In what was promptly dismissed by the observers as “immature political acumen”, a hodge-podge of left and Trinamool-backed civil society members including writers, lawyers et al on Friday literally sunk their differences and held a beef-eating session at a public crossing in central Kolkata apparently ignoring the sentiments of thousands of passers-by.
In the fore-front of beef-eaters were senior advocate and former Kolkata Mayor Bikash Bhattacharya — who till Thursday seemed to draw enough respect from people for successfully pleading in Supreme Court in favour of a CBI probe in Saradha chit fund case, Trinamool-backed writer Subodh Sarkar, former Minister Rezzak Mollah and many others.
Even as one ‘intellectual’ climbed over the other’s head to pounce on his priced loaf and offer a bite to the television camera a thin crowd of supporters who had gathered shouted slogans: “Aap ruchi khana” and “reduce price … don’t ban beef.”
When asked to comment on whether they were not provoking a large part of the majority community into thinking communally during the elections in order to appease a section of minority voters the ‘beef-eaters’ said they were only giving vent to their hurt sentiments in Delhi.
The Trinamool leadership remained tight-lipped at the end of the day while many a left leaders conceded in private that some of their colleagues “who do not have to face the masses and work on field during the elections are over-doing things. We should focus on economic issues and not these ones.”
Coming down heavily on the Friday’s incident the State BJP leadership condemned the Government and the administration for allowing such shows. Raising the issue of an incident at Nalhati in Birbhum district where one community prevented another from organising Durga Puja, the BJP leaders, said “the Government watched as a mute spectator when some people stopped others from organising Puja at Nalhati but here their men are directly taking part in hurting the sentiments of another section of people.” The “beef festival” called by Bhasa Chetna Samiti to “uphold democratic values” tended to end in a whimper with barely a few dozen people taking part in it.
