News Analysis India

Tag: West Bengal

  • West Bengal’s ‘politics over bodies’ turns counter-productive for BJP

    By IANS

    KOLKATA: It was sometime in the middle of 2007 that the movement against land acquisition for industry started gaining momentum. Since that time the culture of “politics over dead bodies” became a part of the political landscape of West Bengal.

    At that time, the current ruling party in the state, the Trinamool Congress, as the then principal opposition party in West Bengal, nurtured the strategy against the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee-led Left Front government. In the initial years as the principal opposition party in West Bengal after 2011, the CPI(M) too made some attempts to nurture this same practice. And now the BJP as the principal opposition party in the state is depending on the same old practice as seen in the case of the mysterious death of BJP youth leader, Arjun Chaurasia.

    However, in this case the “politics over bodies” has backfired. The BJP tried hard to establish the death as murder and even Union Home Minister Amit Shah, on April 6, 2022 made a public statement declaring the death as a murder and demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation probe in the matter. However, the BJP had gone slightly on the backfoot on the issue after the report of the post-mortem conducted by defence doctors at the Kolkata Command Hospital declared the reason of death as ante-mortem in nature which strengthened the Trinamool Congress’s suicide theory.

    IANS talked to a section of legal brains, retired police officers, psychologists and political observers on the pros and cons of “politics over bodies”. All of them had only the negative points to highlight in this long-nurtured political strategy in West Bengal.

    According to retired Indian Police Service officer and former additional director general of the West Bengal police, Nazrul Islam, how fruitful will be the “politics over bodies,” for a particular party depends on the existing mass base of the party.

    “From 2007 till 2011 the politics over bodies helped the Trinamool Congress gain political mileage because at that point of time there was a pro-Trinamool sympathy wave and a parallel anti-Left anger wave in the state. But look at the current situation in West Bengal. Parallel court cases are going on in two incidents of mysterious death in West Bengal. The first is that of Anis Khan and the second is that of Arjun Chaurasia. But Anis was first with the CPI(M) and then with the Indian Secular Front, both lacking enough ground-level mass base in the state. So, politics over his death has not gained that momentum which the death of Arjun Chaurasia has, even though in the case of Khan’s death the murder charge allegations are directly against police personnel,” Islam said.

    Calcutta High Court criminal lawyer Kaushik Gupta told IANS that just as the political parties should behave responsibly in avoiding politics over bodies as far as possible, similarly the state administration or rather the police administration should also work within the legal periphery to foil any attempt on these lines.

    “What have we seen on May 6, 2022. The police personnel had a tough time in recovering Arjun Chaurasia’s body as the BJP supporters constantly created obstacles. The police were successful in the third attempt to recover the body but after facing a lot of obstructions and even scuffles with the agitators. The Indian Penal Code prescribes severe penalties for those obstructing a government servant in performing his or her duty. I am sure that the police on that day were aware of that. But they did not apply that,” Gupta said.

    Psychologists feel that this politics over bodies is an expression of the ideological bankruptcy and mediocrity in the political leadership. Speaking to IANS, Tirthankar Guha Thakurata, a faculty in Kolkata-based KPC Medical College & Hospital and a visiting faculty with Calcutta University’s Department of Psychology, said that politics over bodies is an extremely easy path to get media coverage and instant popularity. “This happens when the political leadership suffers from mediocrity and lacks constructive and innovative ways of registering protest. It is not that the political leaders are not aware of the risks of this politics becoming counter-productive. Still, they resort to the same cliched strategy out of greed for quick media footage,” Guha Thakurata said.

    Political observer Dr Rajagopal Dhar Chakraborty said that in a state like West Bengal, which is known for political violence, it is normal for ‘politics over bodies’. “Incidents of caste violence or religious violence in West Bengal had been traditionally much lower compared to the cow-belt states. But the incidents of political violence compensate for that. So, the root of politics over bodies is in the long tradition of political violence. Until there is a marked improvement in the political atmosphere in the state, there will be no respite from this politics over bodies,” he said.

  • BJYM activist’s autopsy report indicates death by hanging; TMC asks Shah to apologise

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The autopsy report of BJYM activist Arjun Chourasia, conducted by Command Hospital here and submitted to Calcutta High Court on Tuesday, indicated that he died by hanging and the ligature mark on his neck was ante-mortem in nature.

    The report submitted the post-mortem report in a sealed cover before a division bench presided by Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava.

    The Trinamool Congress was quick to launch an attack on the BJP which had been holding demonstrations after the body of the activist was found hanging in an abandoned house as well as an apology from Union Home Minister Amit Shah who had described it as a “political murder”.

    Shah had visited Kashipur and demanded a CBI probe into Chourasia’s death, claiming a culture of violence and a fear psychosis prevailed in West Bengal.

    “The union home minister had called it a political murder even before the probe was over. He should now apologise to the people for trying to tarnish the image of the state,” senior TMC leader and minister Shashi Panja said.

    The TMC leader added, “The BJP is continuously maligning the people of Bengal. This stems from its failure to win the assembly election.”

    Reacting to the TMC remarks, the state BJP unit said it would not be right to comment on a sub-judice matter.

    The autopsy was conducted by a team of experts constituted by the head of Command Hospital, a defence healthcare establishment, as per an order of the court passed on Friday.

    The bench noted in its order that the findings relating to the cause of death of Chourasia is “hanging” and the ligature mark on his neck is “ante-mortem”.

    The post-mortem report was handed over by the court to Advocate General S N Mookherjee representing the West Bengal government. It directed that the viscera sample be handed over to police authority concerned.

    BJP leader and lawyer Priyanka Tibrewal had submitted earlier to the court that the family does not have faith in the investigation being conducted by the Kolkata Police, which has already formed a special investigation team to probe Chourasia’s death.

    Claiming that Chourasia was one of many BJP workers who had to leave their homes during post-poll violence and had recently returned to his residence, Tibrewal also prayed before the court that the case be handed over to the CBI in accordance with its earlier order that directed probe by the central agency in cases of murders, rapes and attempts to rape that took place after the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections.

    AG submitted that the police has formed an SIT to investigate the matter, treating it as a case of unnatural death. The bench directed that the matter will be taken up for hearing again on May 19.

  • Difficult to stop infiltration, smuggling without local administration’s support: Shah in Bengal

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday said that it is difficult to stop infiltration and smuggling without the support of the local administration.

    He, however, also asserted that soon a political situation would emerge wherein the local authorities would be “forced” to extend help due to public pressure.

    “The BSF has to ensure that borders are impregnable. It is their constitutional right to protect the frontiers. But it is difficult to stop infiltration and smuggling without the support of the local administration. However, we have faith that soon a political situation would come up wherein you will get that support due to public pressure. Everybody will be forced to extend all support,” Shah said while addressing a BSF programme in North 24 Parganas district.

    The ruling Trinamool Congress reacted sharply to Shah’s statement and said it is the BSF’s duty to protect the borders.

    “He is trying to put the onus on others. It is the duty of the BSF to secure the borders. The local administration has provided all help to the force,” TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said.

    The Union home minister lauded the Border Security Force’s role in securing the country’s borders.

    “One of the main focuses of our government is to ensure the country is secured from both outside and inside. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the country is moving forward in every sector as our borders are secured,” he said.

    Shah said that the Centre has come up with a five-year programme to benefit the women jawans of BSF.

    “I am well aware of the hardships faced by jawans at the borders. That is why we have come up with housing programme and various other policies to ensure that jawans get to spend more time with their families. The Narendra Modi government is committed to ensuring that our jawans work with minimum difficulties at borders. We will leave no stone unturned in solving their problems,” he said.

    Shah lauded the BSF’s role in the Bangladesh Liberation War while laying the foundation stone of ‘Maitri Sangrahalaya’ museum at Haridaspur.

    Earlier in the day, Shah inaugurated floating border outposts in Hingalganj in Sundarbans and flagged off a boat ambulance during his two-day visit to West Bengal, the first since the 2021 assembly elections. He also interacted with senior BSF officials.

  • Three killed in rain-related incidents across southern West Bengal

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Three people were killed in rain-related incidents across southern West Bengal, police said on Sunday. Rains accompanied by a squall hit the southern Bengal districts, including Kolkata, on Saturday evening.

    A woman and her son were killed in a lightning strike in Nandigram in Purba Medinipur district, police said. A man died as a bamboo gate collapsed on him in Kharagpur in Paschim Medinipur district, they said.

    Trees were uprooted in several areas as the squall along with rains brought much relief to the people from the scorching heat.

  • Five arrested over crude bomb blasts in Bengal’s Malda

    By PTI

    ENGLISH BAZAR: Five people have been arrested in connection with crude bomb blasts in West Bengal’s Malda district, police said on Monday.

    Four children were injured after the crude bombs they were playing with, mistaking those for balls, exploded in Kaliachak’s Gopalnagar village close to the India-Bangladesh border on Sunday.

    The five people who have been arrested are local residents, Superintendent of Police Amitava Maiti said.

    The condition of two children, who were critically injured and admitted to Malda Medical College and Hospital, is stable, he said.

    A bomb disposal squad is defusing the crude bombs discovered underneath a tree beside a local mosque and scanning the area to find out whether there are more such explosives in the vicinity.

  • 13 illegal Rohingya immigrants nabbed in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri

    By PTI

    JALPAIGURI: Thirteen people, alleged to be illegal Rohingya immigrants, were apprehended at the New Jalpaiguri railway station in north Bengal, police said. Among them were six children and two women, a senior police officer said.

    They had arrived at the New Jalpaiguri station in two groups from New Delhi and Jammu on Friday evening to catch a train to Assam when the Government Railway Police (GRP) spotted them, he said. After questioning, they were apprehended and a case filed under The Foreigners Act, he added. “They were on the way to Rohingya camps in Bangladesh, via Assam and Tripura,” the officer said.

  • BJP grappling with shrinking vote base in West Bengal amid internal bickerings

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A year after its drubbing in assembly polls, the West Bengal unit of the BJP is struggling to hold its flock together amid the slide in its vote share, as reflected in the series of electoral losses since then.

    The state unit of the saffron camp, which has been experiencing churnings since the change of guard late last year, is still licking its wounds from the assembly poll defeat, with several leaders voicing concerns or raising complaints over the state leadership’s style of functioning.

    As efforts made by the top brass to unite the state BJP unit seemed to have hit the wall, all eyes are now on the likely visit of Union Home Minister Amit Shah, who during his tenure as the party’s national president was instrumental in creating its inroads into Bengal.

    “Whatever has been happening is unfortunate. It has led to an uncomfortable situation for all of us. The party leadership is looking into it, trying to resolve all problems,” BJP state spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya told PTI.

    ALSO READ: Experienced leaders should not be sidelined, says Dilip Ghosh to West Bengal BJP chief

    The party, which had been grappling with reverse exodus since the assembly poll debacle with top leaders and legislators, including Babul Supriyo and Mukul Roy, switching over to the TMC, is now plagued by internal rebellion even as state unit chief Sukanta Majumdar urged members to approach him with grievances instead of speaking to mediapersons.

    BJP national secretary Anupam Hazra, who had recently called for introspection within the party, told PTI, “There are complaints against those in charge of the state’s organisation. The leadership here is not functioning democratically and trying to sideline experienced leaders. The new state president, too, is unable to handle the situation.”

    In a similar vein, a BJP state general secretary, who did not wish to be named, said, “If you don’t find out and acknowledge the disease, how will you treat it? To pretend everything is all right when it is not is like living in fool’s paradise.”

    The slide in vote share that began with Bhabanipur bypolls — from 35 per cent in May 2021 to 22 per cent in October last year — has continued unabated since then.

    ALSO READ: More leave Bengal BJP in aftermath of bypoll setbacks

    In Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls, held last December, the party managed to get 20 per cent vote share — down from 29 per cent that it had bagged in the civic body-administered areas during assembly elections.

    Two months later, during elections to 108 other civic bodies, the BJP managed to garner just 12.57 per cent of votes and failed to clinch any municipality.

    In last year’s assembly polls, the party had pocketed nearly 36 per cent votes in these areas.

    The recent by-polls to the Asansol Lok Sabha seat, which was snatched away by the TMC, and the Ballygunge assembly seat, where the Left Front emerged as the first runner-up, only added to the BJP’s downswing in Bengal.

    According to saffron camp sources, the internal rebellion that had brewing since the state poll fiasco only grew stronger after leaders such as Ritesh Tiwari, Jay Prakash Majumdar and Sayantan Basu were dropped from the new office bearers’ panel.

    Although the party initially cracked the whip by suspending Majumdar, who was quick to switch over to the TMC, and Tiwari, it failed to stem the rebellion.

    ALSO READ: Rift in Bengal BJP widening as MP Locket Chatterjee meets dissident leaders

    State BJP sources pointed out that the lack of a dedicated central observer has also augmented the crisis, with BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, who has been in charge of Bengal since 2015, seen nowhere since the assembly poll defeat.

    “Kaliashji doesn’t show any interest in party affairs of Bengal. The state leaders do not know who they should approach for problems,” another state BJP leader said.

    BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh, whose tenure as the state unit chief is considered the most successful one, too, has taken a dig at his successor Sukanta Majumdar “over his inexperience” in managing the party affairs.

    Majumdar has declined to comment on the criticism he is facing.

    State vice-president of the saffron party, Rathin Chakraborty, however, said there are just some “trivial issues” within the camp which will be sorted out soon.

    “Whenever a party grows, these issues come with it. All matters would be resolved very soon. The state BJP is a united family,” he told PTI.

    Political analyst Suman Bhattacharya feels that the BJP won’t be able to arrest its slide as it has “lost the plot”.

    “BJP’s growth was inorganic. As it has failed in the assembly polls, the slide that started will continue. Till the time the party can boast of strong homegrown leaders, the situation will not improve,” he said.

    Echoing him, political scientist Biswanath Chakraborty stated that lack of mass movements is loosening the glue within the party.

    “Any political party grows through mass movements. The BJP grew by inducting leaders from other parties. Unless they organise mass movements at the state and local level, there won’t be any change in the situation,” he added.

  • Bengal bypolls: Shah to meet leaders over debacle

    By Express News Service

    KOLKATA:  Upset with the party’s poor show in Asansol, Union Home Minister Amit Shah will meet party functionaries both in north and south Bengal. BJP insiders said Shah was unhappy with the defeat in the Asansol Lok Sabha seat, which was earlier with the party for two previous consecutive terms, and the party candidate’s losing security deposit in Ballygunge.

    With the defeat in the coal belt, the BJP’s number of MPs from Bengal has come down to 17 in the Lok Sabha. Worse, the BJP is seeing discontent among its state organisation, with two BJP MLAs announcing on Sunday their decision to step down from party hierarchy.  

    Shah, who was to visit Bengal this month, will now reach the state in the first week of May. “Though his programme schedules are yet to be finalised, we are told that Shah will meet the leadership of the party’s nine organisational districts in north Bengal. He is likely to return to Kolkata the same day and meet the leaders from south Bengal in Salt Lake,’’ said a senior leader.

    Sources said the central leadership has instructed the Bengal unit to prepare a report pinpointing the reasons for the disastrous performance in the bypolls. ‘’’The findings will be discussed in the meetings with Shah. The party’s organisational pitfalls will also get top priority in the meetings,’’ said the leader.  

    On Sunday, Murshidabad MLA Gaurishankar Ghosh resigned from the post of BJP state secretary and Behrampur MLA Kanchan Moitra announced his decision to step down from the state committee. Both the leaders alleged that incompetent leaders were being given priority in the party. The duo said the lack of experience of the state leadership led to the poor electoral show.

  • Third arrest made in Hanskhali rape case

    By PTI

    HANSKHALI: CBI sleuths on Saturday arrested one person from Ranaghat in West Bengal’s Nadia district for his alleged involvement in the case of a minor girl’s rape and subsequent death in Hanskhali area, a senior official of the agency said This is CBI’s first arrest in the case.

    Two other accused in the case, one of them son of a local TMC leader in Nadia, were earlier apprehended by the state police.

    “The suspect held today, a friend of the local leader’s son, had been hiding in Ranaghat near National-Highway 34. We traced him via mobile tower dump technology. We will be questioning him,” the CBI official said when contacted. He had fled Hanskhali with his mother soon after the case came to light, he stated.

    Tower dump technology is used to find information about cellphones active in a particular area.

    A minor girl was allegedly gangraped at the birthday party of the TMC member’s son, the prime suspect in the case, on April 4. She bled to death hours later, according to her parents who lodged a police complaint five days later.

    During the day, the agency questioned the parents and two cousins of the girl. “Their versions have been recorded. We may call them again if there is a need,” the official said.

    A separate team of CBI sleuths, accompanied by personnel of the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) , in the morning visited the residences of the three accused to collect evidence.

    The central agency has been directed by the Calcutta High Court to probe the incident.

  • BJP fact finding team meets rape victim’s family, criticises WB government 

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A BJP fact-finding team Friday met the family members of the minor girl in Hanshkhali in Nadia district, who died after being allegedly gang-raped earlier in the month, and slammed the state administration for failing to ensure the safety and security of women in the state.

    The team members spoke to the family members and the locals, party sources said. They will submit their report to BJP national president J P Nadda, who formed the fact-finding committee earlier this week.

    The team comprised of the party’s vice-president Rekha Verma, national president of BJP Mahila Morcha Vanathi Srinivasan, party leader Khushbu Sundar and West Bengal MLA Sreerupa Mitra Choudhury, the sources said.

    “Atrocities against women in West Bengal are beyond words. A minor girl was brutally raped and murdered. This proves the administration has failed to ensure the safety and security of women. This is a shameful incident,” Verma told reporters after meeting the family members.

    Echoing her, Mitra Chowdhury said the team spoke to the mother of the victim and criticised West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for making “irresponsible statements” on it.

    “The chief minister who is herself a woman has been making irresponsible statements instead of ensuring that the victim’s family gets justice. Is this expected from a chief minister? The victim’s mother narrated the family’s ordeal. The kind of threat and intimidation the girl’s family members faced is unimaginable,” she said.

    The 14-year-old girl had died after being allegedly gang raped by the son of a ruling TMC panchayat leader at Hanskhali on April 4. Her family lodged the police complaint on April 10 and claimed that the girl’s body was snatched away and cremated.

    The victim’s family had also alleged they were threatened with dire consequence by the accused’s family.

    Calcutta High Court had handed over the investigation to CBI. Reacting to Verma’s comment, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh dubbed the allegations as “baseless”.

    “The women of the state are safe and secure in West Bengal under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee. BJP is quick to send teams to West Bengal but never bothers to send similar teams to Uttar Pradesh, where rape cases were reported from Hathras and Unnao,” he added.

    Ghosh said the fact-finding team intended to malign the state and influence the ongoing CBI probe.

    “This fact-finding committee aims to set guidelines for the central agency on how the probe should be conducted and how to accuse the state government.

    Some incidents have taken place and they are blaming the TMC for it.

    It seems they are yet to digest their defeat in the last West Bengal assembly polls,” he said.

    West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on April 11 publicly expressed doubt over the cause of the minor girl’s death, which her family attributed to gang rape.

    She had claimed that the victim was in a relationship with the prime accused and had wondered whether she was pregnant, a comment which opposition parties strongly criticised.

    Banerjee had also wondered of she died after being slapped by someone.

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