A day after a minister in Mamata Banerjee government accused the - TopicsExpress

A day after a minister in Mamata Banerjee government accused the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of imparting arms training, it has come to fore that the administration has already started swooping down on Sangh’s shakhas. The RSS leadership in West Bengal have cited two such incidents and taken up the matter with Governor Kesari Nath Tripathy seeking his intervention in the matter. They also said they will move court against senior Trinamool Congress leader and a minister in Mamata Banejee cabinet Partha Chatterjee’s statement that a facade of “route march and drills by khaki-shorts clad people” was being used to give arms training. “Earlier this month, the police disrupted two shakhas at Baruipur and Gosaba in South-24 Parganas district. At Gosaba, where the shakha is held in the house of our member Manoranjan Sardar, the police came and disrupted it. They even threw pictures of Swami Vivekananda and Bharat mata on the road. On November 17, we filed a complaint with superintendent of police, South-24 Parganas Praveen Tripathy regarding the matter. We have also received information that all police stations of West Bengal have got instructions to keep a stringent vigil on shakhas and if needed stop them,” Jishnu Bose, Pranta Pracharak of RSS, told The Indian Express. He said, on Thursday, a RSS delegation met the Governor and requested him to look into the matter. “He has told us that he would tell the Home Department to look into the matter,” Bose, who was in the delegation that met the Governor, said. Other members of the delegation included Atul Kumar Biswas, Prant Sanghachalak, (president), Bidyut Mukherhee, Sah Prant Pracharak and Srimanta Chanda, Sah Prant Karyabaha. Contacted, SP South-24 Parganas, Praveen Tripathy said he would look into the matter. “I have not yet got the complaints. Once I get them, I will definitely get them investigated,” Tripathy told The Indian Express. A senior official of the Home Department confirmed that they are keeping an eye on the activities of the shakhas. “The home department has not issued any notice to stop the shakhas but a general vigilance is there,” a senior official of the department told The Indian Express. The RSS leadership has taken serious exception to minister Partha Chatterjee’s remark in the Assembly and they are consulting legal experts to file a case against him. “While we have sent a report to our headquarters, we are also consulting legal experts on how to file a case since the minister said this in the Assembly. Meanwhile, we will organise agitations, rallies and meetings all over the state to protest against the police high- handedness,” Bose said. Replying to a debate on a resolution against communalism, Partha Chatterjee had said that the administration has definite information “that behind the route march and drill by people clad in khaki shorts, arms training is being given. We have also heard Durga Vahinis (of women) are being formed. Communal forces are being given encouragement”. He, however, had not named the RSS.