Around 30 BJP MLAs on Friday washed the base of BR Ambedkar's statue on the Assembly premises with Ganga water to "purify" the space where Trinamul Congress legislators had held demonstrations on three days against the Narendra Modi government.

The treasury benches have called the "purification" another instance of melodrama by the BJP.

In the 1,248 days of the 17th Assembly that held its first session on July 2, 2021, there have been countless instances of over-the-top, melodramatic scenes caused by the BJP, that led to increasing animosity with the ruling Trinamul Congress over several stormy sessions.

The "sanitisation" was led by leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari who had been suspended from the Assembly on Tuesday for the rest of the winter session after he allegedly insulted the Speaker.

The BJP MLA wore saffron scarves and performed a Hindu ritual of “purifying” with “water from the Ganga” the base of the Ambedkar statue.

Adhikari said it was to "sanitise" the space after a three-day (two hours daily) anti-Centre protest demonstration by the ruling party’s MLAs there from Tuesday to Thursday. The BJP’s Nandigram MLA called chief minister Mamata Banerjee “the queen of thieves” and claimed the spot needed the cleansing rite as she had sat therealong with the others on Wednesday.

“They are a party of murderers of democracy and dacoits. They are clinging to power through the misuse of the administrative machinery. They tainted the holy statue of Ambedkarji with their presence here,” said Adhikari.

The BJP legislature party’s chief whip, Manoj Tigga, said they specifically "cleaned" the spot where Mamata sat.

The BJP MLAs sang the national anthem — some of them stand accused of having insulted it over the past couple of days — after the exercise.

Not long after, the Assembly authorities sent a team of women security personnel to sit at the base of the statue, thereby surrounding it.

“First of all, to show respect for Ambedkar, they need to start properly participating in the democratic processes laid down for India by him. Debates in the House would be a good start,” said finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.

“They do nothing constructive, worthwhile inside the House, but repeatedly misuse the Assembly premises to make headlines,” she added.

Speaker Biman Banerjee, who has been expressing his displeasure over the BJP legislature party’s disregard for the Assembly’s conventions and decorum over the past few days, was purportedly livid. He issued an order prohibiting all sorts of protests, agitations and demonstrations on the Assembly premises without prior permission from him.

“I would like to know (from Adhikari) exactly why such an activity was carried out,” he said later.

“Their behaviour over these few days has been reprehensible,” added the Speaker, confirming his order.

The BJP’s Tigga, jeering at the alleged propensity of the Trinamul dispensation to stifle voices of dissent, said the Speaker’s “diktat” felt like imposition of prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC on the state legislature.

Trinamul has been accusing the BJP of resorting to such tactics in order to make its presence felt after the Amit Shah-led rally at Esplanade on Wednesday turned out to be “a super flop show”.

On Wednesday and Thursday, the two legislature parties participated in a sabre-rattling exercise — with two separate protest demonstrations, barely 20 metres apart — on the Assembly premises. Each side raised bellicose slogans, accusing top leaders in the other of being “thieves”.

On Friday, Trinamul also introduced another angle, that of the BJP having disrespected tribals, underscoring the presence of the ruling party’s tribal MLAs who were seated at the spot Adhikari and others “purified”.

Trinamul’s tribal leader and junior forest minister Birbaha Hansda said: “I belong to the Adivasi community and was protesting with other MLAs on the spot. I want to ask BJP MLAs why they have insulted us yet again.”

“In the past, Suvendu Adhikari had insulted us (with a controversial statement)…. Time and again, the BJP insults tribals… why is that?” she asked.

Junior food and supplies minister Jyotsna Mandi, another tribal leader, said Ambedkar fought for the rights of the likes of tribals and Dalits through his life, and this so-called purification drive was an insult event to his legacy.

“One ought not expect anything better from the BJP, perhaps, given their treatment of tribals wherever they are in power,” she said.

The BJP has said tribals are no longer “fooled” by Trinamul’s “lies”.

“These diversionary tactics do not work anymore. Tribals know how Trinamul habitually insult them,” said BJP state chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya.