Stooping to a new low: Video by BJP found to be enacted by jatra artiste

Kolkata: Political turmoil erupted after a video showing dearth of foodgrains allegedly enacted by a jatra artiste was posted on the 'BJP Bengal' Twitter handle.

The 57-second video, allegedly made at the behest of BJP, in which the jatra artiste with some people from his village in Basirhat in North 24-Parganas, shows them alleging of not receiving food grains and requesting the state to shoot them if it cannot provide food, was uploaded on a Twitter account named BJP Bengal on April 17.

The same jatra artiste, Mobarak Mondal, later gave a statement before the police that he has no complaint against the state government in terms of not getting ration.

In the recent video uploaded by West Bengal Police on Saturday night on its Twitter handle, Mondal confessed: "I get ration from the government. I don't have any complaint. Some youths urged me to enact as if I am not getting ration and they later uploaded the same in social media."

The investigation further revealed that Mobarak has a digital ration card and he had received ration on April 2.

Police arrested Mobarak and searched for others who were involved in these dirty tricks when the entire state is fighting against the COVID-19 outbreak.

Incidentally, a BJP leader was arrested at Bongaon in North 24-Parganas a couple of days ago on charges of forcefully taking away foodgrains from a ration shop against ration cards of deceased persons. The alleged involvement of a section of BJP leaders came up when Governor Jagdeep Dhankar tweeted: "PDS SCAM BALOON is getting bigger by day. If not contained in time it may put to shame earlier scams in the state. Eyewash dealing won't help given involvement of powerful ones. Only thorough probe can unearth the sharks that hijacked PDS and denied poor and needy their due."

Trying to attract the attention of the Governor urging him to "behave impartially", Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Banerjee stated in a tweet: "Hon'ble Governor of West Bengal, have you seen the news- hungry man in tweet by BJP is a jatra actor. Now you can understand how easily you can be made a fool by the BJP leaders. Behave like an impartial constitutional authority but not the agent of BJP party."

Without naming BJP, Trinamool Congress leader Firhad Hakim attacked the political party for uploading such a video, saying: "Such acts are not politics but dirty tricks."

The Governor on Sunday also tweeted in connection with the state Home secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay's letter to his Additional Chief Secretary, stating that he was directed to invite his attention "to the note of the Governor on the subject of affirmative roles of representatives of people and to inform the standard protocols are in place and DMs or police administration have to necessarily follow the protocol within the four corners of law".

Reacting on the Governor's statement, Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Banerjee said: "BJP is saying less compared to the Governor. He is speaking with political motivation from the constitutional post. I would bring up the issue once the Lok Sabha reopens."