"I will do tandav (dance of destruction). What's the time now? I am giving you (the police) time till 7pm. Arrest them (protesters) immediately. I don't want to listen to any story, or else, I will break open their houses and burn them down."

This is not a dialogue from one of the superhit Bollywood action film but a real threat coming from Trinamool Congress MLA Anubrata Mondal. The West Bengal Assembly legislator was caught on camera intimidating Opposition leaders with dire consequences.

He asked the police to arrest Opposition leaders failing which he would take law onto his own hands.

"I don't care which CPM or Congress leaders are here. If they create trouble, I will break their arms and legs. If you don't arrest them, I will take things into my own hands" Mondal announced aloud, flanked by his supporters even as Birbhum deputy superintendent of police (HQ) in Kashinath Mistry looked on in awe, fumbling for words.

As Anubrata Mondal continued with his tirade the TMC workers cheered him with slogans of "Vande Mataram". Mondal repeated his threat while speaking to India Today later.

WHAT IS THE MATTER?

Trouble began recently when unwilling farmers renewed their agitation over a 300-acre land acquired during the Left regime for an industrial project in Bolpur. The project never took off and now the Mamata Banerjee government wants to use the land for a housing colony and a university. The proposal has been met with stiff resistance by a section of farmers who lost their land.

The CPI(M) leader and former Kolkata Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya along with Congress leader Abdul Mannan had plans to visit the area extending their support to the agitation. The two were scheduled to address protesting farmers at the site but the stage for the public meeting was vandalized, allegedly by TMC workers.

Later, the two Opposition leaders were stopped by the police, which claimed that their presence could escalate tensions on the ground. On the other hand, the TMC supporters blocked the road with sticks and bamboos.

OPPOSITION REACTS

The CPI(M) has dismissed Mondal's threats calling it "a mad persons rant". Bhattacharya said that he would soon visit Birbhum once again.

In a similar incident, Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh too was stopped by the police in Coochbehar district following a protest by TMC workers, who blocked the road and showed black flags to protest Ghosh's visit.

Ghosh was on his way to Shitalkuchi, an area which had witnessed a communal flare up last month. "Since they can't counter us politically they are using violence to throttle Opposition voice in Bengal," the Bengal BJP president said.

"Birbhum has become the den for criminals. The district TMC president Anubrata Mondal himself controls all the criminals. Unfortunately, Congress and CPI(M) don't have the strength left to counter them. So, we have taken up the fight," Ghosh added.

(With Bhaskar Mukherjee in Birbhum)