The scheduled programme of BJP to purify the bust of Syama Prasad Mookerjee ended up in a clash between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress supporters near Keoratala Crematorium in south Kolkata today.
The scheduled programme of BJP to purify the bust of Syama Prasad Mookerjee ended up in a clash between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress supporters near Keoratala Crematorium in south Kolkata today.
Mookerjee's bust was vandalised yesterday by a left wing "radical" group in protest against pulling down of communist icon Lenin's statue in Tripura. The statue was damaged and was smeared with black paint.
On Thursday, a group of BJP supporters carrying pots of milk and water from the Ganga started to march from Rashbehari Avenue to the the crematorium but were allegedly stopped by TMC activists.
BJP alleged that they were beaten up by the TMC cadres.
“We were going for the shuddhikaran (purification) of Mookerjee’s statue but armed goons of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee unleashed an attack on us. We are giving them time till 5 pm to come up with a statement as to when will the statue be restored. If they are unable to do so, we will put up sit in demonstrations in front of all statues at all district headquarters. Police too are working as TMC cadres,” state BJP president Dilip Ghosh said.
He added that they were ready to tackle the violence of TMC.
“If TMC wants to carry out politics with violence, we are ready. We will play by the rules they set,” Ghosh said. He said that two of their workers who had been attacked were arrested by police.
In total, 74 party workers including two women were arrested, BJP claimed.
But the police said that they arrested 59 people, including two women, without specifying the party to which they belonged. They were later released on bail, the police said.
Local TMC councillor Mala Roy said, “It was a gimmick by the BJP which was resisted by local people. They had no permission to enter the park after the incident yesterday.”
Later during the day, another clash broke out between RSS workers and members of Students Federation of India (SFI).
Members of Bangali Hindu Astitva Raksha Committee had put up a programme inside Jadavpur University campus but SFI members alleged that RSS members wanted to avenge the damage done on Mookerjee’s statue, and had gathered to pull down the statue of Lenin within the JU campus.
Huge police contingent was pressed in to bring the situation under control. Police also resorted to mild lathi charge. Police sources said that two persons were arrested after the incident.
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 "A police official cleans the bust of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee on Wednesday")
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