Home Ministry Summons Top 2 Bengal Officers After BJP Chief Convoy Attack

The centre has summoned Bengal's top police and administrative officers over Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar's report to Home Minister Amit Shah detailing "deteriorating law and order" in the state after an attack on party chief JP Nadda's convoy on Thursday. The Home Ministry has summoned the state's Chief Secretary and police chief on Monday.

Bengal Chief Secretary and Director General of Police have been summoned on December 14 for a meeting with the Union Home Secretary "to discuss the law and order situation...including the recent attacks on Z-category protectees", according to a home ministry letter.

The Home Minister has also sought a report from the Bengal government over what he called "sponsored violence" after Mr Nadda's convoy was attacked with bricks, stones and sticks near Kolkata. Some leaders were injured and cars were damaged in the incident, which the BJP said was the work of supporters of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.

Seven people have been arrested and three FIRs (First Information Reports) have been filed by the police, one against a BJP leader.

Amit Shah may travel to Kolkata on December 19 and 20, sources say, as the party prepares to take on the Mamata Banerjee government aggressively over the incident.

The Chief Minister has accused the BJP of staging the attack and falsely accusing her party men as part of a political conspiracy in the run-up to the Bengal election due in six months.

When the incident took place, Mr Nadda's convoy was on its way to Diamond Harbour, the parliamentary constituency of the Chief Minister's nephew Abhishek Banerjee. The cars were attacked with rocks and sticks by a mob allegedly of Trinamool supporters. The BJP said its leaders like Kailash Vijayvargiya and Mukul Roy were hurt.

"Bengal has descended into an era of tyranny, anarchy and darkness under the Trinamool rule. The manner in which political violence has been institutionalised and brought to the extreme in West Bengal under TMC rule is sad and worrying," Mr Shah tweeted.

He said the central government was taking the incident "seriously" and the West Bengal government "will have to answer to the peace-loving people of the state for this sponsored violence."

Mamata Banerjee questioned why the BJP, with all the central forces  at its disposal, could not protect its party chief and wondered if the attack was "planned".

"They are importing a new Hindu Dharma. That Hindu Dharma is not our Hindu Dharma. They are passing off a disgusting dharma as Hindu dharma with which neither you nor I have any thing to do. This is how Hitler became Hitler, this is how Ceausescu became Ceausescu. Mussolini became Mussolini. Today, this Narendra Babu sarkar simply plans drama, creates drama and sends video of the drama they have themselves created to the media. And media has no power to question them," she said.

"Every day they (BJP activists) are coming out (for rallies) with firearms. They are slapping themselves and blaming it on the Trinamool Congress," the Chief Minister said.

Political violence has escalated in Bengal in the months leading up to the assembly election. There have been more than 40 killings between since January and the BJP says more than half were its members.

The Trinamool alleges that over 1,000 of its workers have been victims of political violence since 1998.