He Indian People’s Party (BJP) called a 12-hour general strike in West Bengal On Wednesday, police gathered to protest against the police action against those who participated in the march to the state secretariat in Nabbana on Tuesday. The ruling TMC claimed that the strike call exposed the BJP’s game plan to foment unrest in the state by exploiting people’s grief over the alleged rape and murder of a doctor.
The West Bengal government said the administration will ensure that normal life is not affected during the strike which will begin at 6 am.
Police used batons, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd heading to Nabanna.
They demanded the resignation of the Prime Minister Mama Banerjee following the alleged rape and murder of a doctor at a state hospital earlier this month.
Why did the BJP call for a 12-hour curfew? Bengali bandh?
“We are forced to call a general strike from dawn to dusk as this autocratic regime is turning a deaf ear to the voices of the people, demanding justice for the deceased doctor sister. Instead of justice, Mamata Banerjee’s police are turning against the peace-loving people of the state, who only wanted a safe environment for women,” said BJP state president and union minister Sukanta Majumdar.
Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari had earlier told reporters, “The police unleashed an unimaginable crackdown on students who were peacefully marching towards Nabanna during the day. If Mamata Banerjee’s police treat peaceful democratic protesters in this manner, we will paralyse the entire state tomorrow.”
The call for the Nabanna march was given separately by an unregistered student body Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj (Community of West Bengal Students) and Sangrami Joutha Mancha (Joint Platform of Struggle), an organisation of state government employees who have been agitating for long demanding that their DA be made equal to that of their central government counterparts.
Responding to the BJP’s call for a shutdown, Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh said, “We have been claiming from the very beginning that the Chhatra Samaj-sponsored Nabanna Abhijan had the backing of the BJP.”
This was clear from the way miscreants posing as student protesters created large-scale riots in the name of peaceful protests today. This was clear from the way the BJP wasted no time in calling for a strike to foment unrest, Ghosh told reporters.
He said that the people of the state would frustrate the BJP’s game plan.
Responding to a question, Ghosh said TMC activists will work to ensure normal life but they have been asked not to resist BJP workers.
“The West Bengal government will not allow any protest on Wednesday. We urge people not to participate in it. The state government will take all necessary measures to ensure normal life continues. Please keep shops, markets and malls open,” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s principal adviser Alapan Bandopadhyay said at the state secretariat.
Listing out other agitation programmes of the BJP in protest against the RG Kar incident, Majumdar said that instead of August 28 as announced earlier, his party will launch a sit-in at Esplanade in the heart of Kolkata on August 29.
The State Women’s Commission office will be locked from outside on August 30, while there will be a chakka jam on September 6.
To provide legal help to the arrested Nabanna Abhijan participants, the BJP has opened a helpline, Majumdar said.
(Contributions from the PTI)
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