BJP calls for 12-hr general strike in Bengal on Wednesday, TMC sees plot to disrupt peace

Kolkata: The BJP called for a 12-hour general strike in West Bengal on Wednesday to protest against the police action on those who took part in the march to state secretariat Nabbana on Tuesday.

The ruling TMC claimed that the strike call exposed the BJP's game plan to foment disturbances in the state exploiting people’s pain over the alleged rape and murder of a woman doctor.

The West Bengal government said that the administration will ensure that normal life is not affected during the strike that will begin at 6 am.

The police used batons, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the crowd who proceeded to Nabanna.

They were demanding the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the wake of the alleged rape and murder of a woman doctor in a state-run hospital earlier this month.

“We are forced to give the dawn-to-dusk strike call for a general strike as this autocratic regime is turning a deaf ear to the voices of people, the demand for justice for the deceased doctor sister. Instead of justice, Mamata Banerjee’s police are turning on the peace-loving people of the state, who only wanted a safe and secure environment for women,” BJP state president and union minister Sukanta Majumdar said.

Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari earlier told reporters: “The police unleashed unthinkable oppression on the peaceful student marchers to Nabanna during the day. If Mamata Banerjee’s police treat peaceful democratic protestors in this way, we will bring the entire state to a halt tomorrow.”

The call for March to Nabanna was separately given by an unregistered students’ body Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj (West Bengal Students Community) and the Sangrami Joutha Mancha (Joint Platform of Struggle), an organisation of state government employees who have been agitating for long demanding their DA to be made at par with their Central government counterparts.

Responding to BJP’s shutdown call, senior Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh said, “We have been stating from the very beginning that the Chhatra Samaj-sponsored Nabanna Abhijan had the backing of the BJP. This was apparent the way miscreants masquerading as student protestors created large-scale disturbances in the name of peaceful protests today. This was clear by the way the BJP lost no time to give call for a bandh to foment disturbances,” Ghosh told reporters.

He said people of the state would foil the game plan of the BJP.

To a question, Ghosh said TMC activists will work for ensuring normal life but they have been asked not to resist the BJP workers.

"The West Bengal government will not allow any bandh on Wednesday. We urge the people not to participate in it. The state government will take all steps to keep normal life going. Keep shops, marketplaces, and shopping malls open," Chief Advisor to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Alapan Bandopadhyay, said at the state secretariat.

Listing other agitational programmes of BJP in protest against the R G Kar incident, Majumdar said instead of August 28 as announced earlier, his party will launch a sit-in at Esplanade in the heart of Kolkata on August 29.

The office of the state Women’s Commission will be gheraoed and locked from outside on August 30, while there will be a chakka jam on September 6.

To provide legal help to the arrested participants of Nabanna Abhijan, BJP has opened a helpline, Majumdar said .