Meetings, processions were organised in all parts of West Bengal as elsewhere in the country. In Calcutta processions were taken out in Behala, Garden Reach, Sealdah, Ballygunge, and Dhakuria. Reports from North and South Bengal districts suggest that people have squarely blamed the BJP for removing the RJD government in Bihar in a preplanned manner. They also alleged that the Ranvir Sena which killed 12 dalit members (agricultural labourers) in Jehanabad on February 10 was aided by the BJP and its ally Samata Party. Even as the Samata Party was suffering from a vertical rift failing to put enough pressure on the BJP leadership for imposition of President's Rule in Bihar. People in their protest against the Vajpayee government said that the BJP used the Jehanabad massacre as an excuse to remove the Rabri Devi government from power in Bihar.

So scared the BJP and its allies are that a team of three MPs of the CPI(M), which went to Narayanpur on a fact-finding mission from Calcutta, was not allowed to enter the village. The MPs are Moinul Hasan, Samik Lahiri and Radhika Ranjan Pramanik. With them were Bihar State Committee member, Chandi Prasad, Jnan Shankar Majumdar and Sarangadhar Paswan. The team has strongly criticised the action of the local administration in refusing their entry into the village although there was sufficient time left for the visit. The MPs have decided to raise the matter in Parliament.

Harkishan Singh Surjeet, General Secretary of the CPI(M) and A.B. Bardhan, General Secretary of the CPI in a joint statement strongly condemned the resort to the use of Article 356 to dismiss the Rabri Devi government in Bihar. The killing of 12 innocent dalits at the hands of the Ranvir Sena has given the BJP-led central government the such-needed pretext to send back the recommendations to the President whom the President had returned on an earlier occasion, they said.

The Ranbir Sena is an organisation formed to protest the interest of the landlords, to counter the movement of agricultural labourers for better wages and for land reforms. In its more than two decades long history, the Sena's depredations have claimed the lives of more than 487 people, the statement said.

The non-resolution of the land question is the basis of tension in Bihar. Both the Congress and the BJP, which have sided with the landed interests, are responsible for the state of affairs. Both these parties obstructed the passage of the agricultural labour legislation pending in Parliament for nearly two decades. Unfortunately, Bihar is a state where neither have land reforms been enacted nor land records corrected.

The joint statement added that the internal problems of the Samata Party and the BJP have also influenced the Central government to make this recommendation. Taking the plea that the Samata Party not been able to redeem its promise of dismissing the Rabri Devi government, just a few days back, many Samata Party workers had deserted the party and jointed the Congress. This also provided encouragement to the Ranvir Sena to mount its criminal activities. The CPI(M)and the CPI have consistently opposed the misuse of Article 356 to serve the interests of the ruling party at the Centre.

While deploring the partisan and authoritarian act of the BJP-led government, the CPI(M) and the CPI called upon all its units throughout the country to organise protests at state and district headquarters on February 14.