Kolkata: Kolkata police filed an FIR against the actor and BJP leader Mithun Chakraborty based on a complaint accusing him of making a highly provocative statement at a party meeting. The statement was made at an organisational meeting of the BJP in Kolkata last month, in the presence of Union home minister Amit Shah.
The Dadasaheb Phalke Awardee actor had said, “I am saying this in front of the Union minister that I will do whatever is required for West Bengal. There are hidden meanings when I say that I will do whatever is needed. One leader is claiming that in a particular district, there are 70 percent Muslims against 30 percent Hindus. He also said that the latter would be cut and thrown in the Bhagirathi River. Surprisingly the Chief Minister did not tell him anything. A day will come when I will bury you in your own soil.”
His statement sparked a massive row after he referred to a pre-Lok Sabha election comment by the Trinamool’s Humayun Kabir – who had threatened rival party workers on religious grounds, and was censured by the Election Commission – and said “we will chop them (up) and bury you in the ground”.
West Bengal is witnessing election fever as six Assembly seats are scheduled to go to polls next month and ruling Trinamool and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party are leaving no stone unturned to woo the voters.
What Mithun Chakraborty Had Said
His remarks come after Kabir’s equally shocking comment in May, as he was campaigning for the party’s Lok Sabha election candidate in Murshidabad district
At a rally he reportedly said, “You are 30 per cent (of the people here) but we are 70 per cent… if you think you can demolish mosques and Muslims will sit back and relax… (you are wrong). I will leave politics if I don’t drown you people in the Bhagirathi…”
The actor – speaking at a membership drive – then called on BJP supporters to join the party’s karyakartas. “We want those people who will fight… who can stand up and say, ‘Shoot me… let me see how many bullets you have’,” he said, taking a swipe at the Trinamool over multiple incidents of pre- and post-poll violence in the state, “But we don’t want those who join for money.”
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Chakraborty then also offered up a second violent threat. “If you cut down one fruit from our trees… we will cut down four of yours,” he said.
In response, the Trinamool General Secretary Jay Prakash Majumdar dismissed Chakraborty as an inconsequential figure.
“No one takes him seriously as a political leader… the leader (the Trinamool’s Kabir) whose comment he spoke about was censured (by the Election Commission). But now, in the presence of Amit Shah, Mithun Chakraborty is saying this… will be also be censured now?” Majumdar asked.