyewitness accounts, mention murders, rapes, attacks on persons and property, including by anti-national elements, leading to forced migration of people to shelter homes.”

    These unfortunate developments, if unchecked, could establish a trend which will undermine and ultimately destroy the deep rooted democratic traditions of India, they said.

    Citing media reports, they said over a dozen persons, including women, have been killed in post-poll violence in the state in over 15,000 incidents of alleged violence.

    As a result, 4,000 to 5,000 people have reportedly migrated to Assam, Jharkhand and Orissa, they said, seeking a special relief package for the victims of violence, and efforts for their rehabilitation.

    “Offences reportedly of rape, attempted rapes, and violating the modesty of women, targeting scheduled castes and tribes, and incidents of religious sacrilege are the worst manifestation of post-poll violence in West Bengal,” they said.

    The BJP has blamed the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress for the violence, while the TMC has accused the saffron party of politicising incidents of violence in which, it has said, its workers have also lost lives.

    The state government has also refuted the allegations of large-scale violence.

    The memorandum said, “It is clear that the overwhelming majority of civilian deaths resulting from political violence were the result of what should be understood as serious acts of commission and omission of the law and order enforcement machinery of the State, or, in the worst case scenario, induced ‘State Terror’.”

    Noting that law and order is a state subject, they said the state government under Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee must act in accordance with the Constitutional mandate to maintain it and curb violence with an iron hand to ensure peace and tranquillity.

    Former Delhi High Court chief justice B C Patel, former Bombay High Court chief justice Kshitij Vyas, former RAW chief Sanjeev Tripathi, former Punjab DGP P C Dogra and former Jammu and Kashmir DGP S P Vaid are among the signatories to the memorandum.

    Meanwhile, over 2,000 women lawyers from across the country wrote to Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana on Monday urging him to take cognisance of alleged post poll violence in West Bengal and constitute a Special Investigation Team to register FIRs and investigation into the matter.

    The letter signed by 2,093 women advocates, including from West Bengal, claimed that the post poll violence continuing since May 2 in the state has not even spared women and children.

    The women lawyers said that there was a “constitutional crisis” in the state due to the violence since May 2, which has made the condition of the citizens in the state “deplorable”.

    “The incidents of violence have shackled the conscience of thousands of women lawyers across the length and breadth of ‘Bharat’. It is stated with utmost grief that the perpetrators of violence have not even spared women and children,” it said.

    The letter said that the police was hand in gloves with the goons and the victims were not in a position to even register their complaints and that there is a complete breakdown of the constitutional machinery in the state.

    “Take cognizance of the matter and constitute a Special Investigation Team to register FIRs and investigate into the deaths and other vengeful attacks as being reported in news,” the letter urged.

    It also sought that a nodal officer, not belonging to West Bengal Police, be appointed to register the complaints of the victims.

    “Direct court monitored investigation in a time bound manner, trial by specially constituted fast track court wherever charge sheet is filed by the SIT regarding cases emanating from the post poll violence in the State of West Bengal; “Issue Directions that all post poll violence victims/family members may be duly compensated for death /injuries, loss of property etc. by the State of West Bengal,” it further said.

    The letter also urged the CJI to ask the Director General of Police, West Bengal, to set up an effective complaint mechanism at all levels on priority basis and to file a daily report before the apex court, regarding the complaints received by Police Department from all channels.

  • TMC turncoats make beeline to re-join party after BJP’s loss in Bengal polls

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: In less than a month the BJP received a blow in the recent West Bengal assembly elections, the Trinamool Congress turncoats, who were inducted in the party ahead of the high-octane state poll, seemed to have been making a beeline to return to their old political platform. 

    In the past 24 hours, a former TMC MLA and a party leader, who was even among the list of TMC’s candidates but defected to the BJP, wrote to the ruling party’s supremo Mamata Banerjee and other functionaries seeking apology for their “wrong decision” of shifting sides.

    TMC sources said at least 10 turncoats, including three MLAs and one MP, contacted the party and urged them to be allowed to return. The party, however, is yet to give a nod to accept the turncoats.

    Sarala, who had switched camp despite her candidature was announced for Habibpur Assembly constituency in Malda, expressed her desire to return to the TMC on Sunday, a day after Mamata’s former close aide Sonali Guha made a similar request. 

    “I committed a mistake and want Didi (Mamata) to pardon me for that. If she accepts me, I will stay with her and work for the party diligently,” said Sarala.

    Similarly, Amal Acharya, former MLA of Itahar in North Dinajpur, admitted that the decision of joining the saffron camp was a wrong decision.

    “I was hurt after being denied ticket in this Assembly elections. I joined the BJP. But after the people of West Bengal gave their verdict in favour of the TMC, the BJP started playing the politics of vendetta. They engaged CBI to arrest three TMC MLAs, including two ministers. In protest against this, I decided to quit the BJP and return to my old party,” he said.

    Sources in the TMC said most of the turncoats are now feeling that they are nowhere in Bengal’s political arena after the BJP lost the electoral battle.

    “With the TMC emerging victorious with a thumping majority in the recent Assembly elections, now they are trying to regain their foothold on the soil of Bengal’s politics. The turncoats, both who were fielded but failed to win and those who were denied ticket by the BJP, found themselves completely sidelined in the saffron camp,’’ said a senior TMC leader.

    BJP’s state president Dilip Ghosh said those who expressed their desire to return to the TMC admitted that their decision of joining the BJP was a wrong decision.

    “It was their mistake, not BJP’s. They joined our party with expectations and when they found it was not fulfilled, they are showing interest to return to their old party,” he said.

    TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said not only these three turncoats but many others, who had defected to the BJP, are showing interest to return and writing our leaders.

    “The party has not taken any stance about these turncoats willing to re-join the TMC,” he said.

  • Toolkit case: Chhattisgarh police serve notice on BJP’s Sambit Patra

    By PTI
    RAIPUR: Raipur police in Chhattisgarh asked BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra to appear before it in person or through video-conferencing at 4pm on Sunday in connection with an FIR lodged against him and senior colleague Raman Singh over an alleged fake toolkit, officials said.

    The FIR was filed in Civil Lines police station on May 19 on the complaint of an NSUI functionary who alleged Singh, Patra and others had circulated a fake toolkit using the letterhead of the Congress.

    An official said not complying with the notice would attract legal action.

    Similar notice has been served on Singh asking him to remain present in his residence at 12:30pm on Monday for recording of statement in connection with the case, the Civil Lines police official added.

  • ‘Mistake to have joined BJP’: After Sonali Guha, now Sarala Murmu wants to rejoin TMC 

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: With the TMC having emerged victorious with a thumping majority in the recently concluded assembly elections, turncoats who had quit the party to join the BJP seem to be making a beeline for re-entry into the Mamata Banerjee camp, the latest being Sarala Murmu.

    Murmu, who had switched camp as she was reportedly unhappy with the ticket that was given to her by the ruling party, has expressed her desire to return to the TMC, a day after Banerjee’s former aide, Sonali Guha, made a similar appeal.

    Claiming that it was a mistake on her part to have joined the BJP, Murmu said that she wants party supremo Mamata Banerjee to pardon her.

    “If she accepts me, I will stay with her and work for the party diligently,” Murmu told reporters at her Malda home. Murmu was nominated from Habibpur seat in Malda, but party sources had then claimed that she was keen on contesting the election from Maldaha constituency.

    “I committed a mistake and want Didi (Banerjee) to pardon me for that,” she said.

    Former TMC MLA Sonali Guha had on Saturday written to Banerjee, apologising to her for leaving the party.

    The four-time MLA from Satgachhia in South 24 Parganas district, in a letter which she also shared on social media, said, “The way a fish cannot stay out of the water, I will not be able to live without you, ‘Didi’.

    I seek your forgiveness and if you don’t forgive me, I won’t be able to live.

    Please allow me to come back, and spend the rest of my life in your affection.

  • Chhattisgarh: BJP, Congress clash over CM’s photo on COVID-19 vaccine certificates

    By PTI
    RAIPUR: The BJP and Congress were on Saturday engaged in a war of words in Chhattisgarh over the use of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel’s photograph in digital COVID-19 vaccination certificates being issued to people in the 18-44 age group.

    While the BJP criticized the move and called it cheap publicity, the Congress said there was nothing wrong in it as the cost of vaccination for this segment in the state was being borne by the Baghel government.

    The state government, on May 12, launched its portal ‘CG Teeka’ for registration of vaccine beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group, and those who have registered and have got vaccinated are being given digital certificates with a photograph of Baghel.

    “When the state government is bearing the cost of vaccination of people in the 18-44 years category, then it is no longer the Centre’s programme. When it has become a state programme, then there should be no objection in having the photo of the state’s chief minister on certificates,” state’s Health Minister TS Singh Deo told reporters.

    “The Centre is funding vaccination of people above 45 years of age and certificates issued in this category through the CoWIN portal bears the photograph of the prime minister,” he added.

    However, BJP MLA and former minister Brijmohan Agrawal said, “The Chhattisgarh government is focusing more on photo publicity instead of vaccinating youths. The application which they have launched has crashed”.

    The entire country is using the Centre’s app, which is working well, but just for this photo gimmick, the Baghel government has launched its own app here, he added.

    “It is also to be seen whether the certificates issued by the state government will be eligible for travel abroad,” the BJP leader said.

  • TMC turncoat Sonali Guha who joined BJP writes to Mamata, wants to come back

    By Express News Service
    KOLKATA: Former MLA Sonali Guha, who joined the BJP after being denied a ticket by the TMC in the Assembly elections, has decided to quit the saffron camp and wrote an open letter to Mamata Banerjee expressing her interest to return to the fold of the ruling party. She also apologised for her wrong decision to quit the TMC.

    On her Twitter handle, Sonali wrote, “I am writing this with a broken heart that I took the wrong decision of joining another party after being emotional. I could not get accustomed there. The way a fish cannot stay out of water, I will not be able to live without you Didi. I seek your forgiveness and if you don’t forgive me, I won’t be able to live. Please allow me to come back and spend the rest of my life in your affection.”

    Sonali joined the BJP two days after the TMC announced the list of candidates. The four-time MLA, once considered to be the shadow of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, was among the slew of TMC MLAs who switched over to the BJP before the Assembly elections.

    Kunal Ghosh, the spokesperson of the TMC, said, “The party has not yet taken any decision to accept those who had left the party during the tough time that it faced before the elections.”

  • Dissent in BJP over Indore curfew extension? Vijayvargiya tweets against norms tightening

    By PTI
    INDORE: A day after ‘janta curfew’ in Indore in Madhya Pradesh was tightened by eight days as a “last attack on the viral infection”, senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya in a tweet on Friday asked if such a move was needed in a “disciplined city”.

    “What was the need to thrust upon an undemocratic and dictatorial decision on a disciplined city like Indore? The decision which is being widely condemned should be reviewed taking on board administration and public representatives,” Vijayvargiya tweeted.

    Explaining the move to reporters, collector Manish Singh said, “Cases of coronavirus are on the decline. The tightening of curfew was the last attack on the viral infection. Hopefully, this would bring about more improvement and open up business activities from June 1 slowly and gradually.”

    CM Chouhan, while addressing crisis management groups here online on Thursday, had said the aim was to enforce corona curfew in the state till May 31 “to clear the way for restoring normal life slowly and gradually.”

    Meanwhile, authorities, quoting an official order, said wholesale and retail grocery stores will remain closed along with fruit and vegetable outlets till May 28, while companies would home deliver groceries from 6 am to 5 pm during this period.

    Indore has an active caseload of 10,577, the highest for any district in the state.

    It added 937 cases in the last 24 hours and witnessed eight deaths from the infection.

    Madhya Pradesh on Friday reported 4,384 new coronavirus cases and 79 fatalities that raised the tally of infections to 7,57,119 and the toll to 7,394, an official from the state health department said.

    The recoveries outnumbered the fresh infections, bringing the count of active cases below the 70,000-mark to 67,625.

    With the addition of 9,405 patients discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, the count of recoveries in the state has reached 6,82,100, the official said.

    Indore’s caseload went up to 1,43,609, after 937 persons tested positive for the infection, while Bhopal’s tally rose by 609 to 1,16,481, he said.

    With 11 deaths in the day, Bhopal’s count of fatalities went up to 895 and eight casualties took Indore’s toll to 1,294, he said.

    Indore is now left with 10,577 active cases, while Bhopal has 10,339 patients undergoing treatment, the official added.

    As per the health department’s release, 78,268 swab samples were tested during the day, taking the total number of tests conducted in the state to 91,48,503.

    Madhya Pradesh has recorded 1,93,792 cases and 1,778 fatalities so far this month, it was stated.

    Coronavirus figures in MP are as follows: Total cases 7,57,119, new cases 4,384, death toll 7,394, recovered 6,82,100, active cases 67,625, number of tests so far 91,48,503.