Corona politics: Bengal BJP MPs allege harassment, bias

New Delhi (IANS) With the friction between BJP and TMC getting sharper by the day, BJP leaders from the state attacked the state government with Union Minister of State for Women and Child Development Debasree Choudhury alleging harassment by the West Bengal government.

"Seven police vans with seventy police personnel had come to my house to warn me that a quarantine notice was being pasted on my door. Next day, ASHA workers in large numbers came to my house. While the Bengal Chief Minister roams shroud and gives speeches through microphones. This is unfortunate," Chadhury said while addressing an online press conference.

She alleged BJP lawmakers are deliberately discriminated against and stopped from helping their constituents.

Meanwhile, BJP's Alipurduar MP John Barla alleged that when he went to meet the District Magistrate to talk about the strategy to tackle COVID-19 outbreak, he "sneaked out". He also alleged harassment at the hands of the police personnel during his efforts to reach out to those in need of essentials.

The car he was using to ferry the essentials was also seized, Barala said.

Even BJP's Jalpaiguri MP Jayant Roy cried discrimination. "I have been confined in my house. My gate is kept locked. While TMC leaders are roaming around," Roy alleged.

Jalpaiguri MP Sukanta Majumdar said when he was stopped from going out after completing voluntary 14-day of quarantine, Bengal's police force-stopped him on April 23. "Governor Jagdeep Dhankar directly spoke to the traffic officer. He told him that a member of Parliament cannot be stopped like that. But Majumdar was handed a notice to go back to quarantine for another 14 days," said the MP.

A war of words has been going on between the two political parties in West Bengal over the handling of the COVID-19 outbreak. In the latest, the West Bengal government's order banning mobile phones in Covid-19 hospitals raised the hackles of opposition parties, which called the measure an attempt to hide the mismanagement in the treatment of the dreaded viral disease.

The BJP has also alleged that the TMC-led West Bengal government has been "fudging" COVID data. In this war of words, even a Central government's inter- ministerial team was stopped from moving out when they went to inspect certain areas that witnessed a COID-19 outbreak. However, the matter was finally was resolved between the two governmnets, at least temporarily.