Prominent personalities in Bengal voice concern over rise in politics of polarisation in state

Kolkata: Thirteen prominent personalities in Bengal, including filmmaker Aparna Sen voiced concern over the "rise in politics of polarisation" being practised by certain groups in West Bengal and called upon the administration to do the needful for protecting the lives and properties of ordinary people.

The personalities, in an open statement in Bengali, also came down heavily on the police for its alleged failure in performing its role in the violence at Shibpur in Howrah and Rishra in Hooghly district in the past few days since Ramnavami.

"We feel alarmed and worried over recent political activities in the state to polarise people and strongly condemn such trends. But we also wish to remind the administration about its responsibility to save the lives and properties of people and strongly condemn the inactive role of police to perform its role," the signatories said on Tuesday.

The statement urged the state to take administrative action at the highest level to "put a halt to this politics of polarisation." Apart from filmmaker-activist Aparna Sen, the signatories included actor-theatre personality Kaushik Sen, actor Anirban Bhattacharya, theatre personality Suman Mukhopadhyay, theatre personality Sujan Mukhopadhyay, actor Riddhi Sen, singer Srikanto Acharya, singer-music composer Anupam Roy, singer-director Anindya Chattopadhyay, columnist-activist Bolan Gangopadhyay among others.

Kaushik Sen told PTI "We are very disturbed and distressed over the situation in the state for the past couple of days over taking out Ram Navami rallies. While some political parties are trying to use the incidents for political gains, the role of administration in containing the clashes was inadequate." "We believe the common people cutting across communities are the worst sufferer in such situations which also affect their livelihood and cause disruption in their daily activities. It is the role of the state to ensure the lives and properties of common people are protected and normalcy restored fully," Sen said.