Congress questions Mamata`s report on law and order

After union home minister P Chidambaram, now it is the turn of West Bengal Pradesh Congress to criticize the Mamata Banerjee government on the law and order situation in the state. The WBPCC has brought out a report on the law and order situation in the state which questioned the veracity of the claim made by the state government. Contrary to the claims made by the state government that the state’s law and order situation has improved remarkably after the Trinamool Congress (TC) came to power, the WBPCC pointed out that during the last six months, a number of Congress workers were killed due to political vendetta.

The WBPCC also mentioned some of the victim’s names in their report. According to the report, at least nine Congress workers were killed owing to political clashes, and of them five were killed by ‘TMC supported goons’ and four were killed by ‘CPI (M) goons’.

On July 4, the union home minister P Chidambaram raised the issue of growing culture of political clashes in the state and observed that in democracy the political differences should be resolved through informed debates, not by force. Chidambaram’s comment caused strong reactions from the state government. Immediately after that Subrata Mukherjee, a senior minister of the Mamata Banerjee government refuted the charges and critically spoke of Chidambaram. Later on the chief minister herself wrote a strong letter to the Centre reiterating the position and claimed that the National Crime Bureau report did not support Chidambaram’s views. The controversy was further fuelled by the state’s Governor M K Narayanan when he came out in public in support of the state government on this issue.

The Left has also questioned the claims made by the state government. Endorsing the views expressed by the union home minister, the Left Front has made it known that altogether 70 of their workers/sympathizers had been killed in political clashes since May 13, 2011, the day the results of the Assembly elections were declared.

Indicating about the evolving political equations after the Presidential election, the state Congress has brought out a report on the law and order situation in the state which strongly criticized the Mamata Banerjee government.

Quoting a report based on State Crime Records Bureau’s figures the PCC pointed out that the state has witnessed “642 political clashes (586 political and 56 student clashes)” in the first five months and 18 days of the present government.

A total of 926 political workers including 128 students were injured and 27 people died in these clashes. According to the same report (of State Crime Records Bureau) of the 27 killed in the clashes, five were TC supporters (some due to their internal clashes), 10 were Left supporters, two Congress workers and ten others whose political affiliations were not mentioned.

Quoting Mamata Sharma, chairman of the National Commission for Women (NCW), the PCC mentioned that crime against women increased in West Bengal under the present regime. According to the report of National Crime Record Bureau for 2011, West Bengal tops the list of crime against women. The state recorded “second highest number of rape cases in the country and it had the lowest conviction rate”.

Citing the growing incidents of violence in college campuses, the WBPCC in its report observed that the state’s education system “never ever witnessed such deterioration of law and order situation in the colleges, never ever the campuses were subject to such political interferences. The strict intervention of the High Court in the education system is a testimony of the state of affairs.”

Also, it has given a district wise break up incidents where TC and CPI (M) have committed violence against Congress workers and captures party offices.