The COVID-19 pandemic has triggered a social media war between the BJP and the West Bengal government, with BJP IT cell chief frequently joining battle and the state not letting anything go unchallenged. The ruling party's chief accusation against the BJP – that of running a misinformation campaign – was taken up a notch on Thursday by the state's education minister Partha Chatterjee, who accused the BJP of hoarding rations meant for the poor.
Tagging state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, Mr Chatterjee wrote, "Now if sitting at home and spreading misinformation wasn't enough, @BJP4Bengal hoarding Central Govt. issued rice rations in party office !!! How can you cheat Bengal & stoop so low if you are apparently trying to prevent ration profiteering in this state ??"
Earlier on Thursday evening, the government roped in the state police to counter "fake news" allegedly put out by the BJP about students from Bengal stranded at Kota, who are now on their way back.
The BJP had tweeted saying around 3,000 students are being driven back to Bengal from Kota in just 3 buses. "Only the Mamta Banerjee government can do this," the tweet read.
During the day, the state home secretary had tweeted the exact numbers -- 2,368 students, she said, were returning in 95 buses and expected to reach Bengal tomorrow.
2368 students of West Bengal are being brought back from Kota in 95 buses with State government officers as escorts and likely to reach tomorrow.
— Home Secretary - GOWB (@HomeSecretary2) April 30, 2020
In the evening, the West Bengal police joined battle and tweeted about fake news versus the truth.
— West Bengal Police (@WBPolice) April 30, 2020
Another battlefield is Murshidabad, where the superintendent of the state-run hospital at Berhampur was transferred today.
BJP is claiming the transfer was triggered after a duty roster of the hospital went public, in which it was clearly stated that if there was a death, COVID-19 was not to be stated as the cause in the certificate.
There was no response to the tweets by BJP till Trinamool MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar tweeted, calling Babu Supriyo a "super spreader" of fake news.
Key actors of BJP's fake news factory continue to mislead people with distorted facts@SuPriyoBabul @swapan55 don't be a super spreader of fake news, share the correct version that is attached here for your ready reference
— Dr. KakoliGDastidar (@kakoligdastidar) April 29, 2020
Also, don't forget to act on your threat to move to court https://t.co/Z19KDsDIUh pic.twitter.com/OQmpQKMI6X
After the superintendent got transferred, BJP IT cell chief Amit Malviya joined the war of words.
MSVP Murshidabad Medical College has been transferred after his order to hide Covid deaths came to the fore. Unable to hide grim reality of the crisis in WB, Mamata Banerjee is trying to wash her hands off, making scapegoats out of government servants for carrying out her orders. https://t.co/xcoCfrwFO1 pic.twitter.com/p4aX8i0HS2
— Amit Malviya (@amitmalviya) April 30, 2020
With the pandemic raging, the 2021 assembly election in West Bengal has taken a backseat. But on social media at least, the countdown has begun.
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