The alleged murder of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) youth leader at Cossipore in north Kolkata on the second day of Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s two-day visit to West Bengal has created a fresh political furore, with Amit Shah labelling it a “political murder” and calling for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). On the morning of May 6, the body of Arjun Chowrasia, a local BJP Yuva Morcha leader, was discovered hanging in an abandoned house near his residence in the railway quarters at Cossipore. While the BJP alleged that the ruling Trinamool Congress was behind the mysterious death, the Trinamool has denied having any hand in the incident.
After visiting Chowrasia’s family, Amit Shah called Chowrasia’s death a “political murder” and launched a scathing attack on the State government. “Yesterday [May 5] the Trinamool government completed one year in power [in its third consecutive term], and the very next day the culture of political violence and political murder was resumed. Wherever we go in Bengal we have seen many examples of political violence, revenge killings, and targeting of opposition workers. The BJP condemns the murder of Arjun Chowrasia…. We want to tell the people of Bengal that this is what the BJP is fighting against. The attempt to silence the voice of the opposition through violence and intimidation was there during the time of the previous Left Front government, and it is even more pronounced under the present Trinamool government,” said Amit Shah.
He alleged that Chowrasia’s body was forcibly taken away from his family by the State administration and that even his grandmother was roughed up. “The CBI should be handed over this case. There have been many murders after the Assembly election, and this was a message that it is not going to stop,” said Amit Shah.
According to the Union Home Minister, in no other State has the High Court handed over as many investigations from the State police to the CBI as in Bengal in the span of just one year. “This proves that the court has little faith in the police and the law and order situation in the State,” said Amit Shah. In the last couple of months the Calcutta High Court has handed over around half a dozen cases to the CBI.
The Trinamool countered the BJP’s allegations by saying that the saffron party was trying to “politicise the death”. Party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh suggested that the incident may have even been orchestrated to create an “issue”. “If they say that Trinamool had anything to do with this, then we will also say that a person close to a disgruntled BJP leader was sacrificed to set the stage for a Delhi leader to do drama on…. I request Amit Shah ji to also visit the houses of those victims of atrocities in Uttar Pradesh,” said Kunal Ghosh. He accused Amit Shah of coming to Bengal not as the Union Home Minister but as a BJP leader, to indulge in petty politics.
West Bengal Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said that the alacrity with which top BJP leaders along with Amit Shah reached the site suggested that it might have been pre-planned. “How did the Home Minister claim that it was a political murder before any investigation? Does it not indicate that something was created so that they could do politics with it? The speed with which BJP leaders, who are never with the people, reached the place makes us wonder whether this was pre-planned or not.”
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