left can’t silence Mamata Banerjee in this way
The left-affiliated Students Federation of India scored a self-goal on Wednesday when its people turned violent against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her team at the gates of the Planning Commission building in Delhi. They heckled her and roughed up the State’s Finance Minister Amit Mitra, tearing his clothes. In the process, the SFI has managed to divert the attention of people from the very cause which it has been trying to keep alive — the controversial death of one of its members in police custody in West Bengal. No matter how outraged the protesters were by that incident, nothing justifies hooliganism as a form of response. It may be that they believed they had a legitimate grievance against Ms Banerjee and her Government over the death of SFI activist Sudipto Gupta. Indeed, the tragic incident has shocked many across the country, and there has been widespread criticism over the manner in which the State regime has handled the issue. But by violating all codes of civil behaviour, the SFI has only turned public opinion against itself. It has opened itself to precisely the same charges of ‘goondaism’ that it has been levelling at Ms Banerjee's Trinamool Congress. Additionally, the SFI has stirred a hornet's nest by its ill-thought out and hot-headed action against the Chief Minister and her team; it has set in motion a disruptive cycle of political violence. In an immediate reaction to the Delhi incident, the Trinamool cadre in West Bengal went on a rampage, attacking various offices of the left Front. While both Ms Banerjee and the left leadership have urged their workers to remain calm, there was no need for the situation to have deteriorated in this manner.
Ms Banerjee has adroitly worked the development to her advantage. Her statement, “They tried to hit me with an iron rod”, was a throwback to the bad old days when she was routinely victimised by the powerful left regime in the State. Ms Banerjee’s accusation was a carefully planted reference to an August 1990 incident wherein CPI(M) hoodlums had beaten her mercilessly with an iron rod. Given the vicious response she and her team encountered at the Planning Commission’s gates, it is no wonder that politicians cutting across party lines, from the Prime Minister down, have lost no time condemning the incident. In fact, even leaders of the left have had to admit that they did not condone the attack and that they would enquire into Wednesday’s development
Meanwhile, the Congress and the Planning Commission were caught in the crossfire. Ms Banerjee gave a tongue-lashing to the plan panel’s hapless Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Union Minister Rajeev Shukla, furiously wagging her finger at them. She apparently held them responsible for the inadequate security arrangement. The two must have thanked their stars that, at least later, she interacted with them on the issue of the State’s plan outlay. But the West Bengal Chief Minister was not done. She called off her scheduled meeting with the Prime Minister and the Union Minister for Finance. While the official reason was that she was feeling unwell after the upheaval, the message that she really sent out loud and clear, is: ‘Don’t mess around with me’.