On Sunday, December 15, Prime Minister Modi said that those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) could be ‘identified by their clothes’. On Wednesday, December 18, a youth, locally known to be a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) worker and his five associates, each wearing a lungi and a skull cap, were detained by the Murshidabad police after local people allegedly caught them throwing stones at a train engine.
Without pointing to this particular incident, Wes Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that the BJP was buying skull caps for its workers to wear while they went on a rampage, only to divert the attention of the people and pin blame on a particular community.
The Murshidabad officers said that the residents of the Radhamadhabtala village handed over the six youth, including Abhishek Sarkar, a BJP worker, after they caught them red-handed, throwing stones at the Sealdah-bound trial engine travelling on the Sealdah-Lalgola line. Sarkar has been seen by residents as being at the forefront of all BJP rallies in the area. A seventh person has been accosted and they are being questioned at the Behrampore police station.
A villager told The Telegraph, “We became suspicious when we saw the youths change their clothes near the railway line. We knew Abhishek as he is very vocal about his views. So we decided to confront them.”
Another resident told the publication, “We ensured calm after much struggle this week, and cannot tolerate such negative intentions.”
However, local BJP members had contradictory views about Sarkar. While some members confirmed he was a party worker, BJP district president Gouri Sankar Ghosh said, “He is not a member of our party. We don’t know anything about the incident in Radhamadhabtala.”
Last week, protests against the CAA had raged in West Bengal and train services were disrupted as miscreants vandalized the Sujnipara railway station and five empty trains on fire at the Lalgola railway station. CM Mamata Banerjee had appealed for peace and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar had assured that there would be strict action against those who had vandalized and defaced public property.
On Thursday, addressing a rally on the Rani Rashmoni Avenue, the CM appealed for peace in the wake of an upcoming protest meeting at the Park Circus against the CAA. Warning the public about the tactics of the BJP she said, “Don’t fall into the BJP’s trap. They are trying very hard to turn this into a fight between Hindus and Muslims, when it’s anything but…. We have received intelligence that the BJP has been buying skullcaps for its workers. They are wearing them to get photographed and filmed while vandalising public property… to malign a community.”
“I urge our younger generation not to believe everything they see on social media. The BJP has been misusing the crores at its disposal to spread fake news and videos to incite violence and hatred”, she added.
During the rally, she also accused the BJP acting like a ‘washing machine’ which cleans the corrupt and the criminals and turns them into sages and sought foreign intervention to decide how many were really in favour of the CAA.
“Let there be an impartial organisation like United Nations or Human Rights Commission …form a committee to see how many people are in favour or against the Citizenship Amendment Act,” she said while addressing the Kolkata rally.
CM Banerjee has staunchly opposed the CAA and the all-India National Register of Citizens (NRC) and has lead three rallies in the state up until now. The next rally she is set to address is in the minority-dominated Park Circus area on Friday.
This is the first time that nationwide protests have erupted against a regime in such a potent manner. After violence by the police in Assam, Delhi and Aligarh, the movement against the CAA grew stronger and it is now up to the BJP regime to engage in some political damage control and revoke the Citizenship Amendment Act.
