'A Bangladeshi student at West Bengal’s Visva-Bharati University has been asked to leave India for taking part in “anti-government activities” after she posted pictures of anti-Citizenship Act protests on her campus, reported The Telegraph on Thursday. The student, Afsara Anika Meem, a first-year student at the university, was trolled on social media after she posted the photos. One of her friends claimed that around 250 social media posts described her as an “anti-national” even though she did not participate in the demonstrations.
'Groundwater as well as river water in the western Bengal basin has high concentrations of pesticides and toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), a study authored by a group of scientists from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur has revealed. The researchers tested hundreds of samples, both of groundwater and river water, which is used for drinking water supply from the Farraka Barrage to the Sunderbans, and found these chemicals in significantly higher amounts than permissible limits...'
'In a horrifying video, a woman is seen tied at her knees with rope and dragged over a country road in West Bengal by a group of men led by a ruling Trinamool Congress panchayat leader. When her sister protests, she too is thrown to the ground and pulled by the arms and abused by the men led by Amal Sarkar. The women's crime: they had protested their land being grabbed by the Trinamool-run panchayat for constructing a road...'
'West Bengal Monday became the fourth state to pass a resolution against the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act. Moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee in the state Assembly, the resolution appeals to the Union government to repeal the amended citizenship law and also to revoke plans to implement NRC and update NPR, PTI reported. Left-led Kerala and Congress-led Punjab and Rajasthan have already passed a resolution against CAA...'
'A leader who is fast developing a repute for controversial lines, BJP’s West Bengal unit chief Dilip Ghosh said on Sunday that the government is committed to implementing the proposed nationwide National Register of Citizens and will send back a crore Bangladeshi Muslims living in the state illegally. Addressing a series of rallies in the North 24 Parganas district, Ghosh said that those opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) are anti-Bengalis and against the idea of India. He said one crore illegal Muslims in the state are “thriving” on the government’s Rs 2 per kg subsidised rice.
'Known for his foot-in-mouth remarks, West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh has described the “intellectuals” opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as “spineless”, “devils” and “parasites”. “The intellectuals who are opposing the Citizenship Amendment Act are spineless. They are devils and parasites,” he said at a rally here on Friday. Ghosh made the comments a day after he was re-elected as West Bengal BJP president for the term 2020-2023...'
'In sanctioning the re-election of Dilip Ghosh as Bengal’s Bharatiya Janata Party president, the party high command has validated his rhetoric of violence and hate. Ghosh’s reappointment for the top job in Bengal comes hot on the heels of his intemperate comments and an open call to violence. Two days ago, at a public meeting in Nadia district, the BJP chief denounced chief minister Mamata Banerjee for not following in the footsteps of the BJP-led governments in UP and Assam and shooting anti-CAA/NRC protesters “like dogs“...'
'Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (Binay Tamang faction) has taken offence to comments made by Dilip Ghosh about Gorkhas who died in the 2017 statehood agitation. He has threatened to come out in protest if Ghosh does not retract his statement. Tamang said, “In a television interview, Ghosh had dubbed the 11 martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the 2017 agitation as antisocial elements, who were rightly shot by the police for vandalising government property.
'West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, while addressing a science and engineering fair in Kolkata on Tuesday, said that mythological character Arjuna’s arrows had nuclear power and chariots mentioned in the Mahabharata actually flew. He immediately drew flak from scientists and scholars. “In Mahabharata, we had a situation where Sanjay narrated everything and not from the field (the battle between the Pandavas and Kauravas).
'BJP state president Dilip Ghosh courted controversy on Sunday by threatening to shoot and kill those involved in damaging public property “like the same way in Uttar Pradesh“. Addressing a public meeting in West Bengal’s Nadia district, Ghosh came down heavily on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee “for not opening fire and ordering lathicharge” on those destroying railway property and public transport during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) protests in the state in December last year...
