In Siliguri, Mamata Banerjee visits BJP MP Murmu injured in Nagarkata attack
Mamata Banerjee said she had spoken to Khagen Murmu’s family and doctors at the private hospital in Siliguri
KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday visited Bharatiya Janata Party leader Khagen Murmu who was admitted to a Siliguri hospital after being assaulted by a mob in Nagrakata during a visit to flood-hit areas in north Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district.
“I talked to the doctors and his family members. He is much better now. The doctors are treating him cautiously since he is a diabetic,” Banerjee told reporters after calling on Murmu, the BJP’s North Malda Lok Sabha MP, at a private hospital.
Banerjee said government doctors at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital could also come to the private hospital for the MP’s treatment if needed.
Banerjee’s hospital visit comes amid continuing back-and-forth between the BJP and the West Bengal’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) over the attack on Murmu and Siliguri town MLA Sankar Ghosh when they were visiting Nagrakata to assess the damage due to the heavy rainfall.
At least 27 people were killed in Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts on Sunday after rains triggered floods and massive landslides.
Murmu, an MP from Malda district, was assaulted, and stones were thrown on his car by some villagers at Nagrakata in Jalpaiguri district, where he went with Ghosh to assess the damage. The BJP won the Nagrakata assembly seat in 2021.
Murmu, Ghosh and other BJP leaders accused the TMC of plotting the attack.
Union minister for parliamentary affairs Kiren Rijiju flew down from Delhi on Tuesday to visit the affected areas and check on Murmu.
Rijiju told reporters in Siliguri that the Lok Sabha speaker had sought a report on the attack from the Union home ministry. “The state government should submit its report immediately. How can a Lok Sabha member be attacked like this? We will move a privilege motion,” Rijiju told reporters in Siliguri.
“This hooliganism cannot be allowed,” he added.
West Bengal governor C V Ananda Bose also rushed to Siliguri. “This is the degeneration of democracy. We cannot allow law and order to collapse,” Bose said at the hospital.
TMC leaders have rejected claims that the party leaders engineered the attack, suggesting that Murmu faced public fury for touring Nagrakata with a convoy of cars to seek publicity.
On Monday evening, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X that the attack on the sitting MP and MLA “highlights the insensitivity of the TMC as well as the absolutely pathetic law and order situation in the state”.
“I wish the West Bengal Government and TMC were more focussed on helping people rather than indulging in violence in such a challenging situation. I call upon BJP Karyakartas to continue working among the people and assist the ongoing rescue operations,” he added.
Mamata Banerjee didn’t let the criticism go unanswered.
In a post late on Monday. Banerjee said it was deeply concerning that the PM politicised a natural disaster without waiting for a proper investigation.
“When the entire local administration and police are engrossed in relief and rescue operations, the BJP leaders chose to go to the affected areas with a large convoy of cars and under the security cover of the central forces and that too without any information to the local police and administration. How can the state administration, local police or the TMC be blamed for the incident ?” Banerjee said in her post.
“The PM has blamed the TMC and the West Bengal Government outright without a shred of verified evidence, legal inquiry, or administrative report. This is not just a political low, it is a breach of the constitutional ethos the Prime Minister has sworn to uphold. In any democracy, the law must take its own course, and only due process can determine culpability - not a tweet from a political pulpit,” she wrote.
“The incident occurred in a constituency where the people themselves have elected a BJP MLA. Yet the Prime Minister sees no contradiction in painting the incident as a reflection of TMC’s so-called “strongmanship.” Such sweeping, unsubstantiated generalisations are not only immature, but also, they are unbecoming of the highest office in the land,” her post said.
Banerjee continued. “Coming from a Prime Minister who visited Manipur only 964 days after it was engulfed in ethnic violence, the sudden concern for Bengal appears less like empathy and more like opportunistic political theatre,” she said.
