Rabindra Ghosh, a Bangladeshi lawyer attacked by radical Islamists while he was trying to move a bail plea for Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das in Chittagong, said on Tuesday that he had not received a response to a letter he sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“This time (over the arrest of the Hindu monk) we wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking his help to protect the rights of minorities. I mentioned several other minority communities in Bangladesh.... However, I am yet to receive any reply from the Indian Prime Minister,” the septuagenarian advocate told reporters during the course of an interaction he had with Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh in Barrackpore, North 24-Parganas.

The veteran Bangladeshi lawyer, staying at his son’s house in Barrackpore for treatment, is also a spokesperson for the Sanatan Jagran Mancha in Bangladesh.

By evening, however, Ghosh was admitted to the SSKM hospital in Calcutta with cardiac problems.

TMC leader Kunal Ghosh with Bangladeshi lawyer Rabindra Ghosh in Barrackpore on Tuesday.

However, the claim made by the Hindu monk’s lawyer in the morning — with TMC leader Ghosh by his side — assumes political significance at a time chief minister Mamata Banerjee has sought the intervention of the UN Peacekeeping Force to safeguard the interests of minorities
in Bangladesh.

A source said the lawyer also expressed a wish to meet Mamata to discuss issues related to atrocities on Hindus and the way Das was arrested in Bangladesh on
November 25.

With lawyer Ghosh saying he was yet to receive Modi’s reply, the ruling TMC got an opportunity to launch an attack on the BJP.

So far, the Bengal unit of BJP had been vociferously backing the lawyer.

TMC leader Ghosh said that the Prime Minister’s lack of response raises questions on the true intent of the BJP.

“The Union government has to do something to prevent attacks on minorities in Bangladesh and provide them with legal assistance. The whole world knows that the Hindu monk has been arrested and jailed in Bangladesh and he is not getting justice. Now, if his lawyer does not get a reply from the Prime Minister, then questions can be raised about the BJP’s true intent in protecting the safety and security of the minorities in Bangladesh,” Ghosh said.

Ghosh also told the lawyer that Mamata has already made it clear that the state government cannot intervene in the matter, as it pertains to international affairs. Mamata has repeatedly stated that the state government will support whatever decision the Union government takes regarding Bangladesh.

Since the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on August 5, reports on atrocities on Hindu minorities in Bangladesh have become a political issue in India. The arrest of Das has further escalated the relevance of alleged attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh.

The BJP leaders in Bengal, from various saffron platforms, have begun spinning a narrative that similar developments are likely to take place in Bengal, where the Mamata government has been, according to the saffron camp, appeasing the Muslims.

When asked, BJP Rajya Sabha MP Samik Bhattacharya said: “The reply to the letter (from Modi) will be given in due time. But the Trinamool Congress has no right to comment on the Union government’s role, as they have been pushing West Bengal towards becoming another Bangladesh.”

While the BJP and TMC are busy trading charges against each other for political mileage from the developments in Bangladesh, there is no clarity on when Das, whose bail plea is likely to come up for hearing on January 2, will be freed.

Amid reports that Das is unwell and may not be produced in the court, his lawyer Ghosh had been fearing that the monk’s prison term might get extended.

The lawyer had also professed keenness in going to Chittagong to appear for Das on Thursday. But with his hospitalisation on Tuesday, there is no clarity on when he would go to Bangladesh.