Kolkata: A controversy erupted in West Bengal on Sunday over three videos released by the state unit of BJP with visuals of the “river of blood” on the streets of Kolkata in the aftermath of Eid-al-Adha festival. The police, however, refuted the claim, describing the videos as ‘fake’ while asserting that the clips are related to Bangladesh, and not India.
Releasing the videos on the wall of his official X handle, West Bengal unit BJP chief and Union Minister of State Sukanta Majumdar claimed that when the Chief Minister herself becomes desperate to turn West Bengal into a ‘Greater Bangladesh’ in order to cling to power through appeasement, the consequences are deeply alarming.
“The images emerging from Kolkata after a particular religious festival was celebrated yesterday bear no difference from what one might see in Bangladesh! The streets are red, and even the water flowing from municipal taps is reportedly mixed with blood!” Majumdar claimed.
Reposting that video, BJP information Technology Cell Chief and the party central observer for West Bengal Amit Malviya said that if that was the condition of Kolkata, the capital city, under the full glare of the media and administration, one could only imagine what must be happening in the rest of West Bengal.
“Lawlessness, political violence, open appeasement, corruption, and complete administrative failure — this is what Mamata Banerjee’s rule has reduced the state to,” Malviya said.
However, the Fact Check: The Truth, an initiative by West Bengal-Cyber Crime Wing, has claimed the videos shared by the state BJP were fake and also said that those videos were related to an actual incident that took place long ago in Dhaka, Bangladesh in September 2016, where the streets bore a grotesque appearance due to rain following Eid-al-Adha celebrations.
“This incident has no connection whatsoever with West Bengal or the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. Such horrific images are being spread on social media solely with the intent to malign the image of West Bengal and to incite communal unrest,” claimed Fact Check: The Truth.
Trinamool Congress leaders said that they would not make any comment on this issue since from the circulation of the videos it was clear that BJP was trying to provoke religious tension by spreading questionable content on social media.