TMC, BJP SPAR OVER 'KHALISTANI' SLUR ON SIKH IPS OFFICER

Smarting from the BJP’s success in reaching Sandeshkhali on Tuesday despite repeated legal and administrative hurdles put up by the Trinamool Congress Government, the ruling party grabbed at a purported remark by the BJP’s Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari to hit back.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

Adhikari denied making the remark and challenged Mamata Banerjee and her police to prove the charge.

IPS officer Jaspreet Singh of the 2016 batch, who along with his team was deputed at Dhamakhali and had put up barricades to stop Adhikari and his party workers from visiting Sandeshkhali located just across Kalindi River, was heard protesting the slur.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee released a clip on X showing a stand-off between the BJP leaders and the police at Dhamakhali where Suvendu Adhikari purportedly referred to the Sikh IPS officer as a “Khalistani”. It  was promptly shared by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi who condemned the BJP. “The poison of hatred has blinded them [BJP] so much that they can neither see a farmer, a jawan or respect an officer in khaki. The country is with IPS Jaspreet Singh,” he wrote on X.