Mamata Banerjee alleges senior BJP leader of instigating violence in Darjeeling, protests troop withdrawal

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday levelled serious allegations against senior BJP leaders Centre’s decision to withdraw forces from Darjeeling hills.

“The Centre has, without discussing with the state, pulled out all the force from the hills. Taking such a unilateral decision is unfortunate on the part of the Central government. It is a politically and administratively bad decision. It is an undemocratic and unethical decision taken at a time when we are trying to restore peace there and recent recovery of arms and ammunition proves the involvement of Northeast insurgent groups in the violence that had taken place,” she lashed out at the Centre during a press conference at Nabanna, the state secretariat, after meeting representatives of political parties from the hills.

She said she had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh and hoped something positive would come from there.

She alleged that the BJP was trying to engineer an unrest at the hills and create a political divide so that they can win one seat from there. Without naming BJP MP and Union minister of state for drinking water and sanitation, SS Ahluwalia, she said, “I have specific information that a BJP leader and minister is directly involved in instigating violence at the hills in order to retain the party’s victory from the Lok Sabha seat there. We have evidences which, when time comes we might make public.”

Later, the Centre allowed continued deployment of 800 paramilitary personnel in Darjeeling to maintain law and order. As of now, 15 companies of paramilitary forces were deployed in Darjeeling and the central government wanted to withdraw 10 of them for deployment in other places for duties during festival season, a Union home ministry official said in Delhi.

However, as the state government wanted to deploy the forces for more time, the home ministry, after a fresh assessment, decided to withdraw just seven companies and allowed the remaining eight companies to remain in the hill areas. A company of paramilitary comprises around 100 personnel.

Taking a potshot at Union Home Minister, she said that the Centre was meeting some people from Darjeeling who had been charged with UAPA and taking their words for granted as the actual situation at the hills and that they were not talking to people who believe in democratic values. “We will try to maintain law and order at the hills but if there is any fresh case of violence, the Centre will have to take responsibility for that. I am sorry to say that it looks like the Central government is being run from the BJP party office,” she said and referring to the recent visit of state BJP president Dilip Ghosh at Darjeeling added that it was based on the reports of his visit that forces were withdrawn.

Ghosh however, later said that deploying and removing of Central forces was a prerogative of the Centre. “She had instigated and fuelled violence at the hills and why does she need the Centre to save her skin?” he said. Mamata also said that the next meeting between the state government and hill parties would take place at Pintail Village in Darjeeling on November 21.

Representatives of all parties at the hills other than Dr Harka Bahadur Chhetri’s Jan Andolan Party (JAP) were present at the meeting on Monday. Talking to mediapersons, Chhetri expressed his dissatisfaction towards the state government for his reason being absent from the meeting. “Our stand is clear and just as it had been in the last two meetings. There should be a tripartite talk among the Centre, the state and the parties at the hills. Also the GJM leaders about three months ago had burnt the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) accord, so it should be revoked as it can prove to be an impediment in the formation of a separate state. Moreover only one party of Binay Tamang is consulted in the name of an all-party meeting,” Chhetri said.

With PTI inputs