While the State BJP leadership eagerly wanted Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to slam the Trinamool Congress (TMC) for targeting the BJP cadres in the state, most of them went back to the party office deeply disheartened on Tuesday.
Mr Singh, who landed in Kolkata for a day-long trip, addressed a press conference and a political rally in the city but did not target the TMC or its chief Mamata Banerjee.
“In a healthy democracy there is no place for violence, it is the duty of the state government to ensure the security of a party worker, irrespective of his political affiliation,” the Home Minister said refusing to target the TMC, unlike in the past.
The Home Minister’s comments have reinforced the speculation of the recent bonhomie between the TMC and the BJP government at the Centre, which started with the Prime Minister’s visit to the State earlier this month.
However, Mr. Singh mildly raised the issue of repeated recovery of crude bombs, but immediately assured full cooperation to the State government in improving the law and order situation.
“I want to assure the State government that whatever assistance it needs for development as well as to improve the law and order situation in the State, the Centre will provide (assistance),” said Mr. Singh.
Soon after coming to power, the BJP government at the Centre had sent central teams to West Bengal the State which reported to the Home Minister. Over the past one year while the CBI, reporting to the Home Minister, probing the Saradha scam had arrested a number of TMC leaders, the NIA also conducted thorough probe blasts at Bardhaman.
Mr. Singh on Tuesday evaded questions on the proscribed Jamaat-Ul-Mujahideen (Bangladesh) extending their presence in the State along with the NIA and CBI probe. Rather Mr Singh spoke extensively about “cooperative federalism” to extend all cooperation to the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal.
Meanwhile, at the time when Mr Singh was addressing journalist, Ms Banerjee mildly targeted the CBI saying that the central agency takes up cases which “suit it politically”.
She said that in the past she used to clamour for the CBI probe “but I was wrong then”.
Referring to the role of the CBI in handling cases of violence at Singur, Nandigram and Netai, Ms Banerjee said that the “agency is only run on marketing”.
Ms Banerjee said that the agency did not take up the case of sexual assault on a nun at Ranaghat and has not been able to find out the stolen Nobel medallion of Rabindranath Tagore.
Assures full cooperation to the State government in improving the law and order situation
