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    ET Analysis: West Bengal's BJP claims Mamata imposing lockdown on August 5 communal

    Synopsis

    BJP has planned a procession demanding ‘restoration of democracy’ on Tuesday from Swami Vivekananda’s home at Maniktala in northern Kolkata to the crossing in Shyambazar, where there is a statue of Subhas Chandra Bose on a rearing horse.

    ram temple ayodhya ptiPTI
    Kolkata: All eyes may be on Ayodhya as the bhumi puja for the Ram Mandir awaits its VIP guests tomorrow, but in Kolkata, the state BJP leadership has a more pressing matter on its mind – a complete ‘Covid lockdown’ in West Bengal on the very same day. To many party leaders, this is yet another example of the Mamata Banerjee government’s continued assault on ‘democratic rights’ and its ‘anti-Hindu’ objectives.

    Today, BJP has planned to take out a procession – from Swami Vivekananda’s home at Maniktala in northern Kolkata to the 3 km-away crossing in Shyambazar, with its famous statue of Subhas Chandra Bose on a rearing horse -- demanding the ‘restoration of democracy’.

    BJP national secretary and former party state president Rahul Sinha insisted that ‘the decision to impose total lockdown on Wednesday reflects the communal mindset of the TMC [Trinamool Congress] government’. Sinha has also accused the state government of ‘withdrawing’ an earlier date for lockdown – on August 2 – ‘because Id was being celebrated the date before. The TMC has denied that this has anything to do with ‘appeasement’.

    The Banerjee government’s decision last week to impose a complete lockdown across the state two days every week till end-August has its fair and wide share of critics. These critics have questioned the ability of such a random, bi-weekly method to ‘flatten the Covid curve,’ when on the remaining five non-lockdown days, the administration has pretty much given up the strict imposition of public precautions, especially social distancing across the state. The CPI(M), fighting from its oppositional space in the run-up to the 2021 Bengal assembly elections, has also criticised the government’s ‘random lockdowns’ for adding to the woes and livelihood challenges of common citizens.

    In this scenario, BJP has entered with another broom in hand to smack the state government’s lockdown spree with: its ‘communal’ objective, clearly evident to its leaders by the Banerjee administration imposing a lockdown the very ‘special’ day Ayodhya’s Ram Mandir will be anointed. You don’t need a professional conspiracy theorist to link lockdown with Ram Lala – there’s BJP state president Dilip Ghosh.

    ‘August 5 is a historic day in Independent India’s history,’ says Ghosh, who will be one of those leading today’s short march for ‘democratic rights’, ‘and imposing a lockdown on that day is insulting the sentiments of the majority community. He has added that if the lockdown order for August 5 is not removed, the state government ‘will face consequences’.

    So, two days after Union home minister Amit Shah announced that he has been tested Covid-positive -- and days after members of Parliament from West Bengal who had met Shah in meetings twice over the last week to discuss the political situation in the state and have announced that they will stay quarantined – the state BJP unit is ready to march (keeping social distance?) in Covid-hit Kolkata today to add to the city’s pandemic precaution woes. And all to protest against being forced to stay home on a day there’s a special religious function in Ayodhya that the media will be airing round the clock anyway.


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