He said that encounters are a necessary tool of governance used by all governments to save society and UP under Yogi Adityanath is a champion at it.
Image Courtesy: NDTV
Kolkata: Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh is spewing more hatred than before. His hate speeches become more bizarre by the day with the most recent comment on encounters, otherwise known as extra-judicial killings, being used as a government tool to maintain peace.
Last Wednesday, on June 20, while addressing party workers in Jalpaiguri district in North Bengal, Ghosh said, “A lot of TMC leaders are flexing muscles and threatening our workers. Either they will go to jail or there will be direct encounters. We are counting the bullets which killed our workers. Just like the way Gabbar Singh said kitni goliya hain (how many bullets are there), the day will soon come when we will count the bullets as well as the bodies. No Kesto or Bistu will be able to save them. We have not signed a bond where it is written that we will offer them Rasgulla if they beat us up,” reported The Indian Express.
The report added that the party on Saturday organised a District Magistrate office gherao programme in Jalpaiguri district as part of its state-wide movement to protest against the alleged killing of its workers in Purulia district.
In an interview to NDTV recently, he said that encounters are a necessary tool of governance used by all governments to save society. “For the sake of peace, whenever it is necessary, it is the government’s responsibility to hold encounters,” Dilip Ghosh told NDTV to explain his recent encounter threat to Trinamool Congress leaders. “All governments do it in their states, from Uttar Pradesh to Bengal. Uttar Pradesh is the champion,” he said.
“Ghosh also credited Yogi Adityanath government with being “upfront” about its controversial use of police encounters to curb crime. Questions have been raised about the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister nudging the police to kill criminals in encounters, a term often used to describe extra-judicial killings by the state. But Yogi Adityanath has defended the police shooting “criminals” and called opposition leaders, who questioned the killings by the police, their sympathisers,” NDTV reported.
“We will think about it (encounter policy) when we form the government. As of now, we are only talking about it,” he said, contending that when he spoke about encounters, he did not imply that his party workers would come out on the streets with weapons. It was just a reference to the police doing its job. The way, he said, Yogi Adityanath government was doing in Uttar Pradesh and Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal. Asked if he had the approval of the party bosses for this encounter policy, Mr Ghosh said he didn’t need anyone’s approval,” the report added.
The BJP leader also claimed that Mamata Banerjee government too had killed Maoist leader Kishenji in 2011 in an extra-judicial killing. “He was picked up from one place and killed elsewhere by security forces. What was it? It was an encounter and was considered justified by the government,” Ghosh said. “In Bengal, Siddhartha Shankar Roy killed several naxals in encounters because he did not have an option. The CPM killed Maoists… and Mamata Banerjee (government) is also killing people by encounter. So if it is required for peace, it is the responsibility of the government,” Ghosh said in the report.
The police has filed a case against him for the threat.
Ghosh and his hatred for TMC
On Monday he said that he would “set the bed linen of Trinamul leaders on fire.” He said it days before national chief Amit Shah’s arrival and was seen as a sign of the aggressive strategy that will be used against the Mamata Banerjee government.
“I will not allow Trinamul leaders to live in peace and enjoy the wealth they have acquired at the cost of nine crore people’s (the state’s population) mental peace. I will enter their homes and set their bed linen on fire,” Ghosh said at a BJP sit-in below the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road to protest alleged “atrocities” on BJP workers since last month’s rural polls,” a report in The Telegraph stated. “Only tit-for-tat politics works in Didi’s Bengal,” Ghosh said on Monday.
“A source in the BJP said Ghosh was once asked to mind his language by central leaders. “But he is carrying on with the abuses and threats, that too just two days before party president Amit Shah’s arrival in Bengal. It is clear such aggression will become the mainstay of our politics in the state,” said a BJP insider critical of the approach,” the report added.
He also said that an “unofficial emergency” has been imposed in Bengal under the TMC rule and democratic rights are being snatched away from the masses. Ghosh claimed several top leaders of TMC are in touch with the party leadership and are willing to join BJP.
A report by Firstpost said, “The democratic rights of the masses have been snatched away. The people are not allowed to vote freely and fairly in the last panchayat elections. An unofficial emergency has been imposed in the state,” Ghosh said while addressing a rally. He also accused the TMC government of trying to “wipe out” every sign of opposition in the state.
On June 1, he had threatened the police. “Police is working for the ruling party. I warn them to stay cautioned. Nobody knows what will happen to Didi in three years (2021 Assembly election)…whether she will be in Nabanna (state secretariat) or she would be cooking in Kalighat (her residence.) We can remove their uniforms if needed,” he said. The BJP has been questioning the role of the police since the panchayat elections,” reported the New Indian Express.