Kolkata, Apr 19 (PTI) BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday alleged that the West Bengal government has turned relief camps — where riot-hit people have taken shelter — into “detention” facilities, claiming that the administration is “not allowing” outsiders to meet the inmates or assess their conditions.

Adhikari, the leader of the opposition in the Assembly, also accused the TMC government of displaying an “inhuman” attitude to the violence-hit people.

Later, leading a rally of BJP workers and supporters from the residence of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on Elgin Road to Jan Sangh founder Shyama Prasad Mukherjee’s ancestral home on Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Road in Bhawanipore, Adhikari alleged the TMC government’s “appeasement policy” will turn Bengal into another “Bangladesh” and “Hindu Bengalis will be driven out from their homes”.

“You (Bengali Hindus) had once left your belongings and property in then East Pakistan and settled here. This TMC government will not come to your rescue when you will be driven out of your homes again,” he said.

The Nandigram MLA, a strong votary of Hindutva in recent times, claimed that not less than 10,000 members of the community have been displaced following the attacks on their property in Shamsherganj, Dhulian, Suti and Jangipur in Murshidabad district during the anti-Waqf (Amendment) Act protest on April 11-12.

Adhikari alleged that the TMC-run government is against handing over security in certain stretches of border districts to central forces for vote bank.

He demanded “certain sensitive pockets of border districts including Murshibadad should be under the vigil of central forces like BSF to stop jhadi elements from having a free run.” “Not only visits by central agencies, there has to be action on their part,” he said.

Advocating for the right to bear arms for those facing “atrocities in border districts,” Adhikari asserted that “everyone has the right to self-defence.” Later, at a press conference held at ICCR, he introduced two riot-affected persons from Murshidabad and announced that the BJP, along with its allied organisations, would pool resources to help rebuild vandalised homes and property in the district.

Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta was also present at the press meet.

Earlier in a post on X, the senior BJP leader claimed that people, especially women and children, left their homes in Dhulian and Shamsherganj to protect their dignity and took shelter in Parlalpur High School building and other nearby schools in Malda’s Baishnabnagar across the Bhagirathi river.

“However, the government is showing its inhuman face and is not allowing the media and voluntary organisations to interact with the displaced people. They are being served poor-quality rice and cooked vegetables. Police are hoarding food donated by NGOs for the displaced in local godowns,” Adhikari alleged.

He also claimed that NGOs, which have come forward to help the displaced, are “facing persecution with trumped-up cases framed against them”.

“Such behaviour towards those who had fled their homes is cruel, inhuman and against democratic principle,” the BJP MLA said.

He demanded “restoration of rights and dignity” of the displaced people.

Adhikari threatened to move to court “if such violation of human rights” continues.

Former Congress MP from Baharampur, Adhir Chowdhury, alleged that no arrangement was being made by the state government to facilitate the affected families’ return to their homes.

He also claimed that police are “not allowing” the media and relatives and friends of the displaced people to meet them in relief camps.

TMC general secretary Kunal Ghosh said the opposition parties, like the BJP, are at work to destabilise the state and don’t want normalcy to return.

Around 400 people, mostly women and children, fled their homes in Dhulian, Shamserganj to Malda’s Baishnabnagar after a mob attacked their properties and assaulted them during protests against amendments to the Waqf Act on April 11-12.

Three people were killed and hundreds rendered homeless during the communal clashes, which occurred in Muslim-majority areas. PTI SUS BDC MNB