Politics in Bengal intensifies over KK’s death

While the country mourned the sudden demise of singer Krishnakumar Kunnath—popularly known as KK—his death was being wielded for politicking in West Bengal.

Leaders of Bharatiya Janata Party, in the aftermath of the singer’s death in Kolkata following a performance, raised a few unsettling and unpleasant questions. As a return salvo, the Trinamool Congress called the state BJP out for indulging in “vulture politics”.

Also Read: Despite feeling uneasy, KK completed his last show

Writing to Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP MP Saumitra Khan demanded a CBI probe into the singer’s death. Another BJP MP and a national vice president Dilip Ghosh doubted the state government’s competency through his tweets about the deceased singer.

Ghosh tweeted that the state government was “bound to answer” as the “unnatural death caused due to negligence of Mamata government” will never be accepted by them.

On June 1, BJP MLA and the leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikari tweeted: “How come audiences, triple the capacity of the venue, were allowed to enter without passes? This led to the failure of air conditioning.”

Trinamool leader, and state women and child development minister, Dr Shashi Panja alleged that the BJP was using KK’s death for inflaming the masses and making the pop star’s death a political issue. “What is most unfortunate is that BJP-Bengal has again resorted to vulture politics, dead body politics and they have not even spared late KK,” Panja stated.

Panja clarified that the state government provided full support during KK’s funeral, where he was given a gun salute, and chief minister Mamata Banerjee was with the grieving family throughout the ceremony.

The Kolkata Police, on Friday, clarified several allegations associated with the event. City police commissioner Vineet Kumar Goyal said that the venue had sufficient police presence. The air conditioning was functional, and available videos, too, suggest that people were standing comfortably. He, however, conceded that there could have been people beyond capacity.

He also said that several measures were now being put in place to be followed in the future: presence of an ambulance at the venue with a doctor, an identified hospital for emergency, and limiting the crowd to the venue’s capacity.

KK died on Tuesday night after performing at a concert at Nazrul Mancha. He had reportedly complained of uneasiness and had then collapsed. He was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead.