Goons’ attacks on BJP MP Khagen Murmu and BJP MLA Shankar Ghosh in Nagrakata, Jalpaiguri, West Bengal on October 6 generated grave concern in the top BJP leadership while hundreds of common BJP workers died of ground level violence by ruling-party-supported goons in West Bengal ever since the Panchayat Election of 2018.
While literally hundreds of booth level & mondal level BJP Karyakartas died ever since the second term of Mamata Banerjee as the Chief Minister, BJP leaders higher up in the hierarchy remained generally unaffected except two or three MLA-level leaders being victims of planned violence. Just the way MP of Maldah Uttar Khagen Murmu was beaten so as to bleed profusely, it was possible that Murmu could have died. So, in reality, it was an ‘attempt to murder’ that failed & Murmu was barely saved.
Even after more than 48 hours had passed post-attack, West Bengal Police didn’t arrest anyone. People aware of West Bengal, however, were not surprised as police inaction turned the rule of the State instead of police action though Delhi expected Governmental pro-activity to nab the attackers. The Loksabha Speaker’s secretariat had sent a notice to the Government of West Bengal for a report of the incident.
Though BJP leaders like Ravi Shakar Prasad, Sudhanshu Trivedi, Giriraj Singh rebuked West Bengal Chief Minister through pressers for not upholding the spirit of Parliamentary Democracy of Bharat, it appeared that Banerjee perhaps turned a tool in the hands of the larger far-left political ecosystem of West Bengal who formed an evil nexus with radical Islamic organizations. West Bengal LoP Suvendu Adhikari had named organisations like Jamaat-e-Islami. Rampant attacks by Muslims, utter disrespect for Indian law & protocols, distinct anarchy all over the State & lack of State control on goons in West Bengal appear deliberate displays of disobedience to Indian Constitution & pose to indicate the presence of a polity dominated by Urban Naxals.
Such claims may be substantiated by the fact that Mamata Banerjee sat on the CM’s chair of West Bengal with the help of proactive engagement of Urban Naxal luminaries like Medha Patkar, Arundhati Roy, Anuradha Talwar & such others from various fields such as journalists, artists, film makers, writers, IAS, IPS, advocates, actors et al along with the Naxalite parties like CPI(ML), SUCI & various other far-left political outfits. Not to forget Singur Protest got the support of even Ashok Mitra of CPM, the eminent Finance Minister of West Bengal in the Jyoti Basu cabinet. Regression of all such facts appear to indicate that Singur Protest, by almost all probabilities, was a provincial ‘regime-change operation’ as the larger ecosystem required to remove CPM’s Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as Bhattacharjee attempted to re-industrialize West Bengal for economic development of the State.
Hence, it is hardly unexpected that the far-left forces of West Bengal would render an all-out effort to prevent a Bharatiya Nationalist political party (like BJP) on the seat of power in West Bengal as such a party is almost sure to attempt for economic development of the State. After attacking & eliminating the booth level & local level Karyakartas of the BJP till now, it’ll be no surprise if the state-supported goons of Bengal target the leader-level karyakartas before the 2026 Assembly Election in order for terrifying all not to align with BJP. In relation to this, it would be relevant to recall the recent verbal attack of Mahua Moitra suggesting to behead the Home Minister of India for infiltration of illegal immigrants in Bharat claiming that border security was the responsibility of none other than MHA GOI. It seems TMC might go desperate to defend West Bengal as the last major Fortress of the Urban Naxals of Bharat.
Under such circumstances, Pradhanmantri Narendra Modi took a strong stance by instructing BJP leaders & Karyakartas to still engage in relief works even if they were attacked like Murmu & Ghosh. As a result, another BJP MLA Malati Rava Roy of Tufanganj got attacked, manhandled & her followers were beaten left and right in Tufanganj of Coochbehar District on October 13, reflecting the utter desperation of the TMC. PM Modi’s instructions to BJP leaders to be present in person in the flood-hit areas in spite of goons’ attacks also yielded a letter from West Bengal CM to the Prime Minister raising allegation against the PM of politicizing a natural disaster. Attack on Malati Rava Roy followed perhaps as a retaliation against the PM’s standpoint.
Mamata Banerjee had said on October 6 in North Bengal that the flood-hit people who lost their everything in natural calamity got enraged seeing people approaching them in 40 cars in a line. Though the West Bengal leader of the opposition, Suvendu Adhikari of the BJP, had refuted such claim by providing the break-up of the total number of 20 cars that reached Nagrakata out of which 12 being media vehicles, Mamata Banerjee’s conjecture of public outrage could still be acceptable unless there were visible quantitative obstacles for such hypothesis to sustain.
As per 2011 census, SC voters comprised around 14.26 per cent of the ST Assembly Constituency of Nagrakata while ST voters comprised around 46.67 per cent. Voters’ list scrutiny suggested that the presence of Muslim voters at Nagrakata was around 11.7 pr cent. If such demographic distribution is assumed to have been maintained in 2025 too, then Muslims being true minority forces there, why did the public outrage came in from the Muslims while maximum number of flood-hit victims were supposed be from SC & ST communities?
Did the religious demography of Nagrakata alter? Or Jamaat-supported Muslims from Khagen Murmu’s ‘Maldah Uttar’ Constituency launched a targeted attack on Murmu away from their own place i.e. Maldah Uttar?
Since the attackers were the people of minority community & Muslim minorities in general were proven to be apathetic about the BJP in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee’s conjecture of spontaneous public outrage didn’t sustain. The real reason of anger of the Muslims upon Khagen Murmu and Shankar Ghosh could never be confirmed NOT to be out of their communal hatred against the BJP.
Nagrakata Assembly Constituency was won by BJP in 2021 and Alipurduar Parliamentary Constituency too, of which Nagrakata AC is a part, went to BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha. Let’s have a comparative look at the performances of BJP & TMC in Nagrakata in 3 consecutive Lok Ssabha & Vidhan Ssabha Elections. In 2024 Loksabha, BJP’s Manoj Tigga defeated TMC by a margin of 75447 votes in Alipurduar Parliamentary Constituency bagging 48.92 per cent vote share losing Nagrakata Assembly segment by a margin of 1.93 per cent vote share while in 2019 Loksabha, Nagrakata gave a sweeping victory to BJP. In 3 consecutive Loksabha elections BJP’s performance in Nagrakata had been erratic reflecting a change of religious demography of Nagrakata populace while TMC had grown in a steady manner. Results of certain polling stations of Nagrakata are erratic indicating change of religious demography & huge influx of dedicated anti-BJP voters.
Who are these dedicated anti-BJP voters?
The election results show Nagrakata remained a BJP stronghold since 2014 Lok Sabha which is gradually slipping out of BJP’s hands probably due to the increasing presence of anti-BJP voters. Correlating such election results with the fact that the attackers of Khagen Murmu were Muslims, it may be logically inferred that the increasing base of anti-BJP voters of Nagrakata are Muslims, thus finding the answer of Question 2 as written above.
This also apparently implies that attack on BJP’s MP & MLA was a display of numerical muscle flexing by the Muslim voters in Nagrakata which is observed to be a hallmark of Muslim voter behaviour in Bengal under State protection. So the numbers suggest that the attack in Nagrakata on BJP MP & MLA was a communal attack & no public outrage as hypothesized by the West Bengal CM. This also provides us with the answer of Question 1 as written above. The attackers of Khagen Murmu didn’t perhaps come from Maldah Uttar but the religious demography of Nagrakata itself has altered.
From where are such Muslims coming to Nagrakata posing threat to the National Security of Bharat? We don’t have a confirmed answer to this question as yet though Nagrakata is located such that it is just out of the 50 kilometres’ jurisdiction of the BSF along the Bangladesh border. So, if Bangladeshis, trespassing into Indian territory, want to settle beyond the jurisdiction of the BSF, Nagrakata is an apt location for them.
Nagrakata is more than 50 kilometres away from Bangladesh border but just adjacent to Bhutan border & the rivers from Bhutan are truly pouring in heavily over North Bengal washing Nagrakata away. West Bengal CM too, while appealing people to remain calm on October 6, said, ‘Nagrakata is a border’. The question still remains that though the Government of India had reportedly sanctioned Rs. 1290 crore to West Bengal under Flood Management and Border Areas Programme (FMBAP), how judiciously did the GoWB use such fund & why’s North Bengal devoid of flood-fighting infrastructure in spite of being ecologically so sensitive an area facing flood-fury from Bhutan’s rivers? Union Jal Shakti Ministry has also stated, “Under Ganga Action Plan and Namami Gange Project, a total of 62 projects and interventions worth Rs. 5,648.52 crore have been undertaken in the state of West Bengal. The National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG) has sanctioned a total of 31 sewerage infrastructure projects, 30 ghats and crematoria projects in the state. Besides, a large single project for river rejuvenation in West Bengal, the rejuvenation of Tolly Nullah in Kolkata has been sanctioned,”— Did West Bengal Govt utilize such fund for building suitable flood-management & sewage infra? Certainly not.
The last thing the far-left forces of West Bengal look for is the economic & infrastructural progress of West Bengal because the prime objective of their politics seems povertification of Bengal apparently in order for an organized loot to continue and for steady radicalization of the Bengal mass. The probable fault of Khagen Murmu & Shankar Ghosh was their effort to relieve the flood victims a bit. Mamata didn’t perhaps want BJP men to drag positive limelight upon themselves before she staged herself in flood-hit North Bengal.
Secondly, Murmu himself belonging to the ST community, wanted to offer relief to the SC, ST dominated Nagrakata populace. The present ruling dispensation of West Bengal seems to have adopted a project to put the West Bengal SC & ST communities into competitive rivalry against the minorities by allotting much greater budgetary allocation for minority development in comparison to that for SCs & STs. That is perhaps why MP Khagen Murmu was fatally attacked by none other but a set of Muslim men & women as he wanted to provide the SC-ST-dominated Nagrakata populace with resources.
The radical Islamists were unleashed on an ST community public representative as he attempted to stand beside his own community. Such level of community-feeling amongst SCs & STs is perhaps looked upon as a threat by the Urban Naxal-Radical Islamist alliance of West Bengal. Such observation is in parity with the series of violence unleashed by the Islamists on the Dalits of West Bengal that was showcased with massive prominence during post poll violence 2021. The attack on Khagen Murmu & Shankar Ghosh might have been orchestrated by the radical Islamic forces themselves on their own without even looking for a nod from Mamata Banerjee because they’re sanguine about receiving State protection under the present regime.
Why is the West Bengal State protecting them under any circumstances? Is it because the State itself is settling such Muslims in various parts of West Bengal so as to alter the voters’ list composition in order for facilitating TMC’s electoral victory? We don’t have the confirmed answer to this question either as yet.
Hence, the demand of NIA probe into the incident seems legitimate as the incident may have implications on National Security especially because the State Police did not arrest anyone of the culprits. NIA probe might yield some striking findings which may end up answering to our Question 3 & 4 as mentioned above.
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