Why is Nupur Sharma still not arrested, asks TMC

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress (TMC) on Saturday slammed the Governor and BJP leaders accusing them of fanning violence in Bengal. The party further questioned the role of the Centre for not taking any legal action against Nupur Sharma whose statements criticising Prophet Mohammad raised a public outcry in several countries.

"We had demanded arrest of Sharma and another former spokesperson of the party three days back. The BJP indulged in a cover-up. Sharma was suspended and the other was expelled. But no legal action was taken apart from registering an FIR. Why is Nupur Sharma still not arrested? Had she been arrested, none of the violence we are seeing today would have happened. The BJP wants to keep this issue alive to create differences among people. We strongly condemn this," TMC Rajya Sabha member and party's national spokesperson Sukhendu Sekhar Ray said.

He held the BJP leaders guilty of fanning violence for their efforts to visit the disturbed pockets of Howrah flouting Section 144 CrPC imposed by the state administration and making provocative statements.

"The state police have already taken action but the Governor and the BJP leaders has tried to fan communalism by making provocative speeches," he added.

According to Ray, the so-called fringe elements of BJP are doing this because the Modi government has failed to arrest the declining state of the economy in India. "The Rupee-Dollar exchange rate has almost touched Rs 78. To divert the attention from these real issues, divisive steps have been taken by the BJP to engineer a divide on lines of communalism. This is the only kind of politics that the saffron party knows and it has been implementing the same since the party's birth," Ray added.

He came down heavily upon the BJP leaders who have been demanding the deployment of the Army in Bengal and said that they should raise similar demands for Uttar Pradesh. "BJP that arrests people on fake charges and conducts fake encounters. It is the BJP leaders who are creating such an atmosphere in the country. The Army should be deployed against BJP leaders' actions, and for curbing their hate speeches," Ray said.

He appealed to the people not to be provoked by statements made by BJP leaders.