Three BJP activists arrested for raising 'goli maro...' slogan at party leader Suvendu Adhikari's rally

Chandannagar/Kolkata: Three BJP activists, including its Hooghly district youth wing chief, have been arrested for allegedly raising “goli maro… (shoot the traitors)” slogan at a roadshow of party leader Suvendu Adhikari, triggering a war of words between the saffron party and the TMC Thursday in poll-bound West Bengal. The three arrested persons were produced before the Chandannagar Sub-divisional Court, which remanded them to judicial custody till 30 January. The incident came out as the latest flashpoint between warring BJP and the Trinamool Congress ahead of the Assembly elections. The opposition BJP accused the police administration of being partial as it failed to take action against the TMC supporters who had raised similar slogans at a party’s rally recently. BJP’s Hooghly district youth wing chief Suresh Shaw was among the three held in the case. Some BJP activists had allegedly raised the slogan at a party programme in West Bengal’s Hooghly district on Wednesday. The district police registered a suo motu case and arrested them late at night, an officer said. BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya said that the party does not endorse the slogan raised by the participants holding the BJP flag. However, no police action has been initiated against the TMC activists, who had raised similar slogans at a party’s rally on Tuesday. A few TMC supporters had chanted the slogan “Bangal Ke Gaddaro Ko, Goli Maro…” (shoot the traitors of Bengal) during a rally in Kolkata. However, the TMC had distanced itself from the rhetoric and rebuked the activists who raised it, but remained silent on police inaction against their party cadres. Describing the slogan as “excessive exuberance” on the part of some young supporters, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh stated that the party does not endorse it and those who have raised the slogan have been suspended from the party. The BJP, however, said the police inaction against the TMC activists proves that the police have turned into “cadres of the ruling party”. “The partisan approach of the police in two similar cases proves that the police have turned into cadres of the ruling party. The police should have also arrested the TMC cadres,” BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said. Reacting to Ghosh’s allegation, Kunal Ghosh said the party did not influence the police, and it is for the administration to decide on it. “I would urge the BJP not to rush to conclusions rather wait for few more days,” he said. Incidentally, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in March last year had criticised the BJP for raising “Goli Maro…” slogans at a party rally. CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty claimed that both the BJP and the TMC are indulging in “destructive politics and hampering peace in the state”. Polls to the 294-member West Bengal Assembly are due in April-May this year and with every passing day acrimony between the main rivals — the TMC and the BJP — is increasing in Bengal.