Announcing a compensation of Rs 2 lakh each for the families of the 16 persons who lost their lives in post poll violence, she unswervingly accused the central ministers of inciting the violence that has erupted in the state after election results were declared on May 2. She came out with the information in the backdrop of allegations that Union minister of state for external affairs Murlidharan’s car was attacked while he was visiting a village in West Midnapore to look into alleged post-poll violence. He has not come to the state for some official work.

Mamata claimed; “The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre is yet to come to terms with its loss in the state Assembly polls. The BJP has not yet reconciled to the mandate of the common people. I will request the saffron party leaders to accept the mandate. Not even 24 hours have passed since I was sworn-in as the CM and letters, a central team have started arriving."

She was quite harsh on the BJP leaders for their allegation that women were not safe in Bengal. She warned them to refrain from maligning the women of Bengal. She said that BJP leaders were unable to digest the fact the women have overwhelmingly voted for her.

Referring to the statement of Nadda wherein he said; “The attack by TMC workers on the convoy of Union Minister V Muralitharanji in West Midnapore is very condemnable. I said yesterday that the law and order in Bengal has completely collapsed. What will be the situation of the general public at a place where a Government of India minister is attacked?”, a senior state BJP leader said; “there was no reason for Muraleedharan to come to Bengal when Nadda is already here. Such visits simply add to the belief of the people that BJP busy scheming against Mamata. This is certainly not in the interest of the party”. Nadda had already met the kin of workers of the saffron party who were killed during the post-poll violence.

The alacrity of the MHA, headed by Amit Shah, could be judged from the simple fact that just after ten hours of Mamata being sworn as the chief minister, Shah constituted the four member fact finding team and dispatched it to the state.

He even did not provide 24 hour respite to Mamata to take stock of the situation and act. His intentions were clear; he wanted to send the message that the state was sitting on communal violence bomb which may explode any time. Obviously it was better not to waste time and act fast. His hurry to take action against Mamata government is also manifest in his directive to the fact finding team to submit its report within 48 hours.

This time frame, according to Shah, is sufficient for the team to have a thorough probe and travel across the state to collect the evidences and correct information. The team will meet top officials of the West Bengal police apart from the chief secretary and other bureaucrats in the administration. It will also make field visits to some of the places where violence has been reported since Sunday and talk to affected families, sources said.

Shah and his mandarins must realise that through this illogical action they were turning them into a laughing stock into the eyes of the common Indian and this would boomerang on their face. Also it was purely an act of harakiri being committed by Modi-Shah combine. Already their political credibility has taken a nose dive. The BJP has badly lost the panchayat election of Uttar Pradesh where their protégé Yogi Adityanath is ruling on their behalf.

Shah must refrain from taking any self-defeating step which may trigger wide range protest against them. The agitating farmers have been simply waiting for the results of the Bengal election for launching their fresh agitation. The people of Bengal have expressed their anger against him and his boss Modi by ensuring the two third win of the TMC candidates. Mamata has alleged that “inefficiencies” crept into the administration during elections when the Election Commission held control and insisted violence reported from areas where the BJP had won.

Already dissenting voices have started emerging inside the party. Senior leaders like Tathagata Roy and others have blamed the state president Dilip Ghosh along with central office bearers for the defeat of the party and eruption of violence.

One development that ought to be mentioned is the BJP has resorted to large scale violence in Uttar Pradesh also after losing the panchayat election. The violence is more acute in central and eastern UP. While Jat-Muslim combine has wiped off the BJP from western UP, the party could manage to have some seats in the central and eastern region. The BJP has lost miserably in Varanasi the strong hold of Narendra Modi.

Taking cognisance of the situation, Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday transferred 30 top officers, including DGP P Nirajnayan, in her first action after being sworn in again as Chief Minister, warning that violence of any kind will not be tolerated. She pointed out that “inefficiencies” had crept into the administration during the long poll process when the Election Commission held control. It is quite interesting to note that the areas administered by the EC nominated police officials were witness to large scale violence. Besides violence was being reported from areas where the BJP had won in the Assembly elections.

Meanwhile, some academic and intellectuals have condemned the comparison of post-poll violence in Bengal with the Direct Action Day of 1946 by Nadda. They held that Nadda is not aware of the historical facts. He was simply following the RSS line and trying to give the post poll clashes a communal colour. He ought to know that the Direct Action Day, also known as the day of the Great Calcutta Killings, was the day when All India Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah had called for a nationwide protest in 1946. The protests led to large-scale communal violence which took the lives of more than 4,000 people and rendered about 1 lakh people homeless in 72 hours. Even some senior BJP leaders admitted that comparing the post-poll violence with the poll incidents carried communal overtures. (IPA Service)