Bharatiya Janata Party West Bengal President Dilip Ghosh has kicked up a storm with his remarks that his party workers, ‘trained’ by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, can break the shoulders of Trinamool Congress activists with ‘bare hands’, drawing flak from the ruling party, the Congress and the Left.
Courting controversy yet again, he asked TMC workers to ‘stop’ violence, ‘mend’ their ways or face ‘consequences’ when they travel outside Bengal.
“They can’t do whatever they want and beat up our cadres without reasons. TMC is thinking they can do whatever they want. But, they should remember one thing that out of Bengal, it’s only the BJP and the BJP,” Ghosh told a public rally in Kharagpur.
“If they (Trinamool) have 211 MLAs, then we have more than 1,000 MLAs and MPs across India. If they step outside Bengal, we will teach them a lesson. Their family members should mark their name with red ink when they go out of their homes,” he said.
“Don’t instigate us. We are warning you. I don’t interfere but if you provoke me, I will not be good. I am warning you there will be no happiness. I will first cut off water supply, then power, then I will shut the door and thrash you. We are capable of everything. The boys are trained by the RSS and are ready. Your shoulders will be broken,” he said on Friday.
He said he has to just dial 11 digits. “You will be thrashed from the airport to your house, then from the house to the hospital. No one will find you. Your families will be informed with a photograph on WhatsApp,” Ghosh said.
Ghosh said on Sunday, “Why can’t I make such comments. If my cadres are attacked, I have every right to protect them. The TMC should immediately make a public appeal to stop violence.”
He said, in Assam, the BJP won the assembly polls, but no opposition workers was touched. In Bengal, a ‘bloodbath’ is going on, he said.
If the TMC doesn’t stop violence, then the children of TMC workers would become orphans, he said.
The BJP leader had earlier drawn flak for his controversial comments on TMC and then on a section of women students in JadavpurUniversity.
Reacting to Ghosh's remarks, TMC Vice President Mukul Roy said, “This is totally unacceptable. We will write to both the Houses of Parliament. These comments only prove who is the victim and who are the perpetrators.”
State Health and Family Welfare Minister Shashi Panja said now there is a BJP leader who is day after day commenting on women or threatening to beat up TMC followers.
“This is very unfortunate. This is not the kind of politics one should pursue,” she said, adding in a democracy someone wins and someone else loses in an election.