From the death of five Bengali workers in Kashmir in a terrorist attack to the murder of a school teacher-claimed to be an RSS worker- in Murshidabad district - the main political parties in West Bengal have a rather dubious distinction of indulging in politics over the dead. The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and a resurgent BJP are no exception to this.
Soon after the killing of five Bengali workers in Kashmir state BJP president Dilip Ghosh raised a rather weird argument. He claimed that the TMC government was indirectly responsible for the deaths as it has failed to generate employment opportunities in Bengal and hence people from the state had to go to Kashmir for work.
BJP has resorted to the same tactics again in relation to the murder of school teacher Bandhu Gopal Pal, claimed to be an RSS supporter, along with his family in Murshidabad in October. The central and state BJP leadership went all out claiming that it was a political murder. However, Pal’s family members said that he was never involved in politics. Police also ruled out any political connections to the murder.
The state BJP leadership were left red-faced when police investigation revealed that the murders were committed due to personal enmity over financial issues and the accused also never had any political connections.
While it was in the opposition in Bengal TMC had also resorted to similar tactics often holding processions in the city with dead bodies of its workers who were allegedly killed in political violence. The party gained considerable political mileage over the alleged murder of a young girl Tapasi Malik during the land agitation in Singur in 2006.
The state Congress leadership had also tried its hand at this kind of politics in 1990s but ended up embarrassing themselves. They called for a strike following the murder of Forward Bloc MLA Ramjan Ali in Kolkata on November 1994 alleging deterioration of law and order in Bengal. But they were left red-faced after investigation revealed that he was murdered due to personal enmity.
Even on sensitive issues such as alleged suicides in Bengal in fear of NRC, both TMC and BJP indulged in political blame game instead of addressing the concern of the general public. While TMC was keen on labeling the saffron party as “anti-Bengali”, the state BJP claimed that the ruling party was trying to projects deaths due to other reasons as suicides in fear of NRC.