Senior RSS leader Jisnu Basu and Bengal finance minister Swapan Dasgupta have condemned the attacks on Left parties’ Puja bookstalls, some of which involved the police and therefore implied official sanction.
The BJP-RSS believes the attacks, coming five months after the BJP came to power in Bengal, have dismayed segments of the public, particularly members of the educated middle class.
Basu, the RSS’s Purba Kshetra Prachar Pramukh (eastern zone campaign and publicity head), posted a video on Sunday saying those “intoxicated with the arrogance of power” were damaging Hindu philosophy and could not call themselves Hindus. He criticised the use of the police to remove some of the stalls.
Dasgupta told a Bengali news channel on Monday that the attacks had left him “hanging my head (in shame)”.
Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari had, speaking in the Assembly last month, asked Puja committees not to allow CPM bookstalls outside their pandals if they displayed the word “Sharodotsab” instead of “Durga Puja”.
Puja bookstalls of parties such as the CPM, CPIML and SUCI have since faced vandal attacks from alleged supporters of the BJP and the Sangh Parivar at large.
One of the attacks — on the CPM’s bookstall in Jadavpur — came with bulldozers sent by the police but was foiled by nightlong resistance from Left supporters and the general public.
The CPM has alleged that at least 100 of its bookstalls across Bengal have been attacked, with 30 to 35 completely vandalised. The party had set up more than 600 bookstalls during this year’s Durga Puja, around 100 more than last year.
Basu said: “Those behaving in this manner today, intoxicated by the arrogance of power, denying others the right to express their ideologies and preventing them from setting up bookstalls or vandalising their stalls, have failed to understand India.”
Basu added: “They are not worthy of calling themselves Hindus. Such actions go against Hindutva and the Hindu ethos.”
Dasgupta said: “I have been left hanging my head (in shame). Had it happened at just one isolated place, I could have understood. But it has happened at three or four places.
“I have ideological differences with the Left, but does that mean I will not allow them to sell or display their books? Who are these people? Who has given them the authority to do this? This is condemnable. I am ashamed of what has happened. Such incidents must never happen again.
“This is about freedom of thought and expression, for which I have campaigned against the Left for a long time.”
CPM leaders said Basu and Dasgupta should act instead of merely express concern, flagging the contrast between their statements and the chief minister’s position.
“When Jisnu Basu and Swapan Dasgupta have been speaking in the rightdirection, the chief minister has been saying something different. We can’t tell theface from the mask,”CPM central committeemember Sujan Chakraborty said.
“My question is whether the BJP government is not listening to the RSS, or whether the lumpens have completely captured the BJP.”
CPM leader Satarup Ghosh asked why Dasgupta had been silent during Suvendu’s statement in the Assembly on CPM bookstalls. “Why did he not stand up and protest then?” Ghosh asked.
Multiple sources said the BJP and the RSS believethat the attacks are generating publicity and sympathy inthe Left’s favour, while damaging the Sangh Parivar’simage.
Basu alleged that the RSS and its affiliates were prevented from opening bookstalls during the decades of Left and Trinamool rule.
“During TMC rule, we had to move court to secure permission for a stall run by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad at the Calcutta book fair,” Basu told The Telegraph.
Former Kerala chief minister and CPM veteran Pinarayi Vijayan has blamed the bookstall vandalism on the Sangh Parivar.
“The united resistance of local people, youth and party workers reaffirms that Bengal’s secular, progressive spirit remains unbroken. We stand in solidarity with our comrades in Bengal. Books and ideas will alwaysoutlast the bulldozers of fascists,” Vijayan posted on social media.
An RSS leader claimed the organisation had no links with the attacks.
He said the RSS leadership had asked like-minded organisations to identify those responsible and reportback, as it wanted to know who was damaging the Sangh’s image.