An unkind war of words ensued between the Trinamool Congress on one side and the BJP and Left on the other following alleged “heckling” of Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee --- at a seminar in a London college where she was reportedly pierced with scratchy questions on a host of burning issues --- by “hooligans” that were identified as communists and ultra Leftists by Banerjee and her men.
The slanging match between the two sides even led to threats issued by a section of TMC leadership that vowed to return the insult with interests.
While the BJP alleged that Banerjee brought disgrace to India during a speech in a London college by criticizing the Indian economy the Left called her a “pathological liar” who had led Bengal down to the doldrums.
During an interactive session in the London college a member of the audience asked whether she was convinced that India which was presently the 5th largest economy would soon become the third and by 2060 the largest economy in the world Banerjee replied in the negative saying “I differ with you.”
Reacting to this and her other remarks, senior BJP leader Amit Malvya wondered why Banerjee was always against India becoming a rich country. “Mamata Banerjee has a problem with India becoming the world’s largest economy… This is truly shameful. She is a disgrace to the constitutional office she holds. Who behaves like this on foreign soil?” Malvya wrote.
In Kolkata State BJP leader Sajal Ghosh attacked the Chief Minister for telling lies “on both sides.” He said, “while talking about her own government she claims to have worked wonders whereas the picture is just the opposite … to the extent of that the people in the State are having to live on doles … and when she talks of Indian Government she only talks negative … she has insulted India … she is unfit to address the media in foreign lands.”
The Left on the other hand called the Chief Minister a “pathological liar” who has always been peddling “bundles of lies wherever she goes.”
However Bengal Education Minister Bratya Basu said “the Students’ Federation of India and some Maoists insulted our Chief Minister ignorant of the fact that by doing so they were insulting both Bengal and India,” adding how the Chief Minister “gracefully handled the situation and provided befitting replies to the rude fellows reminding that it was not a political platform but a seminar hall and so not the right place to raise politically laced questions.”
Another TMC leader Jayprakash Majumdar went to the extent of comparing her with Swami Vivekananda saying that similar “unfortunate incident” took place with hem at Chicago, where some people who protested against him too.
“The CPI(M) will be paid back with interests for what they have done … the people will show them what is what,” another TMC leader Debangshu Bhattacharya said.
Apart from the purpose of taking part in some stated business meets Banerjee was in a week-long visit to London to deliver a speech at Kellogg’s College.
The disruptions began when Banerjee made claims of investment worth “lakhs of crores” in her State during her rule. Things took an unexpected turn as men from the audience promptly asked her to identify such projects involving that many “lakhs of crores.”
In the midst of an uneasy buildup she was further confronted with questions on why the Tatas left Singur as also about the rape and murder of a lady doctor inside the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital sparking widespread protests across the country. The questions were reportedly asked by the members of Students Federation of India a students’ arm of the CPI(M).
Banerjee dealt with the posers with her habitual technique: commanding the questioners not to politicize the atmosphere even as she said that the matter was sub judice. “Do not do politics here, this platform is not for politics… Do not make it a political platform,” she said assuming the questioners to be harbouring a Leftist agenda.
“You go to Bengal and tell your political party to become even stronger” she told them, producing one of her posters --- of the early 1990s --- showing her in a bandaged forehead from CPI(M) attack.
Moments later she was welcomed with “go back slogans” from alleged “right wingers” when she claimed that she was all for “Hindus and Muslims alike.” She said she
Back in Kolkata, both the Left and the BJP fired a barrage of salvos on the Chief Minister with State SFI president Debanjan Das calling her a “pathological liar who feels no remorse in delivering lies to suit her interest one after the other.”
CPI(M) youth leader Shatarup Ghosh said “she will be asked questions wherever she goes … in Bengal she does not allow questions to be heard and whoever dares to do so is sent to jail like she did to a small time farmer Shiladitya Chowdhury for asking about the rising prices of fertilizers … we will continue to ask her questions on RG Kar, non holding of elections in the colleges, flight of students and flight of industry from Bengal and high level of dropout rates from schools and worse situation of employment and corruption.”
