Bengal BJP Chief Injured Amidst Police Clampdown To Suppress Sandeshkhali Protests

Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar sustained injuries when he fell down during a scuffle with policemen at Taki, about 35 kilometres from Sandeshkhali, the ground zero of an uprising against the incumbent Trinamool Congress.

Majumdar was addressing media persons and party supporters while standing on the bonnet of an SUV that had a police sticker on it. He was flanked by two central police force personnel who were part of his security detail. 

While he was speaking, a woman police constable dressed in plainclothes suddenly got on top of the bonnet and tried to strongarm Majumdar and push him down from the bonnet of the vehicle. 

The woman constable wearing a hijab tried to push away Majumdar’s security guard. In the scuffle that ensued, Majumdar fell down and sustained injuries. 

He was taken to a hospital at Basirhat, about 15 kilometres away, and is undergoing tests. Doctors said on preliminary examination, his condition is stable. 

Majumdar, along with a large number of state Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and activists, has been camping at Taki — a small town on the banks of the Ichamati that forms the border between India and Bangladesh there — since Tuesday (13 February) evening.

The Bengal BJP president has been trying to enter Sandeshkhali since Tuesday morning, but his carcade was stopped by the police in the outskirts of Kolkata. 

Dodging the cops, Majumdar and his entourage took a local train and then travelled on motorcycles to Sandeshkhali. But they were prevented from entering the troubled zone. 

“We decided to camp at Taki last night because it is quite near to Sandeshkhali,” Majumdar had told Swarajya minutes before he was injured early Wednesday (14 February) afternoon.  

On Tuesday, too, Majumdar and BJP workers had clashed with the police which put up barricades to prevent their journey to Sandeshkhali. 

Police lobbed teargas shells and led a baton charge on BJP supporters, resulting in injuries to about a dozen BJP activists. 

Majumdar and his party colleagues staged a long dharna in front of the Basirhat SP’s office demanding the arrest of Trinamool strongmen Sheikh Shahjahan and Siboprasad Hazra. 

The agitation against police inaction resumed Wednesday morning with intermittent clashes between the police and BJP workers.

Questions are being raised about the motive behind sending a woman police constable to bring down Majumdar forcibly from the bonnet of the SUV he was standing on. 

“This is a very dirty tactic which Mamata Banerjee’s police use against opposition leaders. Woman constables are deployed to physically restrain BJP leaders with a very ulterior motive. If we (BJP leaders) resist and a lady constable gets hurt or if we touch them accidentally, the police can then charge us with molestation of the lady constables. This is disgusting and immoral,” leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari told Swarajya.

Clampdown On Sandeshkhali

Meanwhile, the police have launched a crackdown on women who had led and participated in the protests in Sandeshkhali last week. 

While media and outsiders have been prevented from entering Sandeshkhali and a strong security cordon thrown around the entire administrative block with its few dozen villages and hamlets, the police and Trinamool cadres have been allegedly going door to door to warn families to remain silent. 

Statewide Protests Planned

Sporadic protests led by the BJP and CPI(M) have broken out in many parts of the state. 

The BJP is planning to intensify its protests and launch a statewide campaign against the Trinamool Congress and its chief Mamata Banerjee. 

A senior BJP leader told Swarajya that the incident in Taki where Sukanta suffered injuries will be highlighted and an agitation will be launched all over the state.