Even as the BJP’s three-member fact-finding committee on the Malda violence in West Bengal was sent back to Kolkata from the Railway station by the district administration, the BJP is looking to play up the recent violence as a threat to national security.
Party leaders said delegations were likely to meet Home Minister Rajnath Singh and even President Pranab Mukherjee on the issue.
“Mamata Banerjee pointed a gun at nationalists and displayed mamata (maternal love) towards anti-nationals,” said a party statement on the incident.
While the party’s aggressive pitch is likely to be seen as a bid to polarise voters in a State where it has no presence, the BJP is claiming that its concerns are of a “national” rather than a “communal” nature.
While it has been widely believed that the Malda violence was a reaction to a distasteful remark by Hindu Mahasabha leader Kamlesh Tiwari, the BJP disagrees.
“Is a reaction after 30 days of the remark a reaction or a planned conspiracy to attack a police station?” the BJP’s Bengal co-incharge Siddharth Nath Singh asked. “Malda has had a fake currency racket that the National Investigation Agency had acted against months back.”
He attacked the ruling All-India Trinamool Congress (AITC), alleging a political conspiracy to shield some individuals in the garb of a “riot.” BJP leaders alleged that the mob had attacked the police station to destroy documentary proof of the fake currency racket.
