Kolkata: Kolkata city was turned into war zones as Trinamool Congress (TMC) and BJP supporters clashed to claim Swami Vivekananda’s legacy on his 155th birth anniversary. They clashed at least four times barely 500 metres away from the spiritual leader’s ancestral home. The clashes cast a shadow on the already fraught relations between the BJP-led Centre and the Trinamool-led state, prompting the state BJP to demand President’s rule in Bengal and Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari to cancel his visit to the state government’s annual event ‘Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS)’, which started on Tuesday.
The fights also attracted Calcutta high court’s notice after its special officer, Rabi Shankar Datta, submitted that his car was vandalised and he sustained minor injuries. The HC had appointed Datta to oversee a motorbike rally by BJP Yuva Morcha. The court directed the BJP youth wing to suspend its programme for two days and resume it later.
BJYM had planned its motorbike rally, Pratirodh Sankalpa Abhiyan, to coincide with Swamiji’s birth anniversary. BJP state president Dilip Ghosh, who was scheduled to join the rally from Swamiji’s ancestral home, said, “We started the rally with the court’s go-ahead but the ruling party did not pay heed even to the court order. The state government does not deserve any courtesy or cooperation from the Centre. Union minister Gadkari will not be coming for the BGBS,” he said.
