Mamata exhorts to fight fire with fire, BJP cries foul

Was the Bengal bandh called by the BJP on Wednesday a success or a flop? While both the TMC (Trinamool Congress) and BJP posted photographs and videos in support of their respective contention during the day, by evening, the BJP mobilised its heavyweights, ranging from Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to the party’s state president Sukanta Majumdar, to accuse West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee of inciting supporters to violence. In communications to the Union home minister and on social media, Majumdar demanded the Centre’s intervention.

Addressing the TMCP student wing's 27th foundation day function held on Mayo Road in Kolkata today, Banerjee sounded defiant. After accusing the BJP of resorting to violence and vandalism yesterday during the so-called students’ march to the state secretariat Nabanna, and the Bengal Bandh today, she declared that while she was all in favour of harmony, she would not keep quiet in the face of lawlessness and violence.

She reminded supporters of a parable in which Swami Ramakrishna Paramhansa had ostensibly advised a poisonous snake to stop biting people. A few days later the snake approached ‘Thakur’ and complained that while she had stopped biting people, people had not stopped hurting and hurling stones at her. The seer, according to the parable, replied that he had asked the snake to only stop biting, not hissing or threatening to bite!

Banerjee called upon supporters to hit the streets and exhorted party leaders to get more active on social media because the time had come to "unmask the BJP and expose its real intentions". She accused the BJP of trying to foment trouble in the state and spread discontent.

She went on to warn that if the BJP had decided to disturb West Bengal, then it should be prepared for the fire to spread to Assam, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and eventually to Delhi. While her rambling speech sounded largely rhetorical, the BJP pounced on it to allege that she was speaking the language of the Jamaat of Bangladesh.

Both Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee seemed to be trying to wrest the political initiative back. The TMC has been on the back foot since 9 August, when the gruesome alleged rape and murder of a 31-year-old woman junior doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital came to light.

Waves of protests by women, the civil society, students and junior doctors culminated in the BJP sponsoring the march to the secretariat yesterday and the Bengal bandh today. On both days, the organisational weaknesses of the West Bengal BJP came to the surface as the march by the alleged students failed to reach anywhere near the secretariat and the bandh on Wednesday was only partially successful. With students, doctors, other political parties and civil society distancing themselves, the BJP alone was left holding the can, exposing chinks in its armour.

Mamata and Abhishek also announced a slew of steps which, they hoped, would help win back the confidence of people. Some of the steps announced today are the following:

1. A special Assembly session next week to approve a more stringent law against rape and crimes against women. Banerjee dared the governor and the Centre to give their assent to the Bill quickly. She knew that they would do nothing, Mamata mocked, and called upon women to build up pressure on the Raj Bhavan and the Union government.

2.  The state government would conduct elections to students’ bodies in colleges, a long-pending demand, after the Durga Puja vacation in October. Fifty-five per cent of the seats in these bodies would be reserved for girl students. "We have led the way in giving representation to women in panchayats and the Lok Sabha and now we will extend it to students’ bodies too," Abhishek announced.

3. The chief minister finally appealed to the junior doctors to end their strike and resume treating patients. No action would be taken against them, she assured. The junior doctors, however, spurned the offer till their demands were met. Their demands include dismissal of former R.G. Kar Medical College principal and Kolkata Police commissioner Vineet Goyal.

4. The chief minister also lamented that on 11 August, she had sought five days for the police to bring the culprits to justice. However, the case was handed over to the CBI following directions from the high court on 14 August. Although 14 more days have passed since then, why has the CBI failed to arrest other culprits and the former principal of the medical college, she asked.

More trouble is expected later this week as both the political parties gear up to take on each other.