The opposition BJP on Monday supported West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee on the issue of crackdown on unaffiliated madrasas in the state and said the Left Front government should take strong action if it was proved that they were harbouring anti-national elements. State BJP president Ashim Ghose said that his party had cautioned the front about ISI agents operating from some madrasas in the border areas long back, to which the state government paid little attention at that time.
Now the Central and state intelligence agencies' reports indicated that ISI agents were using those madrasas to carry out anti-national activities, he said.
Supporting Bhattacharjee's statement, the state BJP president said though the government did not take any action against unaffiliated madrasas for the last two decades, "it is good that the Chief Minister has realised the situation and now he should take strong action".
State Congress president Pranab Mukherjee had on Sunday termed Chief Minister's statement as 'irresponsible' and said that he should identify the madrasas being funded from abroad and sheltering anti-national elements before taking any action.
Even as the main opposition Trinamool
Congress chose to remain silent on the controversy, TC leader and president
of West Bengal Quomi Tanzeem Sultan Ahmed criticised Bhattacharjee saying
that he had made such a statement only to divert attention from the 'failure'
of his administration and the police.