The Trinamool Congress, at the end of the Chhatra Samaj’s “March to Nabanna” on Tuesday, urged people not to get ensnared by the 12-hour bandh call on Wednesday made by the BJP.

Trinamool also assured people that the Mamata Banerjee government would throttle disruptive practices in Bengal by any means necessary.

The ruling party fielded four seniors — all of them ministers — at a news conference at state secretariat Nabanna, in which they attributed Wednesday’s bandh call to the saffron ecosystem’s “failure” to find takers for the Tuesday programme, and to its eagerness to cause anarchy in the garb of the demand for justice in the wake of the RG Kar rape and murder of a young doctor on August 9.

“A situation was created to provoke people and trigger violence. Police took control and prevented chaos. The police were attacked at several places. But they did not lose their cool,” said finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya.

“They (the organisers of Tuesday’s march and their backers) desperately wanted (dead) bodies but could not achieve their goal. This is because the police were not provoked.... Hence, they want to create another situation of unrest, which is why the BJP called for this bandh,” she added.

“We request the people of Bengal not to support such an initiative.... We will keep the public life normal and the people should do the same. This government is with
the people.”

Bhattacharya — alongside education minister Bratya Basu, power minister Aroop Biswas, and tourism minister Indranil Sen — demanded answers on why the strike was called in the run-up to Durga Puja, when countless businesses thrive in Bengal.

“They want to dent the economy (of Bengal) in the name of a movement.... This bandh is for provocation and there are malicious intentions,” she said.

“People can see right through them. Common citizens did not participate in today’s (Tuesday’s) programme as they understood the political conspiracy,” she added. “Bandh politics has
stopped (in Bengal) since the honourable chief minister became the state’s administrative head.”

Basu said the whole nation — including their party — was demanding justice in the RG Kar tragedy, but accused the organisers, the participants, and the backers of the Tuesday programme of prioritising their alleged hunt for bodies — implying an alleged desperation for deaths by police action to escalate an anti-Mamata movement.

Trinamool ministers Bhattacharya and Basu said a proposed Opposition bandh, over child rapes in Badlapur, was withdrawn recently in NDA-ruled Maharashtra on the basis of a Bombay High Court order.

“They should go to the CBI, to the CGO complex.... The world has seen what they wanted to do in the name of a movement, but the people did not endorse it,” she said.

“They should introspect now. Peace in Bengal cannot be disrupted by their instigation. The people here will not get deluded by their calls (for bandhs or violence),” added Bhattacharya.

Trinamool also appealed to the authorities in the railways under the BJP-led Centre against allowing disruptions on Wednesday.

Bengal’s ruling party has its student wing’s foundation day event in the heart of the city on Wednesday, which is likely to be attended by Mamata and Trinamool national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

Basu said that the Tuesday march to Nabanna was attended mainly by “hooligans” in the name of students.

“Several exams, including the UGC NET, were conducted (on Tuesday). Ignoring the genuine concerns of the examinees and examiners, such a programme was conducted primarily to trigger chaos and violence,” said the Bengal education minister.

“These people have failed in their sinister initiative in the name of students,”
he added.

Permission for PIL

The Trinamool Congress was allowed by Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam to file a
public interest litigation before Calcutta High Court at 10am on Wednesday, seeking a directive to restrain the BJP from going ahead with the bandh.

It will be heard as the first case of the day following the filing.

However, by then, several hours of the 12-hour bandh, proposed to begin at 6am, will already have passed.