ET Analysis: West Bengal\'s BJP claims Mamata imposing lockdown on August 5 communal
Kolkata: All eyes may be on Ayodhya as the bhumi pujan for the Ram Mandir awaits VIP guests, but in Kolkata, the state BJP leadership has a more pressing matter on its mind: Lockdown in West Bengal on the very same day. To many party leaders, this is yet another example of Mamata Banerjee government’s ‘continued assault’ on democratic rights and its ‘anti-Hindu’ objectives.
BJP has planned a procession demanding ‘restoration of democracy’ on Tuesday from Swami Vivekananda’s home at Maniktala in northern Kolkata to the crossing in Shyambazar, where there is a statue of Subhas Chandra Bose on a rearing horse.
Party national secretary Rahul Sinha alleged the decision to impose lockdown on Wednesday reflected the ‘communal mindset’ of the state government. Sinha alleged the state government had earlier reduced the lockdown for Eid. Trinamool has denied that it had anything to do with appeasing Muslims.
The Mamata Banerjee government’s decision last week to impose a lockdown across the state two days every week till end-August have found many critics, who have questioned the effectiveness of the random, bi-weekly method to ‘flatten the curve’, when the administration has almost given up strict imposition of public precautions, especially social distancing, on remaining days. The CPM has criticised the government’s ‘random lockdowns’.
The BJP’s accusation of the state’s ‘communal approach’ to the lockdown comes in this background. “August 5 is a historic day in Independent India’s history,” says BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, who will be one of those leading Tuesday’s 3 km march for ‘democratic rights’ and for imposing a lockdown to ‘insult sentiments’ of the majority community. He said if the lockdown order is not withdrawn, the state government “will face consequences.”
While BJP MPs from the state who met Union Home Minister Amit Shah twice over the last week to discuss the political situation in the state stay quarantined, the state BJP unit is ready to march (keeping social distance?) in Covid-hit Kolkata to add to the city’s pandemic precaution woes for being forced to stay at home on a day there is a special religious function in Ayodhya which the visual media would air round the clock.