Former BJP leader and current Vice-Chairperson of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes (NCSC) Arun Halder on Thursday trained his guns on the State Election Commission (SEC) in West Bengal and the Trinamool Congress-led government over the sustained violence against Scheduled Caste persons even as the State prepares for Panchayati Raj elections.
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Mr. Halder, at a press conference in New Delhi, said that an atmosphere had been created over the last two months — specifically to create terror among Scheduled Caste persons to purportedly keep them from participating in democratic processes.
He added that the commission was proceeding to issue a notice to the State Election Commissioner, seeking an explanation. “If the State Election Commissioner cannot stop this violence and safeguard SC people of the State, then they must stop this election process.”
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This comes after Mr. Halder was denied permission by the State Election Commission to visit the State this week, a day before he was scheduled to leave. The State authorities had cited the Model Code of Conduct to deny permission. However, the NCSC Vice-Chairperson said that it was disappointing to see “non-political” visit being stopped in this manner.
“I am a commission member and we report to the President. Even when Trinamool and Congress office-holders were attacked, I visited them and their families. How can anyone claim this to be political,” Mr. Halder asked, adding that a no-objection certificate was not issued for his visit despite multiple calls to the SEC office.
‘Matter of grief’
“It is a matter of grief and great concern that in the last 1.5 months, six persons belonging to Scheduled Caste have been murdered/raped in West Bengal,” he said, adding that he had made spot visits in each of these cases and found the investigation lacking. “The attitude of the authorities was not found sympathetic towards SC populace,” he said.
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Alleging that the ongoing violence in the State even as candidates filed nominations was an extension of the violence being perpetrated upon SCs from before, Mr. Halder said, “After Mr. Rajiv Sinha took over as State Election Commissioner, he announced the panchayat elections and violence against SCs increased.”
He cited examples of alleged attacks on the Sonamukhi MLA (an SC seat with a BJP MLA), and similar attacks in the Indas and Canning Assembly areas, which are also populated with SC people.
Thursday was the fifth day of filing nominations for the poll scheduled to take place on July 8.