The convoy of the BJP chief JP Nadda was attacked in West Bengal (Archive)
Calcutta:
The two main bureaucrats of West Bengal have asked to be excused from meeting with the Secretary of the Interior of the Union, who summoned them to New Delhi on December 14 on the situation of law and order in the state, with special reference the attack on the convoy of BJP president JP Nadda on Friday. .
The request to “be excused” from Monday’s meeting is likely to become the latest point of tension between the center and the Bengal government.
The secretary general and the director general of the police sought to be excused because the convoy attack “was already being examined,” the state government said in a letter to the Union Secretary of the Interior, Ajay Bhalla.
“While more reports are being obtained and compiled, given the circumstances, I would like to ask you to kindly dispense with the presence of state officials at the meeting, considering that the state government is already addressing this issue with the utmost seriousness,” said Chief Secretary Alapan. Bandyopadhyay said in the letter.
The meeting was called through a letter this morning to the chief secretary and DGP from an undersecretary at MHA. The purpose: “to discuss the situation of law and order … including the recent attacks on protected category Z,” said the letter from the Interior Ministry that summoned the agents.
The center’s convocation followed Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s report to Interior Minister Amit Shah, detailing “the deterioration of law and order” in Bengal.
Dhankhar, governor of Bengal for just over a year, has been accusing Mamata Banerjee of plunging the state into anarchy.
Nadda’s convoy was attacked with bricks, stones and sticks some 25 miles south of Kolkata on Thursday afternoon. Some leaders were injured and cars damaged in the incident, which the BJP said was the work of supporters of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.
The governor alleged a serious security error on the part of the state administration and accused what he called the “political police” of failing to protect Mr. Nadda despite his being a category z protégé. The state government has denied the accusation, blaming the incident on “too many cars” in the convoy and allegedly the provocative gestures of a BJP leader.
“In fact, yesterday we had made elaborate arrangements for the security coverage of the protégés. The West Bengal police had provided a bulletproof car and pilot for Mr. Nadda, in addition to the escort (vehicle by state, personnel of CRPF) and PSO (Personal Security Officers) to which he is entitled as a protected category Z “, said the chief secretary in his letter to the Secretary of the Interior of the Union.
“However, the tagging of many vehicles to the protected convoys made the situation difficult to handle, because normally, security authorities must handle a protected convoy of a few vehicles,” he wrote.
The chief bureaucrat said that seven people had been arrested and three FIRs (first information reports) had been submitted.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has hinted that the BJP organized the attack and falsely accused the men of her party as part of a political conspiracy in the run-up to Bengal’s six-month elections.
When the incident occurred, Mr. Nadda’s convoy was heading to Diamond Harbor, the parliamentary constituency of the Chief Minister’s nephew, Abhishek Banerjee. The cars were attacked with stones and sticks by a mob allegedly of Trinamool supporters. The BJP said its leaders like Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy were wounded.
“Bengal has descended into an era of tyranny, anarchy and darkness under the Trinamool government. The way in which political violence has been institutionalized and taken to the extreme in West Bengal under the TMC government is sad and disturbing,” Shah tweeted.
He said the central government was taking the incident “seriously” and that the West Bengal government “will have to answer to the peace-loving people of the state for this sponsored violence.”
Trinamool said today that a BJP leader provoked the violence. The party also described the convocation of the center as totally unconstitutional.
“BJP leader Rakesh Singh was in a convoy in front of him (Mr. Nadda). He has 59 criminal cases against him and he made provocative gestures to the crowd. An FIR (First Information Report) has been recorded in his against and seven Han people were arrested for the incident, “Trinamool Congressman Kalyan Banerjee told the media.