“Very unfortunate, weakness of govt”: BJP’s Babulal Marandi on Giridih violence

New Delhi [India], March 15 (ANI): Jharkhand BJP Chief Babulal Marandi on Saturday termed the Giridih violence as “very unfortunate” and termed it as a weakness of the government.

Speaking to ANI, Marandi accused the administration of failing to act as attackers openly targeted processions while the police remained passive.

“What happened during Holi celebrations yesterday is very unfortunate. This is a weakness of the Government…This is the height of appeasement. The government says that those who cause disturbances during festivals will be arrested. But here, people are openly attacking processions. Police remained a mute spectator,” the BJP leader said.

The remarks come against the backdrop of communal tensions in Giridih, where violence erupted, leading to clashes. Several vehicles in Giridih were torched after clashes broke out between two communities on the occasion of Holi late on Friday, as per the officials.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Saturday accused the Congress and the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) in the state for the recent violence in Giridih.

The BJP MP alleged that the Congress party’s policies have facilitated Bangladeshi infiltration, leading to demographic shifts and unrest in the state.

Dubey reiterated the BJP’s demand for the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and delimitation, warning that failure to do so could lead to Jharkhand’s “merger with Bangladesh.”

He claimed that vote-bank politics was pushing Jharkhand towards instability and that the state’s Chief Minister was only concerned with winning elections.

Speaking to ANI about the Giridih violence, Nishikant Dubey said, “A similar incident happened in my area on the day of Holika Dahan. I called up the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), and then the situation came to normalcy. Before the Jharkhand assembly elections, the BJP had said that in 30 out of 81 assembly constituencies, voter turnout has increased from 50 per cent to 150 per cent, which is because of Bangladeshi infiltrators.”

“Shops were burnt in Deoghar; all this is because of the policies of the Congress, which is bringing Bangladeshis on one pretext or the other. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government released these infiltrators. Now, the tribal population is decreasing and has come down from 45 per cent to 22-23 per cent, and Muslims have increased from 9 per cent to 28-29 per cent,” he said.