In a span of 18 months of the Trinamool Congress' rule, the government police have fired upon its own people on at least five occasions.
The latest incident in which one person was killed in Tehatta (Nadia district) in south Bengal on November 14 has taken the total toll of those killed to six. Several others were injured in all these incidents.
The recent incidents of police firing in Dubrajpur and Tehatta on farmers and villagers have put the state government on the defensive and the opposition political parties are trying to foment agitation taking advantage of that.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, the newly appointed minister of state, Railways, has described the situation in Bengal as “heading towards anarchy”.
On 14 November, one villager was killed and a few others injured when police fired upon a group of villagers at Tehatta in Nadia district of South Bengal. The villagers were agitating against the police as they were denied permission to organise the Jagadhdhatri Puja ceremony on a government land where they had been holding the puja ceremony for years.
Two days earlier in another incident at a village in Dubrajpur in Birbhum, police fired upon villagers injuring several of them. The police put the blame on the local villagers and the SDPO Shailesh Shah claimed that police had to open fire in self-defense as the armed mob attacked them violently.
After the incident, the police put a road block in the area and did not allow opposition leaders to visit the place.
But yesterday, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury sneaked into the village and met the villagers there. Later, he claimed that the police, in the name of conducting search to recover weapons was terrorising the villagers.
The Congress leader commented, “West Bengal is steadily heading towards anarchy.”
Alluring to the period of political unrest in Bengal in the late 60’s, which caused flight of capital from the state, he said, “This time also flight of capital would take place."
Criticising Mamata Banerjee’s ‘populist’ policy of offering railway jobs against land as ‘impractical’, the minister of state, Railways said, “Indian Railways has 17 zones of which eastern zone is one. If the job against land policy is to be implemented, then in eastern zone alone around 1,70,000 jobs would have to be given out. This is not feasible."
Meanwhile, the Mamata Banerjee government is still trying to deflect all criticism against it by leveling charges of conspiracy against its detractors. Mamata herself blamed the opposition for Tehatta incident and accused them of playing with fire and trying to add communal color to it.
Adhir retorted back, “Mamata herself often changes color like a chameleon. Sometimes she joins BJP, sometimes Congress.”
In response to Banerjee's call to mobilise support to bring a ‘No Trust Motion’ in the upcoming session of parliament, the state Congress has also decided to start street level agitation against the Mamata government. According to PCC president Pradip Bhattacharjee, on 22 November they will observe ‘Protest Day’ to condemn the recent police firings.
