'Can break your shoulders with bare hands', WB BJP chief allegedly told TMC

Kolkata: BJP West Bengal President Dilip Ghosh has kicked up a storm with his remarks that his party workers, "trained" by RSS, can break the shoulders of Trinamool Congress activists with "bare hands", drawing flak from the ruling party, Congress and the Left.

Courting controversy yet again, he asked TMC workers to "stop" violence, "mend" their ways or face "consequences" when they travel outside Bengal.

"They can't do whatever they want and beat up our cadres without reasons. TMC is thinking they can do whatever they want. But, they should remember one thing that out of Bengal, it's only BJP and BJP," Ghosh told a public rally in Kharagpur.

"If they (Trinamool) have 211 MLAs, then we have more than 1,000 MLAs and MPs across India. If they step outside Bengal, we will teach them a lesson. Their family members should mark their name with red ink when they go out of their homes," he said.

"Don't instigate us. We are warning you. I don't interfere but if you provoke me, I will not be good. I am warning you there will be no happiness. I will first cut off water supply, then power, then I will shut the door and thrash you. We are capable of everything. The boys are trained by RSS and are ready. Your shoulders will be broken," he said on Friday.

Read: Anyone who raises anti-national slogans will be beheaded: West Bengal BJP chief

He said he has to just dial 11 digits. "You will be thrashed from the airport to your house, then from the house to the hospital. No one will find you. Your families will be informed with a photograph on WhatsApp," Ghosh said.

Ghosh today said, "Why can't I make such comments. If my cadres are attacked, I have every right to protect them. TMC should immediately make a public appeal to stop violence."

He said in Assam BJP won the Assembly polls, but no opposition workers was touched. In Bengal, a "bloodbath" is going on, he said.

If TMC doesn't stop violence, then the children of TMC workers would become orphans, he said. The BJP leader had earlier drawn flak for his controversial comments on TMC and then on a section of women students in Jadavpur University.

Reacting to Ghosh's remarks, TMC Vice President Mukul Roy said, "This is totally unacceptable. We will write to both the Houses of Parliament. These comments only prove who is the victim and who are the perpetrators."

State Health and Family Welfare Minister Shashi Panja said now there is a BJP leader who is day after day commenting on women or threatening to beat up TMC followers.

"This is very unfortunate. This is not the kind of politics one should pursue," she said, adding in a democracy someone wins and someone else loses in an election.

TMC leader in Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay condemned the remarks and said he would write to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan drawing her attention to the issue.

Congress member in Rajya Sabha Pradip Bhattacharya said it is "okay" if RSS training was taken and it was their own work.

"If they have taken training to torture others, then steps should be taken against that," he said, noting that his party will never support Ghosh.

CPI(M) leader Nepaldeb Bhattacharya said such statements only act as fuel to the fire. "We condemn it," he said. Echoing similar sentiments, state RSP Secretary Khsiti Goswami said, "Those who are in public life should be more careful about their statements."

JD(U) spokesperson Ajay Alok said that if RSS provides training to defend, then they also give training to break necks.

"The question is whose neck they want to break – the nation's, those of nationalists or traitors. Because whatever is happening in Jammu and Kashmir, the whole country can see who is breaking whose neck," he said.

Ghosh also said TMC workers have to be told in the language they understand.

"Politics should happen in a democratic way. There is a limit to our patience. If they cross it, we should also reply in the same language," he said.

The BJP leader said it is the state government's responsibility to stop violence.

He claimed that when the state police tried to be proactive, five SP were transferred. "It shows what the government wants. The police force itself needs security," he said.