On Friday (September 24), West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seemed to liken deceased BJP leader Manas Saha to a ‘dead dog’ during an election campaign in Bhowanipore. The contentious remarks were made a day after the BJP leadership in the State tried to enter Banerjee’s residence in Kalighat with the dead body of Manas Saha.
While addressing the public in the 71st ward of Bhawanipore Vidhan Sabha constituency, Banerjee commented, “When I went for a meeting yesterday, I heard that they (BJP workers) were trying to enter my house with a dead body… You have the audacity to do this in front of my residence.”
While issuing a stern warning to the State unit of BJP, she pointed out, “What will happen if I send a dead dog to your house? How will it be? Don’t you think that I have the required machinery (manpower)? It will take one second to dump a rotten dog outside your house and you will not be able to eat for 10 days (because of the smell).”
নির্বাচনের রেজাল্টের দিন গিয়াসউদ্দিন মোল্লার বাহিনীর হাতে প্রহৃত হয়ে দীর্ঘ চার মাস হাসপাতালে থাকার পর গত পরশু নিহত @BJP4Bengal র মগরাহাট পশ্চিমের প্রার্থী মানস সাহার মৃতদেহের সঙ্গে পচা কুকুরের তুলনা।
— Samrat Das (@Samratbjym) September 24, 2021
ছিঃ ধিক্কার জানাই এরকম নিচু মানসিকতাকে। @DrSukantaBJP @SuvenduWB @keyakahe pic.twitter.com/raPn8yoTUp
BJP State President Sukanta Majumdar has lashed out at the West Bengal Chief Minister for her ‘insensitive’ comments. “These cannot be the words of a sensitive Chief Minister. A BJP leader has died and that too due to the attack carried out by the Trinamool Congress. She should have been sad. Instead, she warned to send the dead body of a dog. Highly shameful,” he emphasised.
The killing of Manas Saha
Manas Saha, the deceased BJP leader, had contested unsuccessfully from the Magrahat Paschim Vidhan Sabha constituency during the 2021 West Bengal polls. He lost out to the rival TMC leader Gias Uddin Molla by 18,410 votes. Reportedly, Saha was attacked on May 2 (counting day) by TMC sponsored goons and resulted in severe head injuries. He was then hospitalised but succumbed to the injuries on September 22.
BJP leader Arjun Singh had demanded a CBI probe into the matter. “Saha was beaten up by the goons of the local TMC MLA after counting trends showed he was trailing,” he said. Gias Uddin Molla has cried foul and denied the allegations. A clash broke out between the BJP leaders and the Kolkata police on Thursday after they took out the funeral procession of Saha near the residence of Mamata Banerjee in Kalighat.
Post poll violence in West Bengal
Using violence as an instrument to subdue their political opponents has become a distinctive feature of the TMC rule in West Bengal. Ever since the Mamata Banerjee-led retained power in the state, the persecution of dissenters and opposition workers has only intensified. In an overwhelming number of such incidents, the victims have been BJP supporters and workers while the accused were said to be the supporters of the TMC party. More than a dozen BJP workers have lost their lives in the post-poll violence that ensued following the victory of the TMC party in the assembly elections.
The violence unleashed against them forced hundreds of BJP party workers and supporters to flee their villages along with their families. They crossed over to Assam where they have been provided temporary shelter under the supervision of minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. It is not just the BJP but even CPI(M) which has accused the TMC of killing its workers. Reports of attacks on BSF jawans have also emerged in the media. On June 2, 2021, a month after Mamata Banerjee came back to power, the BJP said 37 of its workers were killed in the post-poll violence that convulsed the state.
There were reports that said women in West Bengal were raped, assaulted and, in some cases, even killed, just because they adhered to a different political ideology.Recently, a victim who was raped by the TMC goons in front of her father shared her harrowing ordeal with OpIndia. She narrated how she was attacked and sexually assaulted by her perpetrators associated with the TMC party. In the aftermath of the assembly election results, TMC goons wreaked havoc, attacking and plundering the houses of their opponents. In one such attack, TMC goons lynched BJP worker Avijit Sarkar to death.
