Tension soared in West Bengal’s Howrah district Sunday after the state police stopped Bharatiya Yuva Morcha (BYM) workers from performing ‘Bharat Mata Puja’ on the occasion of Republic Day.
According to reports, clashes broke out between BJP Yuva Morcha workers and the state police after the workers were ruthlessly manhandled by the state Police for ignoring their orders.
In a video shared by Times now, the West Bengal police are seen using force to disperse the crowd, while the workers are seen resisting the police excesses. The Police are seen pulling one of the workers by his hands on the road and also forcefully stuffing the workers inside the police van. According to reports, several workers have been taken into preventive custody.
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The workers of Bharatiya Yuva Morcha wanted to hold ‘Bharat Mata Puja’ outside two police stations namely Gorabari police station and Howrah police station, both in Howrah district to symbolically protest against the state police excesses, for which they said they had sought police permission.
The police had reportedly threatened to take legal action against the workers who were adamant on performing the puja. It is alleged that to hinder the puja, the sculptor who made the idol of Bharat Mata was also threatened by the police not to sell the idols to the BJP workers. Apart from the sculptor, sound system providers had also been threatened.
Police said that the puja was disallowed as it was organised on a congested road causing traffic disruption. The state police at the behest of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has on several previous occasions discharged excesses on BJP workers in Bengal.
Last year also, BJP’s effort to organise a similar puja in Kolkata and other districts of the state to mark the 73rd Independence Day was throttled by the West Bengal police. The party’s student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had then also accused Trinamool Congress-backed miscreants of vandalising an idol of Bharat Mata near Howrah’s Kona Expressway.
In March last year, the state police had lathi-charged and baton-charged BJP workers to stop them from carrying out Vijay Sankalp bike rally. This led to violent clashes between the police and the BJP workers at Durgapur and Asansol in West Burdwan district, Midnapore town and Goaltore in West Midnapore and Balurghat in South Dinajpur where the rallies were taken out.
Earlier the West Bengal government had refused to give permission for BJP’s Rath Yatra citing the law and order situation as a reason.