A day after the death of a youth named Debasis Sengupta in the Subhashgram neighbourhood in the South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in the State began exploiting his death for political gains.
In a tweet on Thursday (21st March), the official X (formerly Twitter) handle of the TMC claimed that Sengupta committed suicide due to the ‘fear’ of implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). It wrote, “The disastrous impacts of the Modi Government’s catastrophic decision!”
“Debasis Sengupta, a 31-year-old resident of Netajinagar committed suicide and was brought dead at the Sonarpur Rural Hospital. His family members clarified that Debasis had been having frequent panic attacks over his citizenship being revoked as a consequence of CAA and NRC,” the party further claimed.
It alleged, “Narendra Modi is out for blood and he will stop at nothing. Let this be on your conscience, Modiji!”.
The party shared a video of relatives of Debasis Sengupta, who was heard telling TMC councillor Arup Chakraborty that the victim was tensed about the implementation of the CAA and NRC in the country.
“He had lost his mind over the NRC/ CAA. He was worried about being sent to Bangladesh. He used to say that he did not have all the documents (like local card). He did not come from Bangladesh. He was born here,” the aunt of the deceased man said.
While indicating that he was not fully stable, she continued, “He began panicking. I used to tell him to not watch YouTube and to be aware of the fake news disseminated there.”
Thereafter, TMC leaders used this statement of the aunt of the deceased youth to allege that he killed himself as a result of the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act.
TMC Chandrima Bhattacharya alleged that the untimely death of Debasis Sengupta was the ‘grim impact of the Modi Govt.’s forceful CAA implementation.’
TMC leader Kunal Ghosh alleged that Debasis Sengupta took his own life due to the ‘constant fear’ of detention camps and incarceration. “At one point, the mental pressure became too much that he committed suicide,” he claimed.
While making a political spectacle over the unfortunate death of the young man, TMC leaders lined up to garland the dead body of Debasis Sengupta.
A week before the death of Debasis Sengupta on 20th March this year, the West Bengal Chief Minister left no stone unturned in fearmongering about the CAA and NRC.
During a public meeting in North 24 Parganas on 12th March this year, she claimed, “You will not get the benefits of schemes such as Swasthya Sathi, Lakshmir Bhandar, Widow Pension Scheme, Old Age Pension…You will first be rendered illegal and there is no guarantee that you will ever be considered legal by this government.”
“Remember, this is a jumla by the BJP. If anyone gets citizenship, then, I will have no problem. I will be happy. Give the power at the hands of the District Magistrate (DM), like it used to happen before. Why did the Centre keep the power with themselves?” Mamata Banerjee alleged.
She brazened out,”First they will declare people as illegals and intruders. So whoever was a citizen will be rendered illegal. If this law (CAA) is applied, then, there will be no clarity. I have taken the opinion of legal advisors and they told me that the law has been brought to torture and harass people.”
“You cannot get the benefits of the scheme before elections but they took away your rights with the implementation of CAA. They took away your properties, Aadhar cards…” Mamata Banerjee continued.
“Whoever is happy now, read my book and find out about the dangers of the CAA. Two people will get citizenship and 8 others will be excluded. Will they send those 8 people to detention camps?” she alleged.
While continuing her rumour mongering, the West Bengal CM said, “Do not fall for their words…BJP will promise you a lot of things. They are liars and jumlabaaz.” She claimed that people of the Northeast, the Muslim and the Hindu communities across India are crying over CAA.
Mamata Banerjee then repeated the lie that the Aadhar cards of Mathuas and Namashudras in West Bengal have been suspended.
While TMC is busy politicising the untimely death of 31-year-old Debasis Sengupta, it must be mentioned that the party supremo has been at the helm of peddling disinformation about the CAA and the NRC.