Bengal intelligentsia and the non-BJP Opposition parties of the State have strongly denounced the heckling of Bangla poet Srijata Bandopadhyay at a Silchar hotel by a group rowdies allegedly sent by the saffron politicians.
Coming down heavily on the BJP and Banjrangdal for creating an atmosphere of communal hatred and disharmony in India Bengal Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya said, “such incidents are not only unfortunate but also condemnable. We do not allow such things in Bengal.”
Accusing the BJP and Bajrangdal for Saturday’s incident the Minister said “the BJP has paid the price of such divisive politics in Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh. Now they will see the consequence of disturbing communal harmony in other parts of the country too.”
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury too condemned the incident saying “the incident aned many others like that taking place in the recent past prove that the India is passing through days worse than that of Emergency,” adding “such fascist attacks” were in fact a prelude to attack on the very essence of the Constitution of India.”
Congress MP Pradip Bhattacharya said, “if such pre-orchestrated attacks on Bengali intellectuals are not stopped then one is afraid this feeling of hatred might travel to other States and then it will be very difficult for them (BJP) to control it.”
Srijato was on Saturday gheraoed and allegedly heckled at a literary function at Silchar and had to be rescued by the police.
“Some people raided the venue in the hotel where I was staying and was to attend a literary programme. They were protesting against one of my poems written three years ago. I was holed up in the hotel which was vandalised anyway. Subsequently I was rescued by the police and had to fly back,” the poet said adding how “gradually the right to freedom of expression and the space to talk is shrinking in India. Thankfully we live in Bengal where the people can atleast talk.”
Senior dramataist Rudraprasad Sengupta said “if similar situations continued then one cannot but say that bad days are ahead of us.” Writer Shirshendu Mukherjee said such incidents demanded country-wide protests.
Meanwhile, another Bengali poetess Mandakranta Sen on Sunday reported how she was being ‘badmouthed’ by some senior State BJP leaders including State BJP president Dilip Ghosh.
The poetess she even had received threats of gang-rape from some people on the Net. The State BJP president however denied reports of speaking against her and invited her to file a case against him.