Police use batons to control the situation after an armed crowd allegedly barged into a police station over Ram Navami clashes, at Kandi in Murshidabad on Monday. PTI Photo
CPM state secretary Surjyakanta Mishra Monday said that both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP were engaging in “competitive communalism” over Ram Navami celebrations to polarise voters and asked the state government to convene an all-party meeting.
Speaking at a press conference here, Mishra said: “What steps has the government taken against those who carried arms in Ram Navami processions? How many arrests have been made? What was the government doing for the last one year? It should have learnt its lessons from last year’s incidents. From where did they get those arms? Was the government aware of it? Why preventive actions were not taken? Why would the ruling party engage in competitive communalism to celebrate Ram Navami? The TMC, BJP and RSS are competing among themselves to communally polarise voters.” Mishra said it is not the tradition of the state to witness armed processions during such festivals.
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Alleging that the TMC first allowed such rallies to take place and then raised voice to get political mileage, Mishra said: “This has been done only to divert people’s attention from real issues.”
The CPM leader further said that central paramilitary forces should be deployed if the state police fail to control the violence. “There were reports of violence from Raniganj today. Locals are demanding that curfew must be imposed and if needed central forces must be deployed. Whenever such a situation had arisen during the Left Front rule, we had deployed central forces. The culprits must be arrested at once and an all-party meeting must be convened to send the message of peace to the people,” he said.