BJP no different from TMC, both suppress democratic protests

CPI(M) general secretary Surjyakanta Mishra on Thursday said the BJP government at the Centre was no different from the TMC dispensation in West Bengal, as both try and suppress democratic protests by opposition parties.

CPI(M) general secretary Surjyakanta Mishra on Thursday said the BJP government at the Centre was no different from the TMC dispensation in West Bengal, as both try and suppress democratic protests by opposition parties. Mishra also said that the TMC "does not have the ability" to fight the BJP, and it was the Left parties that can take on the saffron camp.

"The BJP is no less when it comes to suppressing protests. What they are protesting against in Bengal is what that they practise at the Centre," he told reporters at the CPI(M) state headquarters here. "She (Banerjee) has locked state secretariat 'Nabanna' (when the BJP organised its march), how could she be tackling the BJP? Only the Left parties can fight the BJP ideologically and politically..." he said, adding that the saffron party also knows that the Left forces are its main foes.

The state government had on Wednesday announced that it would shut down 'Nabanna' for two days from October 8, for the "purpose of sanitisation". The BJP leadership, which took out a march to 'Nabanna' in the morning, had termed the decision a "reflection of the TMC's fear". "Earlier, communal forces could not rear their heads in the state; Jyoti Basu had said Banerjee's biggest misdeed was that she brought the BJP to the state. And that turned out to be a historic truth," Mishra said.

Asked about the BJP's demand for a central probe into police use of "chemical-laced water", which was sprayed to disperse the party's cadres, the senior CPI(M) leader said he was not aware of the matter, but stressed that Left parties have shown the way as far as holding protests in the face of resistance was concerned. Parts of Kolkata and Howrah resembled a battle zone on Thursday as BJP workers and supporters clashed with police, hurling stones and blocking roads with burning tyres, to protest a string of killings of saffron party workers.

Police personnel in riot gear burst teargas shells, beat up agitators and used water cannons to break up the protests which continued for more than three hours.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)