Bengal bandh sparks clashes on streets of Kolkata
A 12-hour bandh by BJP in Kolkata over a doctor's rape and murder led to clashes, halting life in West Bengal. Politics intensified as CM Banerjee blamed BJP.
A 12-hour bandh called by the Bharatiya Janata Party over the rape and murder of a young doctor sparked fierce clashes on the streets of Kolkata on Wednesday and stalled life in other parts of West Bengal even as politics mounted over the gruesome crime that has stunned India and stoked sweeping protests.
BJP workers blocked roads and trains and clashed with the police and Trinamool Congress workers from early morning to enforce the 12-hour state-wide bandh, the second such agitation in two days.
Pitched battles were reported from Deganga in North 24 Parganas, Narayangarh in West Midnapore and old Malda town. At Bhatpara in North 24 Parganas, the BJP alleged that TMC goons fired multiple bullets at a local leader, resulting in injuries to two people.
Around 100 local trains were cancelled as bandh-supporters blocked railway tracks. Roads were also barricaded with burning tyres as BJP supporters laid down on the roads to stop buses and vehicles. At Nandigram in East Midnapore, police resorted to lathi charge to disperse the bandh supporters.
“I would thank the people of Bengal for making the bandh a success. Despite all the atrocities of the police, state administration and TMC workers people supported the bandh,” said Sukanta Majumdar, state BJP president.
Large chunks of Kolkata came to a standstill as many schools suspended classes and attendance at offices were thin, with only a trickling of buses and trains servicing the metropolis of 16 million people. Police detained several top BJP leaders.
But even as normal life stalled, politics over the sensational case reached a fever pitch as chief minister Mamata Banerjee delivered her most aggressive warning to the Opposition yet, sparking a backlash from the BJP.
At the foundation day rally of the TMC student wing, she alleged that the BJP was trying to dilute the ongoing protests. “The BJP has deliberately called the bandh today. We want peace and justice. They want dead bodies. They want to malign Bengal,” she said.
She also issued a warning to the BJP.
“PM Modi, you are trying to create unrest in Bengal through your people. But remember, if you burn Bengal, Assam, the North-East, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, and Delhi will also burn,” Banerjee said.
She said that her 2011 poll slogan of ‘badla noy, badal chai’ (no revenge, only change) needed to be updated, telling her party men to respond when provoked.
Her statements sparked a huge political row. “Didi, how dare you threaten Assam? Don’t show us red eyes. Don’t try to set India on fire with your politics of failure. It does not suit you to speak divisive language,” Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma posted on X.
Manipur chief minister N Biren Singh said Mamata must stop “inciting violence”. “Mamata must immediately stop inciting violence and hatred with divisive politics. It is highly unbecoming of a political leader to issue threats of violence on a public platform,” Singh said on X
The 31-year-old doctor was raped and murdered inside the seminar hall of RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata early on August 9. Her body was found around 9am and Sanjay Roy, a 31-year-old civic volunteer with the police, was arrested.
An autopsy confirmed that the woman was brutalised and assaulted before the murder. Since then, the crime has left Kolkata stunned and prompted sweeping protests by doctors, who struck work, and by women’s groups demanding safety.
The Kolkata high court on August 13 transferred the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), and the Supreme Court has pointed to a raft of lapses by the Kolkata Police during its investigation.
On Tuesday, thousands of people spilled onto the streets of the state capital, undeterred by the sharp rain, after a newly formed students’ union known as the Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj called for a march towards Nabanna, in neighbouring Howrah, west of the Hooghly river. Two of the key leaders, Subhankar Haldar and Sayan Lahiri, said they were members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and BJP respectively.
The stir quickly descended into violence as police lobbed tear gas shells and fired water cannons to disperse protesters who smashed down metal barricades Dozens of protesters and 12 police personnel were injured. Almost immediately, the BJP called for the bandh on Wednesday to protest the police action.
The bandh began at 6am on Wednesday.
State BJP chief and Union minister Sukanta Majumdar led a procession at Baguihati in north Kolkata and later blocked the arterial CR Avenue with supporters. In north Bengal’s Alipurduar, BJP MP Manoj Tigga was arrested for enforcing the bandh. In Cooch Behar, party MLAs Malati Rava Roy and Nikhil Ranjan Dey were among those arrested, police said.
BJP workers demonstrated at various stations in North and South 24 Parganas, Hooghly, Nadia and Murshidabad districts in support of the bandh.Suburban railway services were also disrupted when bandh supporters dropped banana leaves on overhead electrical wires at various places, railway officials confirmed.
Reports of clashes between BJP and TMC workers were received from the government bus stand area in Balurghat, from Hooghly’s Konnagar and Asansol in Paschim Bardhaman.
Picketing by BJP supporters on the roads led to the disruption of public transport services in Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Siliguri and Malda in northern West Bengal, and in Purulia, Bankura and some other places in the southern part of the state.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari led a protest march in Nandigram.
“BJPs doesn’t want to call a bandh. But Banerjee, who used to call bandhs almost every month, is today raising questions. The way people had hit the streets without any political banner and without any high-profile leader has unnerved the chief minister,” Majumdar said.
In Bhatpara, the BJP alleged that TMC goons fired bullets at local leader Priyangu Pandey’s car, and said the vehicle’s driver and a party worker sustained bullet injuries. Police said that the two men were beaten up by some people outside the local Anglo-India Jute Mill. The violence was followed by a showdown between local BJP leader Arjun Singh and TMC leader Somnath Shyam.
Several BJP leaders, including former MPs Roopa Ganguly and Locket Chatterjee, Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya and MLA Agnimitra Paul, were detained.
The state administration, which tagged the bandh as unlawful, deployed large consignments of police, and asked government offices, schools and colleges to remain open.
Banerjee hit back at the BJP.
“We don’t believe in bandh-politics. Bandh for what? First call a bandh against the Prime Minister who harassed people using central agencies and neither did he resign for incidents, which took place in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, Madhya Pradesh nor did he visit Manipur to stand beside the people,” Banerjee said.
“The TMC-government is trying to supress our voice. On Tuesday police attacked peaceful protestors and provoked them. Several people were arrested. Today’s bandh is to demand the resignation of the chief minister, atrocities of the police and demand justice for the RG Kar victim,” said Amulya Das, a protester.
Debashish Chakraborty, a sergeant of Kolkata Police who was on duty on Tuesday, has nearly lost vision in his left eye after a brick, thrown by a protestor during Nabanna Abhijaan on Tuesday, hit him. Doctors have said that his cornea and retina have been severely damaged.
“The incident took place near Eden Gardens when a police team was moving from Red Road towards Strand Road. Brick batting was going on. A stone smashed the windscreen and hit his eye. He is not being able to see in his left eye,” said a police officer.