Shah, Derek trade charges over who vandalised bust

: Lambasting the Election Commission of India (EC) on Wednesday for its decision to cut short campaigning period by 19 hours, Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee said that the poll watchdog was guided by directives from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the centre, even as Union minister Arun Jaitley said that EC’s decision indicated that there was a breakdown of the constitutional machinery in the state.

The EC on Wednesday ordered campaigning in all nine West Bengal constituencies that go to polls on May 19 — the last phase of the ongoing general elections — to end at 10pm on Thursday, a day before its scheduled deadline, in the wake of violence between BJP and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters in Kolkata.

EC’s decision, announced by deputy election commissioner Chandra Bhushan Kumar in a press conference in Kolkata, comes a day after parts of the city witnessed widespread violence during BJP president Amit Shah’s massive road show on Tuesday.

“Do whatever you want against me. Send me to jail, issue a show cause notice. But you can do me no harm,” TMC chief Banerjee said in response, at a press conference in her residence, adding that her party will move the Supreme Court against this decision of the poll panel.

“Modi came here today. But did he apologise [for the desecration of the idol of Vidyasagar]?” she asked. Banerjee alleged that BJP president Amit Shah, who had held a roadshow in Kolkata on Tuesday, was “rewarded for the trouble he created [in Kolkata].” Prime Minister Narendra Modi held rallies in the state on Wednesday, in which he alleged that Banerjee had “orchestrated the attack on Amit Shah”.

Banerjee also said the EC did not put an end to the campaign on Wednesday, as it did not want to interfere with Modi’s rallies at Dumdum and Mathurapur on Thursday.

Due to EC’s decision, all Friday rallies and public meetings now stand cancelled. Banerjee will conduct four rallies on Thursday, including a road show that will double as a protest march, in Behala, Kolkata. Meanwhile, Modi will conduct two public meetings on Thursday.

“The decision to end the campaign a day earlier has been taken at the behest of Modi so that the BJP can escape the public sentiment against them in the aftermath of the vandalism of Vidyasagar’s statue. If this decision has indeed been taken considering law and order situation, why wasn’t campaigning stopped from tonight itself? Isn’t it because Modi has two rallies tomorrow?” she said.

“This is an attack on the federal structure. I shall fight this battle boldly,” she added.

In a series of tweets, Jaitley however, said that the Election Commission has effectively held West Bengal to be in a “state of anarchy”. “A constitutional authority, the Election Commission of India, has effectively held Bengal to be a state in Anarchy. Repeatedly escalating violence, state supported Vandals, a partisan police and home department are the illustrations the ECI has given.”

However, several Opposition leadersquestionedEC’sdecision.

“If a ban is intended for 72 hours, why is it starting at 10pm tomorrow? Is it to allow the two rallies of the PM before that?” CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury tweeted shortly after EC’s announcement.

Amid rallies to protest the desecration of Bengal renaissance icon Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar’s bust and demands that closed circuit television footage of Tuesday’s vandalism be made public, it has emerged that CCTV cameras in Vidyasagar College have not been functioning for the past two months.

Two CCTV cameras are installed outside the building on College Street (now Bidhan Sarani) and one is in the room where the Vidyasagar bust, made of Plaster of Paris, was kept inside a glass box. “The cameras have not been functioning over the past two months due to repair work of electrical fittings,” said Sanu Makal, president of the college unit of the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (students’ union) and a third-year student of Humanities.

“We have filed a police complaint. No student of the college was involved in the vandalism. It was the handiwork of outsiders. The CCTV cameras have not been functioning for the past two months. But other footages have surfaced that show outsiders storming the campus,” said college principal Gautam Kundu.

A second-year student has also filed a police complaint with the Amherst police station. On Tuesday, during a roadshow by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah, the bust was damaged by vandals who stormed the 147-year-old institution established by Vidyasagar.

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the BJP’s ideological fount, demanded that the CCTV footage of the vandalism be made public. “We strongly condemn the vandalism of the bust. Whoever may have been behind it, must be acted against,” said Saptarshi Sarkar, the ABVP state unit secretary.

The ruling Trinamool Congress and the BJP have been accusing each other of orchestrating the attack. The Trinamool Congress Chatra Parishad (TMCP) has released three videos showing people who appear to be participants in Shah’s Tuesday roadshow, trying to break open the iron gates of the college.

According to students of the college, only seven students, two teachers and three security guards were on campus at the time of the incident.

ccording to TMCP treasurer Somnath Das, who was present at the time of the incident alleged, “Two iron gates at the entrance of the campus were locked with chains. Participants in Amit Shah’s rally broke the chains hit them with bricks and batons, while some others entered the campus by scaling the railing...We all took shelter inside the building. They then broke the wooden door of the room, where Vidyasagar’s bust was. Besides vandalising the room, they also set fire to motorbikes at the entrance.”

Meanwhile, ABVP’s Twitter handle shared a screenshot of a Facebook post of one Biraj Narayan Roy, who claimed to be a student living in the vicinity. His post claimed he saw that the gate was locked and there was no way for participants in Shah’s rally to reach the statue. But TMC workers later pointed out that Roy passed out of the college in 2014 and now stayed in Santiniketan.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee led a march from Kolkata Gandhi Bhavan in Beliaghata to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s statue at Shyam Bazaar to protest against the vandalisation.

Thousands carrying framed photographs of Bengali icons like Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo, participated in the march.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Wednesday blamed each other for damaging the bust of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar, at a Kolkata college a day earlier.

BJP chief Amit Shah accused the TMC workers of vandalising the bust after an alleged attack on his convoy during a road show triggered violence and arson. The TMC blamed the “BJP goons” for the damage and insisted that it had video evidence to prove the allegations.

The violence began after TMC supporters allegedly threw stones at the BJP convoy from inside a hostel of Vidyasagar College. BJP workers retaliated, and during the clash, the bust inside the campus was damaged.

Shah alleged the TMC staged the vandalisation to gain “sympathy” as it had realised its “reverse count” has begun. “If she has nothing to hide, I will ask [West Bengal chief minister] Mamata [Banerjee] to seek a probe by a neutral agency...”

He said BJP leaders and workers were on the road outside the campus and its gates remained closed even during the violence. Shah said his party’s supporters could not have gone inside to desecrate the statue located far inside a room. “All evidence indicates that TMC goons were behind it. The TMC has done this to turn around a losing battle. It has lost in all six phases [of national elections] so far...”

A TMC team met the Election Commission officials in New Delhi and submitted the “proof” to back its claim. “The video not only clearly establishes the BJP did it but proves that its chief Amit Shah is a liar and dhokhebaaz [cheat]. The streets of Kolkata are tinged with shock and anger. What happened yesterday hurt Bengali pride,” said TMC leader Derek O’Brien.He said his party has as many as 44 videos to support its claim.

This is probably the first time that ECI has invoked Article 324 in this manner but it may not be last in cases of repetition of lawlessness and violence which vitiate the conduct of polls in peaceful manner