BJP, BJD indulge in blame-game over violence during protest in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: A day after a BJP protest over minister Naba Das murder turned violent here on Tuesday, the BJP and the BJD indulged in a blame-game on Wednesday.
The BJD said the saffron party workers had deliberately resorted to violence and mercilessly beaten up an on-duty police personnel for political mileage. The BJP said the Naveen Patnaik-led government had framed its cadres in false cases after police brutality on the agitators.
Addressing a news conference, BJD spokesperson Srimayee Mishra said, “The BJP workers had gathered with an intention to attack police and create lawlessness. Odisha Police worked with patience in a difficult situation”.
BJP state president Samir Mohanty said the BJD government had intentionally framed BJP Yuva Morcha state president Irasis Acharya and 21 other party workers. “Some BJD goons and cops in civil clothes had unleashed inhuman torture on the BJP protestors in which more than 50 workers were hurt.
But the police working at the behest of the BJD did not even register a complaint while it registered false cases against BJP workers,” he said. Police sent 22 BJP workers, booked for attempt to murder among other charges, to judicial custody.
In the assembly, the BJP MLAs created ruckus, alleging police excess on the peaceful agitators. Raising the matter during zero hour, leader of opposition Jayanarayan Mishra said what police did was inhuman. The government should find out the people in black and white shirts, who attacked the activists, he said.
The incident led to social media war involving senior leaders of both BJP and BJD. “I strongly condemn the police excesses on our workers during a protest in front of Vidhan Sabha on state’s deteriorating law and order. Though the protestors belong to a political party, police attacked them like hardcore criminals. The way some police personnel were taking one-sided action is not a good sign for democracy,” part of a series of tweets by Dharmendra read.
Posting a video of the incident, BJD organizational general secretary Pranab Prakash Das tweeted, “Everybody has a right to protest, but none have the right to unleash terror and violence.” BJD’s Sasmit Patra in a tweet asked BJP president J P Nadda to have have a look at a video, saying how police were mercilessly beaten up by Odisha BJP Yuva Morcha workers.