BJP offensive on starvation deaths in WB

Armed with a case against the Left over the deaths in West Bengal, the BJP has gone on the offensive in an attempt to make the most of the i...

Armed with a case against the Left over the deaths in West Bengal, the BJP has gone on the offensive in an attempt to make the most of the issue.

The party has decided to depute a five-member committee to West Bengal for an on-the-spot study, following reports of starvation deaths. The team comprises MPs S.S. Ahluwalia, Balbir Punj and Bachchi Singh Rawat besides West Bengal BJP president Tathagat Roy, and Rahul Sinha.

Party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said on Tuesday the bizarre suggestion made by state Tribal Development Minister Sambhu Mandi that Adivasis could live on snakes, rats and toads, was outrageous. ‘‘It is the ultimate display of their apathy towards the poor…(it) shows the real nature of the regime, which prides itself on its commitment to welfare of the poor,” ,’’ Naqvi said.

He said 25 people had died in the tea estates of Jalpaiguri in December-January, and that there had been starvation deaths in Purulia, Bankura, Midnapore and Burdwan. The crisis was worsened by distribution of foodgrains to the Left’s card-holders instead, he said.