Calcutta: Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday promised to visit trouble-torn pockets of Murshidabad in the first week of next month to take stock of the situation.
She also said she would complete whatever remained by way of relief and rehabilitation for those affected by the communal unrest earlier this month, deemed a fallout of the protests against the contentious waqf law of the BJP-led Centre, for which she blamed the bohiragoto (outsiders) yet again.
The chief minister, at a state government event in Midnapore in the afternoon, issued yet another statement on Murshidabad and vowed to expose the alleged conspiracy of how the unrest was orchestrated.
“It is unfortunate that the riots took place. Nobody, none of us, wants riots. But it did take place in two wards of Dhulian (in Samserganj block of Murshidabad). That too was done by the bohiragoto in collusion with a handful of locals. We will expose their conspiracy, of how they went about it,” she said. “I gave my word to the kin of the deceased that we will give a compensation of ₹10 lakh (each). Our MPs went there and said that if needed, our government can take the responsibility of the education of their children,” Mamata said on Tuesday.
“Those who lost their homes will get homes under Banglar Bari. Those whose shops were damaged, a survey for it is currently underway. I will go in the first week of May, evaluate the situation... and do the rest,” she added, amid rising pressure on her dispensation for the perceived failure to maintain law and order, primarily on account of her alleged appeasement politics. “Have faith and be rest assured.
Muslims form a third of Bengal’s electorate and determine the outcome in around 120 of the 294 Assembly seats.
On Thursday, she had asked governor C.V. Ananda Bose to defer his visit to the strife-torn pockets of Murshidabad, urging him to wait till normality was fully restored. Rejecting her plea, he went anyway on Friday.
Mamata has already blamed the BJP, specifically, and the saffron camp overall for the series of untoward incidents in Murshidabad. She has also blamed Union home minister Amit Shah directly, for his alleged role in such matters, and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rein him in.
On Saturday, in the garb of an open letter urging peace, the Trinamool Congress chief mounted a scathing offensive on the RSS, tearing into the grand marshal of the saffron ecosystem for allegedly spreading lies regarding recent violence and vandalism in the state.
“BJP and its allies have suddenly become very aggressive in West Bengal. These allies include RSS. I have not taken the RSS’s name earlier, but I am being forced now to identify them. Together, they all have initiated a vicious false campaign in the State. These forces are using the backdrop of an unfortunate incident that happened on provocation. They are using the backdrop to play divisive politics. They are planning to play the divide-and-rule game. This is sinister,” she wrote in the open letter on the letterhead of the chief minister.