What a gang of miscreants did to the statue of communist icon lenin in Tripura their berserk counterparts did to the bust of Syama Prasad Mukherjee a national role model in Kolkata when a band of left radicals allegedly from prestigious Jadavpur University on Wednesday went on a”pay-back” vandalising the Sangh ideologue’s statue and triggering an instant ruckus at Keoratala area in South Kolkata where the statue was erected.
Mukherjee the illustrious son of an illustrious father Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee -the first Indian Judge in Calcutta High Court and Vice Chancellor of Calcutta University was elected to Parliament from South Kolkata constituency.
Thus goes an anecdote: Sir Ashutosh who was once travelling in a train with a British man had thrown away the hat of his fellow traveler out of the window and boldly retorted saying:”your hat has gone to bring my coat,” when asked by the English man to explain the loss of his missing hat which was hanging from the wall alongwith Mukherjee’s coat which was actually thrown out by the other person to begin with.
Cut to Wednesday’s flash point: A group of seven who identified them as”Radicals” mounted the platform broke part of the statue and smeared it in black but were caught by the locals and handed over to the police, sources said.
They left a poster stating”this is the revenge for whatever was done in Tripura.” The police immediately swung into action arresting the culprits even as a local Trinamool MlA and State Power Minister Sobhandeb Chatterjee rushed to the spot with Kolkata Municipal Corporation Chairperson Mala Roy reportedly to preempt clashes between
BJP and Trinamool supporters some of who had gathered at the area,sources said.
BJP State general secretary Sayantan Basu demanded strong action against the miscreants saying”BJP strongly condemns the barbaric act of vandalizing the statue of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh’s founder Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee. We demand strong action against them.”
Incidentally Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had on Tuesday condemned demolition of lenin’s statue in post-poll Tripura saying she would not tolerate such acts in Bengal and insisting, her party men never did in Bengal after coming to power in 2011.
“I do not subscribe to what lenin preached but I am against demolishing the statues of icons adored by other political outfits. We never did it when we came to power despite we are ideologically different from the CPI(M) and we do not subscribe to lenin’s view,” she said warning those who would do such acts would be punished.
The State Marxist leadership immediately dissociated from the Wednesday’s acts saying during the left Front rule not a single instance of such type had been reported. CPI(M) Assembly party leader Sujan Chakrabarty said”we have condemned and strongly protested against the fascist acts taking place in Tripura. We will continue to fight against that as we have done by descending on the streets but we will never support what was done today. In the 34 years of left rule not a single statue was demolished.”