Union Minister of State for Home Affairs, Nisith Pramanik, today said he has accepted the challenge of the Trinamul Congress and the state administration about replying to them “democratically.”

Mr Pramanik today claimed that common people in West Bengal had started raising questions on the state government’s role when the administration unnecessarily harassed BJP leaders, including union ministers, as they returned to their home state.

“Police misbehaved with me and other central ministers John Barla, Santanu Thakoor and even Subhas Sarkar,” Mr Pramanik said. “Party workers, leaders and even people belonging to the Rajbanshi community, who are in fact delighted after Rajbanshi man like me has been inducted in the Union Cabinet, came to Bagdogra to felicitate me. But the police did not cooperate with them and detained them at different police stations and some other places in Siliguri,”

“Police did it for the TMC, which wants to take revenge, as people of North Bengal rejected them in the last elections. But yesterday’s incident has raised questions among the commoners and this incident bowed down the heads of the Bengal people.”

“We have accepted it gladly as a challenge and the people belonging to different communities like Gorkha, Adivasi and Rajbanshi will reply to them democratically,” said Mr Pramanik, who left Siliguri after paying homage to the statue of Panchanan Barma at Naukaghat this afternoon. He also criticised the state government for not following the Covid protocol in Duare Sarkar camps, where hundreds of people assembled for the state government’s schemes.

Asked to comment on the evacuation of Indians from Afghanistan, Mr Pramanik said: “Indian government will try its best to bring all Indians and the process will continue even if there is a single Indian facing problem. The Indian government, especially the External Affairs department, has been looking into the matter seriously. Many Indians have already come back. Many of them have been shifted to safer areas.”

Also today, a group of senior BJP leaders, including MLAs from the Siliguri sub-division, met Siliguri Police Commissioner Gaurav Sharma and demanded that the police release hundreds of members belonging to the Greater Cooch Behar People’s Association (GCPA), who were detained by the police since yesterday. After a marathon meeting, the police finally agreed to release them “in phases.”

Notably, members of the GCPA, controlled by Rajbanshi leader Ananta Maharaj, had assembled at Bagdogra yesterday to greet Minister Pramanik, who arrived at Bagdogra yesterday from Delhi to join a ‘Sahid Samman Yatra’, to pay homage to around 150 party workers and leaders allegedly killed in West Bengal’s political violence.

Trouble broke out after the police stopped the convoy of Mr Pramanik when GCPA members in the name of Narayani Sena joined the rally. Sources said that as the police started releasing the arrested from a Bhawan on Burdwan Road and a Hindi school in Siliguri, the Union Minister finally left Siliguri today, though his programme was deferred.

According to BJP state vice-president Dipen Pramanik, the Union minister would visit several places in Jalpaiguri, including the Jalpesh Temple and Haldibari in Cooch Behar.

Dipen Pramanik said in Jalpaiguri that police had detained around 400 ‘Narayani Sena’ activists and lodged them in two places. “Trinamul Congress leaders are jealous after a Rajbanshi man, belonging to the BJP, has become the union minister from this region. As a result, the state-sponsored police heckled and humiliated the Rajbanshi people as well as minister Pramanik,” said Dipen Pramanik. Notably, the Central Government has provided Y+ security for Rajbanshi leader Ananta Maharaj recently.

According to sources, the Rajbanshi leader will be getting central security in both Bengal and Assam. Asked to comment, former state minister and TMC leader Rabindranath Ghosh said: “Since we sometimes meet Ananta Maharaj, the Centre has decided to prevent us from meeting him and keep monitoring on him as well as visitors.”

According to political observers, BJP has earned political dividends by taking in Ananta Maharaj in Cooch Behar as well as the North Bengal region.