Sound of Music - Goons at Konnagar

Venue                  : Jorapukur More, Konnagar

Date                      : 28^th December 2014

Time                      : 5 pm to 9 pm

Event                    : ProtibadSoptahoPalon, Street Corner by BJYM, KonnagarMondal

Speakers             : Jaswant Singh, BJYM, President KonnagarMondal

                                SubrataMitra, BJP, District Committee Member, Hooghly District

                                PrabirPakhira, BJP, Secretary, Hooghly District

                                Subir Nag, BJP, Vice-President, Hooghly District

                                  Krishna Bhattacharjee, President, Hooghly District

Preparation for meeting

11:00 am              : Jaswant Singh along with BJYM co-workers went to the spot for putting up banners, flags and loudspeakers (mike) so that the Street corner can be started on time. 14 loudspeakers were installed for the meeting and flags were fixed on lamp posts which took almost 1.5 hours’ time. While doing these activities they found a group of young guys doing picnic and playing music through DJ box, behind the spot of street corner.

1:00 pm                : BJYM workers came back from the venue after preparing it for Street Corner Meeting which was due at 5 pm.

Meeting

5:00 pm onwards: All reached the spot and found another group of young guys doing picnic just bang opposite to the spot of street corner meeting with music on full blast on DJ boxes. DJ boxes faced the street corner spot! These guys were not there till 1 pm when Jaswant Singh and his BJYM co-workers left the spot after preparing it for street corner meeting. Needless to say, it’s a cunning TMC initiative without flag or banner to spoil the BJYM street corner. Jaswant Singh, BJYM, President KonnagarMondal requested the young group over loudspeakers to reduce the volume of the DJ boxes so that they can start their street corner meeting. 2 policemen present at the spot also persuaded the group of young guys to reduce the volume of DJ boxes, which they responded to. They reduced the volume. Street corner meeting started with Jaswant Singh as the first speaker. Other district leadership was yet to arrive. Within 15 – 20 minutes district leadership arrived while Jaswant continued with his speech. After 30 minutes of Jaswant’s speech the DJ boxes went full blast again. According to Jaswant, “the music was so loud that I was hardly able to hear what I said.” By this time BJYM had a gathering of 50 plus people at the spot including district leadership along with other leaders like Anil Roy, Ex-President BJYM, UttarparaMondal; SubrataChoudhury, Ex-President BJP, UttarparaMondal; SaraswatiChoudhury, Ex-President BhartiyaMahilaMorcha, Hooghly District. They all requested to reduce the volume of DJ boxes to that young group which they didn’t listen to. To utter surprise, 4-5 policemen present at the spot didn’t intervene! Having no other options left to continue the street corner meeting the district leadership opted for road blockade at the spot.

Out of thin air 200-250 people gathered at the spot and started protesting why the road was blocked? The group started using abusive language with we can’t write here to all the BJP workers and leaders, didn’t bother about so many ladies were present at the spot. They started throwing away the chairs which BJYM brought for street corner meeting. The group went frenzy which induced scuffle between BJP workers and the group of 200-250 people. Mr Anil Roy being a well-built person became the target of the frenzy group and they started pushing him to a corner. One of those people who pushed Anil Roy suddenly fell on the ground and didn’t move at all. Immediately the issue was made as an outsider came and beaten a localite, the group started bashing Anil Roy mercilessly. Within 5 minutes, an ambulance arrived at the scene and took the person, who was lying on the ground, to the hospital. Somehow the BJYM workers were able to free Anil Roy from the mob, but by that time he was beaten black and blue. Vijay Pandey, a BJP karyakarta from Rishra took Anil Roy as pillion on his motorbike and escaped the scene, later Anil Roy was hospitalised.

When the frenzy group saw that Anil Roy was not in their hand anymore, they cordoned the District Leadership and didn’t allow them to move away from the scene. Krishna Bhattacharya, Subir Nag, SubrataMitra, Jaswant Singh, PrabirPakhira, SubrataChoudhury were “gheraoed” and frenzy group started cursing NaMo. They said, “If you want to do BJP go to Delhi, not in West Bengal” the also said, “where was BJP in last 34 years? We ousted CPM, you all have no place here in West Bengal.” They caught hold of SubrataMitra and slapped him. While slapping they asked, “Are you Subir Nag?”

After being gheraoed for 40 minutes,a large police force came to the scene . BJP leaders and karyakartas were rescued form the frenzy group of goons.

Series of few events such as, picnic with DJ box, music at full blast, 200-250 people’s immediate gathering, appearance of ambulance within 5 minutes, police inaction, the faces in that 200-250 people crowd, the language used while district BJP leadership were “gheraoed” confirmed that this was not a spontaneous affair, it was a planned activity carried out by ruling party. Plan to disrupt the BJYM street corner meeting. The planning was done after BJYM workers left the spot at 1:00 pm and was perfectly executed when required.