Nadda convoy attack: Mamata refuses to send chief secy, DGP to Delhi

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided not to send state chief secretary and Director General of Police (DGP) to New Delhi in compliance with Union Home Ministry’s summons over the attack on BJP president JP Nadda’s convoy recently.

State chief secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay wrote a letter to Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla, stating that had been directed to request to “dispense with the presence of the state officials” in the meeting called on December 14.

Bandopadhyay further wrote in his two-page letter that “the state government is already addressing this issue with utmost seriousness.”

The two were summoned on the basis of a report West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar sent to the Centre on Friday morning about the law and order situation in the state.

Dhankhar, who submitted a report to the central government on the “deteriorating” law and order situation in the state on Friday (December 11), told media persons: “Yesterday (December 10), the leader of a national political party was attacked. State actors were involved in the incident and they had the protection of the administration and the police. This is a death-knell to democracy. I have written so in my feedback.”

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Dhankhar alleged that the police chief and chief secretary did not submit a detailed report on the incident. “I asked them to prepare a detailed report. They came without any report, without any inputs. It is shameful. They are bureaucrats. They have a moral duty. I was shocked, and I was shamed. It was an extremely painful moment for Constitutional duty,” he said, NDTV reported. The state’s police chief and chief secretary have been summoned again on December 14.

Nadda’s convoy, which was moving on the roads of Diamond Harbour, 60 km from Kolkata, was attacked with bricks, stones, and sticks on Thursday.

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The BJP said its leaders Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy were injured and many cars were damaged in the attacks. The BJP has blamed supporters of the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress for the incident. The attacks, which occurred at the parliamentary constituency of the Chief Minister’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, were captured on video, which showed stones and bricks smashing windscreens and windows.

Mamata Banerjee took on the BJP at a public rally in Kolkata on Thursday: “They (BJP) have no other work. At times, home minister is here, other times Chaddha, Nadda, Fadda, Bhaddha is here. When they have no audience, they call their workers for doing nautanki.”

Dhankhar reacted to her comments, saying: “I take a very serious note of the statement made by the chief minister. How can a responsible chief minister, believing in rule of law, believing in Constitution, and believing in rich Bengali culture, talk the way she did? I appeal to her – madam, please reflect, please maintain some dignity and grace, and take back those words.”

He said he has also taken note of Banerjee blaming the incident on “outsiders”. “Madam Chief Minister, India is one, Indians are one, please do not play with or fan this kind of fire. You are under oath of the constitution, please respect it. Who is an outsider, who is an insider? Please do not indulge in these kinds of statements,” he said.