The Trinamul Congress on Friday accused the BJP of using all efforts to obstruct its all-women “fact finding” committee from visiting violence-hit Jahangirpuri in New Delhi.
A five-member team of senior women MPs headed by Barasat legislator Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar was sent to the violence-hit Jahangirpuri which has been on boil since April 16. Sources said the decision of sending the committee was the idea of the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, to get a ground report from the area and mount an attacks on law and order in Delhi, where the policing is under the direct control of the Amit Shah-headed Union home ministry.
The other members of the team were Uluberia MP Sajda Ahmed, Birbhum MP Satabdi Roy and Hooghly MP Aparupa Poddar who visited the capital on Friday.
“Police not only stopped us but also tried to mislead us to other destinations in the opposite direction of the violence hit spot. We were Repeatedly stopped and being driven away by the senior cops. However, using uncommon lanes, we were able to reach the victims who are mostly Bengali speaking and took the ground report,” said Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar on Friday evening.
“We spoke to several victims within a short time before the police drove us away from the area. We would submit a complete report to our chief minister. It will have accounts of the eyewitnesses and victims,” she said.
Trinamul leaders said “fact-finding” committees of the BJP had freely roamed around in Bengal to collect reports from the ground after incidents like the Bogtui carnage and alleged gang-rape at Hanskhali in Nadia district.
“If the BJP had nothing to suppress, then why did they obstruct roads of our committee members to Jahangirpuri? We did not stop the BJP leaders from visiting Bogtui or Hanskhali as the democracy prevails here,” said Trinamul spokesperson Kunal Ghosh.
Trinamul sources said the top party leaders had planned to send the team to Delhi to gauge the situation after violence in Jahangirpur as part of a plan to counter the BJP’s practice of sending such delegations to Bengal.
Trinamul sent the team of women MPs to get the ground reports as part of a litmus-test on how the BJP reacts to the teams of opposition parties.
“Now, it is an issue for us to know the undemocratic practice of BJP before the Lok Sabha polls in 2024. We would share the report and experience of members of the fact finding committees with anti-BJP political parties across the country,” said a senior Trinamul leader in Calcutta.
Trinamul insiders said the party wants to take the issue of Jahangirpuri violence from the forefront when several political parties especially CPM are on the ground to raise their voice against bulldozing houses and establishments of the suspected persons involved to create violence in the area.
The CPM has moved the Supreme Court in support of the ‘bulldozer victims’ in Jahangirpuri violence and party’s politburo member Brinda Karat is playing a significant role to fight on the ground to counter the policy of bulldozing houses and shops rampantly.
“The party wants to take the Jahangirpuri issue seriously as it proves how the communal harmony and democratic activities in the Capital have been bulldozed. It would be one of the issues to rise against BJP,” said a Trinamul leader.
Mamata is especially interested in the issue as the Jahangirpuri area is known as a habitat of huge people from Bengal and the BJP is trying to fix the charge on the people with connection to Bengal. In several social media handles, saffron sympathisers had raised the issue that Bengali speaking people including the Rohingya community are responsible for the violence in the capital.
Apart from Delhi, Trinamul in Bengal had started attacking BJP by circulating a photograph of Ansar — accused in Jahangirpuri violence in several saffron events to prove political connection of the accused person.
Several senior party leaders including Trinamul’s secretary general Partha Chatterjee, minister Indranil Sen had on Friday tweeted the pictures of Ansar in BJP’s event.
Trinamul sources said the move was taken after BJP had earlier attacked Trinamul showing a picture of Ansar with a Trinamul councillor from Haldia.