WEST Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has a penchant for using the word ‘hub’ in her speeches so as to project “industrialisation” in the state but, in reality it is turning into a hub of only criminals and anti-socials. As recent as February 4, Lankeswar Ghosh, a TMC leader in Krishnaganj of Nadia district, along with 10 others, known in the locality for their association with the ruling party, were awarded death sentence by a local court for killing a woman in their bid to grab a piece of land about 15 months ago. It is a rare instance of 11 people being awarded death sentence in the same case. On November 23, 2014, Ghosh and his associates landed in a field on a tractor and tried to evict poor peasants. The Trinamool Congress-backed goons opened fire and hurled bombs at the peasants. Aparna Bag, a housewife, was hit in her chest and died on the spot. Two other women and a student too sustained bullet injuries. Another accused, close to TMC, has been absconding in the case. The Trinamool Congress, as it does in all such cases, tried to save the culprits by influencing the trial process. In another case, Naren Chakraborty, a top functionary of Bardhaman Zilla Parishad and Trinamool’s Pandabeshwar block president, was arrested on January 31 when he was trying to board a Chennai-bound flight from the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport, Kolkata, with an unlicensed revolver and several cartridges in his bag. Chakraborty had earlier been accused of opening fire on and hurling bombs at police on April 11, 2012. A court rejected his plea for anticipatory bail in the case but even then Mamata Banerjee’s police didn’t arrest him. Later, Chakraborty led several attacks on the opposition forces as police became his follower. This is the situation in West Bengal under the TMC rule where police are bound to escort a ruling party strongman who is accused of attacking even the police. Newspaper reports following Chakraborty’s arrest revealed his connection with coal mafias and illegal arm and narcotic trafficking gangs. CPI(M) state secretary and Leader of Opposition in Assembly Surjya Kanta Mishra said this case “once again proves that TMC is increasingly becoming a hub of criminals and anti-socials”. Birbhum district, especially Nanoor, has been in the news in the recent past due to growing infighting between two factions of Trinamool Congress. Very recently, a Class V student, Kabirul Khan, became a victim of the fractional fight. On January 31 when Kabirul was on his way to school, he was critically injured in a bomb blast. Hooligans, belonging to both fractions of the ruling party, had been in action with bomb and musket the previous night; and some unutilised bombs exploded injuring Kabirul. He was admitted to a hospital with critical injuries and a bleeding eye. Next day, more than 80 country-made bombs were recovered from a deserted house belonging to a prominent TMC man. Local TMC MLA admitted that his rivals in the party had stored the weapons. On this, CPI(M) leader Mishra twitted, “Bengal burns and bleeds”, and gave a call for a peace march in Bahiri village of Nanoor without any party flag and banners to end the “Jungle Raj’ of TMC. It is the criminals who have been given a free zone in West Bengal after TMC came to power. In the rape-and-murder of a college student in Kamduni and innumerable other cases of atrocities against women, the administration has never been seen empathising with the sufferers. Trinamool Congress goons have been involved in a series of attacks on teachers in various parts of the state and no administrative action was initiated against the culprits. The attack on freedom of expression in West Bengal can only be compared with the Emergency. The arrest of Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra for forwarding a cartoon was almost repeated on February 6, when Rohit Pashi, a young man from Malbazar of Jalpaiguri district, was picked up by police and made to execute a bond for commenting against TMC on social media. Such is the level of intolerance of the rulers in West Bengal when it comes to even minor criticism against them. But they simultaneously have been tolerant and indulgent when it comes to their “reserve force” of goons. The inaction of the administration against a criminal act in reality only legitimises such activities. The tragedy of Bengal under this Trinamool regime is that people cannot think about “education hub” or “industrial hub”, instead they desperately want to save the state this “criminal hub”. (END)