The Trinamool Congress blamed the Centre and the Election Commission of India on the first morning of the special intensive revision (SIR) in Bengal after a middle-aged man from Agarpara, North 24-Parganas, committed suicide, holding “NRC (National Register of Citizens)” responsible.
The BJP, in turn, lambasted chief minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee for the suicide, blaming her for her “incessant fear-mongering”.
Trinamool has for months persisted with a belligerent anti-saffron offensive over the “backdoor NRC” that Mamata, the party supremo, calls the SIR.
Deceased Pradeep Kar, 57, who was found hanging at home, blamed the “NRC” in a purported suicide note.
Representatives of political parties who attended Bengal chief electoral officer Manoj Kumar Agarwal’s all-party meeting said the issue of Kar’s suicide was raised there, which resulted in a lengthy, heated exchange.
Mamata’s nephew and heir apparent Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the Trinamool Congress national general secretary, said an FIR should be lodged against Union home minister Amit Shah and chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar, holding them responsible for Kar’s death.
Local sources said Kar, whose hanging body was found in his home on Tuesday, had left a diary in which a note read “Amar mrityur jonyo NRC daayi (NRC is responsible for my death)”.
They said Kar was born and raised in Bengal, but his father had come here from what is now Bangladesh.
Barrackpore police commissioner Murlidhar Sharma, who went to the spot, said the suicide note was found in the house.
“Yesterday (Monday) the SIR was announced. His family claims that since then he became restless. Family members thought he was unwell. After dinner, he went to bed. In the morning, his brother’s wife called him many times but did not get any response. After this, other members of the family and neighbours entered the room and found the hanging body. We recovered the body and sent it for autopsy. Investigation is on,” said Sharma.
The BJP tore into Mamata for the suicide.
“If it is truly what is being claimed, then she (Mamata) is directly culpable, for her incessant fearmongering. Where does the question of the NRC arise with regard to the SIR? That is a false narrative she has been trying to trigger mass panic with, in a desperate bid to save herself,” said Sishir Bajoria, chief of the BJP state unit’s election management wing.
The Congress’s chief spokesperson for Bengal, Soumya Aich Roy, held both the BJP and Mamata responsible.
“The BJP and the compromised Election Commission under it are fully responsible for the legitimate fear of the exclusionary, opaque SIR. The death of Pradeep Kar is utterly tragic. Mamata Banerjee should stand by this family and the people of Bengal instead of trying to reap political dividends from this. She had claimed she would never allow SIR in Bengal, but it is taking place here now. That makes her responsible as well,” said Aich Roy.
CPM central committee member Samik Lahiri said the commission was to blame for citizenship-loss fears attached with the SIR.
He said that mass fear was never meant to be the objective of the exercise.
“That sinister, rather deliberate ambiguity is what is leaving room for such apprehensions and fearmongering,” he said.