As per the India Today report, the West Bengal Government of Mamata Banerjee has not granted the landing permission to BJP chief Amit Shah’s helicopter in Malda district. Amit Shah is scheduled to address his first rally on January 22 in Malda after he was treated for swine flu. Shah, after reaching Kolkata, will get to Malda by chopper to attend a public rally with BJP workers from North Bengal.
In a reply to BJP’s request, the Malda district administration has said, “As per report of the executive engineer, PWD (civil), Malda Division, up-gradation of work at Malda Airport is going on in full swing. A large quantity of fine sand, dust and GSB materials is lying all along the runway and also stacked all around the site.” It further added, “Moreover, temporary helipad is not maintained properly due to this ongoing construction work. In this situation, Malda Airport is not suitable for safe landing of helicopters. Hence, granting of permission [for Amit Shah’s chopper] is not possible.”
However, according to India Today TV’s ground zero report, the helipad area and the runway in Malda was clean and with almost no construction material. The ground story is completely different and does not match with what the district administration replied in their letter while denying permission of landing to Amit Shah’s helicopter.
The India Today has quoted Dipali Das who works around the airport saying, “Ministers and passengers come by helicopters. In the past, the chopper service was irregular but now it is available every week. We have helicopters of Mithun Chakraborty and Mamata Banerjee land here.”
Last month, West Bengal state government cabinet minister- Suvendu Adhikari- had announced that helicopter service at Malda airport will be available every Wednesday and since then many ministers and celebrities have used the facility.
It’s quite clear that the local administration is making excuses in order to stop Amit Shah from addressing the rally in Malda. It has come days after the Mamata Banerjee government had denied the permission to BJP to conduct Rath Yatras in the state. It told a division bench of Calcutta High Court that it will not allow BJP to flag off Rath Yatra in the state. The BJP has planned a Rath Yatra in West Bengal not only to unite the Hindu community against the regime of Mamata Banerjee but also to make people aware of the appeasement policies highly skewed towards the Muslim population.
The state government is wary of the BJP which has been evidently making considerable gains as far as its ground presence in the state of West Bengal is concerned. The ruling government is scared of BJP’s increasing support base and is also aware of the fact that if the party is allowed to go ahead with its plan, it would exacerbate things for the incumbent government only. A local BJP leader, Sanjay Sharma from Malda also observed the same. He said, “Democracy in West Bengal is at stake. The administration is allowing the state government to land its helicopter but permission is not being granted for Amit shah’s helicopter. They are also denying us permission to host the meeting at the venue which was planned earlier.”
India Today has quoted Sanjit Mishra, BJP district president in Malda saying, “There is no democracy in West Bengal. TMC is trying every way to stop our yatra. We have now decided to hold a public rally but we are not being allowed to land our helicopter. The state government uses this airport and there are helicopters landing here regularly. But rules have changed when we asked permission.” It is clear that the TMC government has denied the landing permission to Amit Shah’s helicopter because it is afraid of BJP’s rise in the state and aware of rally’s impact in the context of upcoming elections.