Violence in Bengal is not political; it’s an onslaught on followers of Sanatan Dharma

The Centre is well aware of each and every minute details and is sympathetic to the sufferings. The Union Home Minister sent a high-level team of the Ministry of Home Affairs to the State, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi called up the Governor on May 5 and asked him to instruct the State Government to immediately stop the violence. National President JP Naddaji visited families of the deceased. So I didn’t need to give them new inputs. I discussed how to stop the violence while remaining within the limitations imposed by the Constitution. We have limitations on federal structure too, as law and order are the State Government’s responsibility. But when brutal atrocities are being committed on Schedule Castes, Scheduled Tribes, women and children, there are provisions as per Constitution to take legal action.

As a responsible Leader of Opposition and BJP member, I cannot convey anything until the party announces. Personally, I would say that the situation on the ground is far worse than the criteria laid down in the Constitution to impose Article 356.

The CAA and NRC are national policies. The Constitution of India laid out a clear bifurcation of the duties listed in the Union, State and Concurrent Lists. The CAA-NRC is the task of the Central Government and the State Government has no role in it. The implementation of CAA has already begun in five states. West Bengal is not an independent country but a province in the federal structure of the Indian Constitution. Currently, we have a strong government at the Centre elected with absolute majority with a strong Prime Minister and Home Minister. As per the Supreme Court’s verdict, the government started construction of Shri Ramjanmabhoomi Temple successfully in Ayodhya and made sure no law and order trouble arose. The same government banned instant triple talaq, fulfilled Syama Prasad Mukherjee’s dream of abrogating Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir. Thus, tackling the rhetoric of a regional party like TMC is not a big issue for Modiji and Shahji.

This is not true. The letter which the Home Secretary wrote to the Chief Secretary of West Bengal was drafted under the supervision of the Home Minister. Additional Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs who visited Bengal, was too sent by the Home Minister. The PM called the Governor on May 5 and the Governor revealed later that the PM instructed the State Government to stop violence as law and order is the State’s responsibility. Representatives of Women’s Commission, Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Commissions, Human Rights Commission, all constitutional bodies under the Central Government, are visiting the State and submitting their reports to the Centre.

This is not correct. Mukul Roy’s son lost the election, and he isn’t MLA. Only Mukul Roy won as MLA. We were not supposed to take a group of 74 MLAs for the meet, as we had the permission of a delegation consisting of 35 MLAs. Some of our MLAs were stuck in Delhi, where there was a complete lockdown and while some others were in post-COVID treatment isolation. The point is that we got 38% vote share, and that is for the ideology. Now the 73 MLAs, excluding Mukul Roy and his supporters, are united for the ideology.

Mukul Roy was in touch with the core TMC leadership for the last one year. He confessed that he was in contact with Prashant Kishor since last year’s lockdown. The vote which BJP got in West Bengal is entirely based on ideology and not due to individual leadership. Even though I came to BJP from TMC, I have made my intentions clear: to protect West Bengal and connect it with the rest of India and prevent the State from becoming a second Bangladesh.

Mukul Roy was in touch with the core TMC leadership since last year. He confessed that he was in contact with Prashant Kishor since the lockdown and with Abhishek Banerjee as well. He came to BJP as he thought BJP would win the election. As BJP lost, he left the party.

The vote which BJP got in West Bengal is entirely based on ideology and not due to individual leadership. Even I came to BJP from Trinamool. but I made my intentions clear – to protect Bengal, connect it with the rest of India and prevent the State from becoming a second Bangladesh.

This is now coming out in the public, as Mukul Roy himself is revealing this. Mamta Banerjee alleged that even though I was in touch with BJP since 2014, I was maintaining a gentle relationship with them. The fact of the matter is that there was no political negotiation. However, Roy had an internal agreement with Trinamool Congress. In fact, he has himself exposed it. So this was all part of the agreement.

Earlier, Mamta Banerjee got irked on hearing ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans and now gets irritated when questions are asked regarding you.

I don’t know. Maybe it’s the frustration of losing the election against me in Nandigram. She is currently a non-elected MLA Chief Minister of the State. The public rejected her, despite that she became the Chief Minister.

This isn’t correct; some people had gone for official work. But everyone is in a constant loop of communication and is in touch with everyone. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, it isn’t possible to meet everyone in person, but virtually we are all working. Normalcy hasn’t been restored in the State. Fortunately, we succeeded in arranging safe accommodation for our party members who fled Bengal. We provided remuneration for families of murdered party members, registered FIRs and are taking legal recourse. This system of Bharatiya Janata Party of working in close coordination with grassroots party members is working in Bengal. There is no question of miscommunication.

This is a fact that our numerous female party karyakartas were molested and raped.