`Ghosh lacks sympathy'

BIRESWAR BANERJEE, TT, 05 Nov 2018, Siliguri: The Trinamul Congress on Sunday accused BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh of failing to sympathise with the five Bengali families whose members were gunned down in Tinsukia before demanding explanations from him on why Bengalis were being targeted in the neighbouring state.

Ghosh was at Jaleswari to attend a public meeting organised by BJP's Dabgram-Fulbari unit. The area falls within Jalpaiguri district and the Assam border, around 180km away, is a few hours drive.

"Neither during his 30minute speech nor during his interaction with media personnel did Ghosh utter a single word of sympathy at Jaleswari," said Argha Roy Pradhan, Trinamul MLA of Mekhiliganj.

During his speech, Ghosh talked about the Assam incident, but his focus was more on lambasting Trinamul for sending a delegation to meet the victim's families.

"Trinamul is simply sending its delegation to Assam with some political interests. Trinamul wanted some political unrest and communal clash to take place in Assam so that they can do some politics here by exploiting that situation," said Ghosh.

The Bengal BJP president had written to Union home minister Rajnath Singh and Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday, expressing his "deep concern" over the Assam killings and requesting both the Centre and the Assam govern- Ghosh addresses the public meeting at Jaleswari on Sunday. (Passang Yolmo) ment to ensure safety of "Bengali Hindus".

But in his Sunday speech, Ghosh gave Trinamul a chance to launch an attack on him.

"People are dying, but he can't sympathise with them… This reveals the BJP's true character," said Trinamul secretary general Partha Chatterjee.