West Bengal: Governor Jagdeep Dhankha leaves for Delhi after meeting BJP leaders

KOLKATA: Bengal leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari called on governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday — this time as a trust member of Jagannath Math Mecheda along with representatives of 57 organisations practising ‘Sanatan dharma’ — seeking a change of date for ‘Khela Hobe Divas’ scheduled on August 16, as announced by CM Mamata Banerjee. Dhankhar left for Delhi soon after the meeting.
Adhikari held that the date coincided with the “Great Calcutta Killings” on August 16, 1946, as part of the Direct Action Day programme announced by the Muslim League.
“Representatives of Sanatan organisations called on Governor WB to seek change in the date of ‘Khela Hobe Divas’ as it reminds the horrendous memories of Direct Action Day and ‘the week of long knives’ in 1946 that led to killings of thousands. They sought intervention to convey their feelings to the government,” Dhankhar tweeted.
BJP Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta had flagged the issue on July 21. “Interesting @MamataOfficial has declared August 16 as ‘Khela Hobe Divas’. It is the day Muslim League launched its Direct Action Day & began the Great Calcutta Killings in 1946. In today’s West Bengal ‘khela hobe’ has come to symbolize a wave of terror attacks on opponents,” Dasgupta had tweeted.
BJP Bengal Mahila Morcha president Agnimitra Paul raised the Trinamool “terror and attack” issue over Saturday’s Bainan incident where TMC miscreants allegedly gang-raped the 34-year-old wife of a BJP worker. “The Bagnan Police was initially reluctant to admit the rape complaint. It was reported in the media on Monday that police arrested two Trinamool leaders, Qutubuddin Mullick and Debashis Rana, among the six prime accused. But instead of them, two other accused, Sk Saiyad and Joynal Mullick, were produced in court,” she said.
Paul alleged that the doctor in hospital held that the “injury marks in the private parts of the victim” were not sufficient to substantiate the rape complaint. “Medical tests were not done for two days. The doctor did it after the local Trinamool MLA met him. We are moving court for a DNA test. We also want the National Commission for Women and the National Human Rights Commission to take up the matter,” she said.
In another incident at Khardah in North 24 Parganas, TMC workers came in the way of BJP’s “malyadan” programme and prevented its state general secretary Sayantan Basu from garlanding a statue of Tagore. The Trinamool men were protesting the attacks on its leaders in Tripura.