West Bengal CM defends police's role during Ram Navami violence

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Monday, defended the police’s role in curbing violence and controlling the situation around the Ram Navami procession at Howrah, and pointed fingers at BJP.

The police hadn’t given the permission for the rally, and while organisers had said that they would take out the procession in the afternoon, they did it during the time of namaz, deliberately and intentionally, Banerjee said.

Also Read | Uneasy situation in Bengal after Ram Navami violence

Banerjee questioned what was the need for the BJP affiliates to carry out a procession with firearms. “What was the need of taking out rallies with bulldozers and tractors? For a religious procession, what is the need for arms? Who gave these people the permission to bring bulldozers and tractors to a rally?” the chief minister asked.

Banerjee alleged the presence of outsiders – some from Munger in Bihar, at the rally. “People from Bengal stay together, they don’t do ‘danga’...,” she said, adding that there was no foul play by police forces, and the police in a very tactful manner, tried to end the violence and control the situation.

“A month before Ram Navami, all the planning for the violence was done at the BJP party office. What is the need of a fact-finding team, when normalcy has been restored in the area,” a Trinamool release quoted Banerjee as saying.

With the situation brought under control, the sending of a fact-finding team, and similar teams – the chief minister considered – is to further provoke.

Suvendu Adhikari, BJP MLA and Leader of the Opposition reiterated that Trinamool had lost the by-election to the Sagardighi assembly constituency recently. No religious community was responsible for the riot, he said and held local Trinamool leaders at Howrah and Rishra responsible for the violence.

Meanwhile, a fact-finding committee of civil society members that started inquiring on Saturday, has prepared an interim report “on the violation of human rights” during riots around the Ram Navami celebration, on March 30.

Headed by Justice L Narsimha Reddy (retd), former chief justice of Patna High Court, the six-member committee is of the view that the riots that took place on March 30, “and continued in its aftermath, were pre-planned, orchestrated, and instigated”, and has also taken into account chief minister’s speech given before Ram Navami. The team has questioned the role of the state police in tackling the situation.