On Saturday the body of a BJP worker was found hanging in Purulia’s Balrampur, a second such incident within a week, after the nephew of state’s chief minister Mamata Banerjee had expressed his intent to make Purulia “opposition free”.
Despite the gruesomeness of the deaths, TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien was seen indulging in insensitive whataboutery in response to the news. The former quiz master who is known for defaming twitter users in the parliament took to Twitter and shockingly blamed the BJP and a Hindu group for the supposed murder:
We strongly condemn this despicable killing.All angles must be probed.The perpetrators of this heinous act must be punished. What role did Jharkhand border have to play? What elements of Bajrang Dal, Maoist or BJP involved. Let the truth be found out through proper investigation
— Derek O’Brien (@derekobrienmp) June 2, 2018
In the tweet above, after making what looked like a token condemnation, Brien proceeds to question the role of Jharkhand border, and involvement of Maoists, BJP and Bajrang Dal elements in the crime.
It thus was unnerving to note that such a senior TMC leader was up in arms trying to pin the blame of the crime on the party whose worker was the one murdered. Such a statement by Brien rattled many twitter users:
From where does he get so much shamefulness? pic.twitter.com/vEOcj6Kg7v
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) June 2, 2018
So shameless MP of @MamataOfficial is blaming Bajrang Dal & BJP for brutal murder of their own worker! Yes, he can say & get away with it because Hindus in Bengal have decided to suffer like this. https://t.co/itkvG9bCPG
— Mihir Jha ✍ (@MihirkJha) June 2, 2018
@derekobrienmp are you condemning these acts or pointing fingers at some one else by giving TMC a clean chit #BengalCoverUP #BengalBrutality https://t.co/F1RI0lxv3k
— Abhijeet Srivastav (@abhijeet241) June 2, 2018
Awww! He has already “investigated” and narrowed down the “truth” to three choices. Such alacrity in solving problems is the hallmark of their version of “democracy”. https://t.co/px20lnO5IR
— Kansara (@mekansara) June 2, 2018
Incidentally this isn’t the only time Derek has made such insensitive comments.
Following the massive violence during the Bengal panchayat elections which also claimed the lives of BJP workers, Derek was seen normalising the mayhem by calling the incidences as “normal”.
