KOLKATA: In an affidavit filed in the Calcutta High Court, the state government alleged that most of the members of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) delegation, who had worked in the state to assess the post-poll situation, were close to the BJP. The report was submitted by the Advocate General Kishore Dutta on behalf of the state on Monday. "The BJP and close members of the Central government were selectively tasked with reporting against Bengal in the aftermath of the vote," the state government alleged. "The formation of the committee and the purported field teams are fraught with bias against the ruling dispensation in the state of West Bengal. It will be evident that the committee has been deliberately constituted to spearhead a witch hunt against the entire state machinery," the affidavit maintained. The state government, in its affidavit, has further claimed that the "NHRC "chairperson has abused the process of this honourable court and appointed only those members who are interested in conducting a hatchet job against a democratically elected government." It said that such members who have an "inherent bias" against the ruling dispensation were chosen and accordingly "predisposed to give a negative report" on the law-and-order situation. It noted that the committee head, Rajiv Jain, had served as the director of Intelligence Bureau under the incumbent BJP government. He was the subsidiary Intelligence Bureau chief in Ahmedabad from 2005 to 2008, when "Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat and Amit Shah a minister", the affidavit explained. It said that another member Atif Rasheed, a former president of ABVP students union in Satyawati College, had contested the Delhi Municipal elections in 2021 on a BJP ticket. Contending that the state government was not given an opportunity to be heard, the affidavit said the "report ought not to be considered by this honourable court." Denying the allegation that the entire state machinery in Bengal is responsible for post-poll violence, it submitted that the "police and all other competent officers of the State of West Bengal have taken all steps to prevent any violence after the declaration of results for the West Bengal State Legislative Assembly on May 2". The next hearing is on July 28.

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