STATE OF PLAY
On May 5, the third Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal will complete one year in power. This will also mark Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s 11 years at the helm of affairs in the State. But, at a time when Trinamool Congress should have been celebrating, the State government is grappling with a series of incidents that have raised serious questions on the law-and-order situation in the State. The violence at Bogtui village in Birbhum on March 21 when nine persons, including seven women and a child, were burnt to death in a retaliatory violence after the murder of a local Trinamool Congress leader is something that is going to haunt the West Bengal government and the State’s ruling party for a long time.
The Bogtui violence and the murder of Congress councillor at Jhalda in Purulia was followed by a spate of cases of sexual assault on women, particularly minors. These incidents have come as an embarrassment to the State government.
