News Analysis India

Tag: Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar

  • Jahangirpuri violence: TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar says residents ‘caged’, suffering due to restrictions

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: The residents of northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri are struggling to make ends meet and suffering due to the restrictions imposed in the area in the wake of the clashes last week, Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar claimed on Saturday.

    Dastidar, who led an all-women fact-finding team of the TMC to Jahangirpuri on Friday, alleged residents of Jahangirpuri’s C-Block, the epicentre of the April 16 violence, have been “caged” and are not allowed to come out.

    She told PTI that the team found that people are “under threat” and living in fear.

    They also complained of restricted access to water.

    Clashes broke out between two communities during a Hanuman Jayanti procession in northwest Delhi’s Jahangirpuri last Saturday, leaving eight police personnel and a local resident injured.

    According to police, there was stone-pelting and arson during the clashes and some vehicles were also torched.

    All points of entry to the C-Block have been heavily barricaded and security has been beefed up following the clashes.

    Dastidar said the TMC team managed to enter Jahangirpuri despite the restrictions and spoke to many residents before being stopped by police.

    “Residents of the C-Block have been caged.

    They could not come out and were also not allowed to speak to us.

    “There were some children who helped us enter the residential area. Before the police stopped us, we had already met a number of families living there. We also visited the back lane of the mosque and spoke to people who were present there when the violence took place. We have observed that people are under threat and fear,” the TMC leader said.

    She said that many of the residents are scrap dealers and unable to earn their daily wage due to the restrictions.

    “We went to extend our support to these residents. We are planning how to help them,” Dastidar said.

    TMC MP Saugata Roy said the delegation managed to speak to nearly 200 people in Jahangirpuri.

    “They will submit a report to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee by tomorrow (April 24) and after that, the party will take a decision. We are ready to extend help to them (Jahangirpuri residents),” Roy told PTI.

    In a tweet on Friday, senior TMC leader Aparupa Poddar, who was also part of the party’s fact-finding team, alleged they were stopped from meeting residents as the Centre was scared of the truth coming out.

    “Police stopped the all women fact-finding team of @AITCofficial which was sent by @MamataOfficial didi for enquiring about the #Jahangirpuri incident. BJP Govt & Delhi Police is (are) scared of the truth of the violence being exposed if the delegation was allowed to meet the victims,” she said.

    So far, 25 people have been arrested in the Jahangirpuri violence case by the police, while two juveniles have been apprehended.

    The Crime Branch of the Delhi Police is investigating the case.

  • Trinamool MPs ‘dodge’ police, meet kin of farmers killed in Lakhimpur violence

    By PTI

    LAKHIMPUR KHERI: A delegation of TMC MPs on Tuesday met families of farmers killed in the Lakhimpur violence, claiming that they dodged policemen by posing as tourists.

    The TMC delegation comprised MPs Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, Sushmita Dev, Abir Ranjan Biswas, Pratima Mondal and Dola Sen.

    While on their way, the UP Police tried to stop them, the TMC leaders claimed in a statement.

    They posed as tourists on being stopped by police, claimed the MPs of the Mamata Banerjee-led party.

    Dola Sen said they were trying to reach Lakhimpur Kheri since Sunday and they could reach there two days later.

    Dastidar and Dev went to Palia tehsil of the district to meet the kin of Lavpreet Singh (19) while others travelled to Dhaurahra tehsil to meet relatives of Nachatar Singh.

    Both were cremated during the day at their native places.

    Rajya Sabha MP Sushmita Dev, who recently switched over to the TMC from the Congress, said, “Heartbreaking to meet the family of the young farmer who was crushed to death in Lakhimpur Kheri.”

    “AITC chairperson Mamata Banerjee stands with the farmers to repeal the black laws and stop these brutal injustices. She fought in Singur and assured to continue fighting for farmers of India,” the MP added.

    Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said, “The accused is the son of a politician but he has killed someone and he must be penalised. India is a democratic country but democracy is missing for the last few years.”

    “The BJP is ruling like an autocratic government. They are putting everyone behind the bars except the accused and killing whosoever they want. PM Modi is in Lucknow, why didn’t he visit Lakhimpur-Kheri,” Dastidar said.

  • BJP churning out fake news items; bringing in ‘tourists’ from outside in poll-bound Bengal: TMC

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: The Trinamool Congress on Wednesday accused the BJP of producing fake news items and described saffron party leaders visiting West Bengal from outside the state in the poll-bound state as “tourists” who have no idea of its heritage and language.

    Senior TMC MP and party spokesperson Dr Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar also charged the BJP with seeking to cling to power by “killing people, instigating riots and dividing people”.

    “They (BJP) are flush with cash. They have deployed some youngsters in a big building to churn out one fake news after another,” she said.

    Referring to certain videos and news items being circulated on social media, Ghosh Dastidar described them as “fake news produced from the factory of the BJP”.

    She alleged that the saffron party is bringing in leaders from outside the state who utter “wrong Bengali words with distorted accent.

    In West Bengal, the BJP has turned into a party of tourists.

    ” These “visitors” are ignorant of the heritage and traditions of West Bengal as they sit on the chair of icons like Rabindranath Tagore and place their own photo above that of the Nobel laureate poet in festoons, she alleged.

    Ahead of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Bolpur close to Santiniketan, which is famous as the Rabindranath Tagore’s abode for long years, in December, hoardings with his picture above that of the bard in the same frame appeared in the town causing outrage.

    The hoardings were later removed.

    “Tagore had composed the song, ‘Amar Sonar Bangla’ (My Golden Bengal).

    The BJP is also promising to make a sonar Bangla (after coming to power in the state).

    But these people are insulting the state and its people by distorting Bengali words by pronouncing them incorrectly.

    “They have no idea about the sacrifice of thousands of Bengalis for the language.

    They only know how to vandalise the bust of Vidyasagar and sit on the chair used by Tagore,” Ghosh Dastidar said.

    A bust of the iconic social reformer was desecrated in a college in Kolkata during Amit Shah’s roadshow in May 2019.

    The TMC alleged that BJP activists were behind the incident.

    Shah had also visited Visva-Bharati university in December and went to the Rabindra Bhavan, a museum, and the Upasana Griha (the prayer hall) and other buildings on the campus.

    There were reports on social media that Shah had sat on Tagore’s chair during the visit.

    However, it was not confirmed by the university authorities.

    Stating that several BJP leaders from outside Bengal are visiting North 24 Parganas district in which her constituency Barasat is located, Ghosh Dastidar said, “They may not be aware that a revolutionary like Titumir was born on the soil of district, they don’t know Bengal.

    ” Syed Mir Nisar Ali, better known as Titumir, fought against the British rulers in the 19th century.

    The senior TMC leader described the BJP as a comparatively young and comparatively inexperienced party” to have come to power at the Centre.

    “In its six years in power, the BJP has devastated the economy and circumvented the rule of law.

    They want to cling to power at any cost – by killing people, instigating riots, dividing people,” she alleged.

    The BJP government in Uttar Pradesh “had prevented the Trinamool Congress parliamentary party delegation from visiting Hathras to meet the family of the raped and murdered Dalit woman.

    One thousand police personnel stopped 3-4 MPs.

    Here, they can go anywhere they want.

    Such curbs don’t take place in Bengal,” she added.

    To a question on senior CPI(M) leader Ashok Bhattacharya’s claim that BCCI President and former Indian cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, who recently suffered a mild heart attack, was under pressure to join politics in poll- bound West Bengal, Ghosh Dastidar said that the TMC did not exert any such pressure on him.

    The physician MP, however, said that stress might have contributed to cause such a situation.

    The economy of the country witnessed 23.

    9 per cent negative growth in the first quarter of the current fiscal during the BJP rule at Centre, while 43 per cent more employment opportunities were created in West Bengal during the pandemic, she said.

    Ghosh Dastidar claimed that 77 lakh marginal farmers were benefitted from ‘Jal dharo jal bharo’ project in Bengal by getting job cards, pisciculture in waterbodies and cooperative fish farming.

    She said numerous Kisan mandis were set up to help farmers get proper price for their produce and 99 per cent of farmers got Kishan Credit Card in North 24 Parganas district.

    “In contrast, 45-46 farmers have died so far during the ongoing agitation on Delhi border.

    But the Centre is unresponsive to their demand for withdrawing the three anti- people farm bills,” she said.