Prime Minister Narendra Modi sharpened his criticism of West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) over law and order on Monday, citing the lynching of a police official from Bihar who visited North Dinajpur district with his team to probe a motorcycle theft.
Five people, including the mastermind and his son, have been arrested for the killing of station house officer Ashwini Kumar, 52, in a village bordering the two states on Saturday. Barely 24 hours after the incident, Kumar’s septuagenarian mother Urmila Devi too died. According to a report in the Times of India (TOI), the cremation of the mother and son was held together on Sunday.
“The brave officer came to Bengal two days ago to discharge his duties. But the officer was beaten to death. The mother died after seeing the body of her son,” Modi said in an election rally in Bengal’s Bardhaman.
“Didi (as Mamata Banerjee is called), wasn’t that police officer’s mother a mother for you too? No mother in Bengal knew that you were so tough,” Modi said, addressing the chief minister, whose popular political slogan is “Ma, Mati, Manush (mother, soil and people)”.
Kumar, a 1994-batch inspector-rank officer posted at Kishanganj Town police station, and his mother were cremated on the outskirts of their village Panchu Mandal Tola in Bihar’s Purnia, according to the TOI report. It mentioned that she was suffering from several age-related ailments and that Kumar’s father had died around seven years ago.
“She died of heart attack around 5.30am on Sunday. Initially, she wasn’t told about the incident, but her condition started deteriorating after Kumar’s body reached home on Saturday,” Kumar’s uncle, Subhash Singh, told TOI over the phone.
Kumar is survived by his wife and three minor children, including two daughters, the report said.
The mastermind, Mohammad Israel, used a public address system of a mosque to instigate people who attacked Kumar, officials told TOI, and added that 21 named and 500 unknown people were made accused in the lynching case.
“Didi, o Didi, you can be angry at me and criticise me. But don’t insult the proud traditions of Bengal,” Modi said in his rally.
He exuded confidence of winning the elections in the eastern state. “In four rounds (of the eight-phase polling exercise), Bengal’s residents have hit so many boundaries and sixers that the BJP’s seats have crossed the century mark,” Modi said, an apparent dig at the TMC’s election slogan of “game on”.
Of Bengal’s total 294 seats, 135 have voted in the four phases conducted so far with the state’s ruling TMC facing a challenge posed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). “Bengal’s residents have also clean bowled Didi in Nandigram,” Modi said, referring to the high-profile seat where the CM is contesting against her lieutenant-turned-rival, Suvendu Adhikari.
“Secondly, Bengal’s residents have foiled Didi’s big plan of giving the captaincy to her nephew (Abhishek Banerjee)…people understood that game…”
In this election season, the BJP has been unsparing in its attack on Abhishek and accused him of corruption, while the TMC has defended him and said such allegations are baseless. “Bengal doesn’t want the TMC’s misrule…or the game of violence…It wants real poriborton (change)…it wants a BJP government,” Modi said.
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