Powerplay : BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar advised to stay in home quarantine

"So, it is a political effort to stop me from meeting people. Though, I have not received the letter from the official who came to my house at around 3 am today. If there is any need to put any person in quarantine, the Nabadwip municipality chairman Biman Krishna Saha will be the right one because he had visited the quarantine centers there," said Sarkar.

Biswabrata Goswami

KRISHNAGAR, 26 MAY: Within hours after the state BJP president Dilip Ghosh and the party leader Sayantan Basu were stopped from visiting the cyclone-ravaged areas, another party MP from Ranaghat in Nadia, Jagannath Sarkar has faced ‘the ruling party’s wrath’, today.

Sarkar was not stopped by the police from visiting the cyclone-hit areas, but this time, the district health department has come forward and knocked on the door of his resident at around 3 am asking him to stay in home quarantine for the next 14 days as he visited a quarantine center.

In a letter (Memo no –CMOH/Nad/3332/171 dated 25.05.2020), the chief medical officer of health, Nadia said, “It has come to our knowledge that today i.e. on the 25 th May, 2020, in the afternoon, you have visited Quarantine Centers housed at Charbrahmanagar GSFP school, Bablaban GSFP school and Charmajdiya Govt Colony primary school in Nabadwip block where high risk asymptomatic persons returned from Maharashtra, Telengana and Andhrapradesh have been quarantined. It has also been learnt that you have interacted with some quarantined persons there, without taking required precautions and without maintaining prescribed social distancing norms……In this context of the above, you are hereby advised to be in strict Home quarantine for the next 14 days…”

When asked, Sarkar said, “I met the people who are staying in self quarantine under a makeshift camp at Swarupganj in Nabadwip. I heard their dismal condition while staying in self quarantine and I followed social distancing. So, it is a political effort to stop me from meeting people. Though, I have not received the letter from the official who came to my house at around 3 am today. If there is any need to put any person in quarantine, the Nabadwip municipality chairman Biman Krishna Saha will be the right one because he had visited the quarantine centers there”.

In West Bengal, BJP versus Mamata Banerjee politics has taken center stage since the beginning of the coronavirus fight. Several official letters were sent from each other’s end to justify who was wrong, but this one was the latest where a opposition party MP has been asked to stay in home quarantine, a political analyst in the district said.