'Situation in Bengal worse than emergency days'

Amid reports of frequent political violence in West Bengal, former Supreme Court judge A.K. Ganguly Thursday dubbed the situation in the state as worse than the Emergency days with "people being helpless like never before".

"We have never comes across a situation that prevails in West Bengal. I remember the emergency days, but even in those days we hadn't seen the kind of violence that is going on now," Ganguly said during an event here.

Ganguly, along with several other eminent people including former Maoist leader Ashim Chatterjee, floated the 'Save Democracy Forum'.

"During the emergency, there were attempts to pressurize the opposition, but what is happening today.... I can't remember the common man being so helpless in Bengal," added Ganguly, who is also a former chairperson of the state's Human Rights Commission.

Ganguly's comments come at a time when Bengal has been hitting the headlines for the Oct 2 Burdwan blast, in which terror outfit Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh is purportedly involved, as well as political violence claiming several lives in Birbhum and South 24 Parganas districts. A fierce critic of the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress regime, Ganguly accused the state government of ignoring warnings about the Burdwan blast.

"Not only the present government, the previous United Progressive Alliance government (at the centre) too had sent warnings of terror activities here. But the state chose to ignore those," said Ganguly who earlier had claimed the blast probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will throw up "uncomfortable facts" for the ruling Trinamool.

He also questioned police inaction against several ruling party leaders including MP Tapas Paul who gained notoriety for his rape and kill remarks.

Chatterjee, the convener of the forum, said there was a reign of terror in the state.

"Political violence has reached new heights where not only members of the opposition, people are killing their own party members," he said referring to the Trinamool factional feud that left two dead in Bhangar of South 24 Parganas.