An ailing Mamata Banerjee cancelled her meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram and returned to Kolkata amidst fresh clashes between CPM and Trinamool workers in West Bengal on Wednesday.
The historic Presidency University (college) bore the brunt of Trinamool emotions as Trinamool Congress Chatra Parishad supporters vandalised the century-old Bakers laboratory, ransacked other departments and assaulted students, University authorities complained. The attack came a day after the heckling of Mamata and Bengal Finance Minister Amit Mitra in Delhi on Tuesday.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appealed to the people to maintain peace before getting herself admitted to a South Kolkata nursing home following complaints of “uneasiness.”
She dismissed reports about TMC-led violence against the left parties in West Bengal and blamed the CPI(M) for it.
“Whatever violence is taking place is by CPI(M) cadre. Our cadres are totally peaceful. They are very emotional. They listen to me. let me tell you that 55,000 people have been killed by CPI(M),” she said.
However, others refuted this claim.
“Outsiders carrying the Trinamool flag attacked the Presidency campus and destroyed the valuable instruments inside Bakers’ physics lab where a seminar was going on. They also vandalised other departments. When we ran to the police officers posted outside for help they only said that they did not have the requisite orders to intervene, suggesting that we need the CRPF or the Army to check such
incidents,” University Registrar P Dasgupta said.
Vice-Chancellor Malabika Sarkar said, “I personally saw the unprovoked attack when outsiders carrying TMC flags attacked my peaceful students. Things reached such a pass that senior scholars like Rajat Ray had to risk their lives to save the students.”
Physics Head of the Department S Roy Chowdhury said the attackers carried javelin, rods and sticks. “They damaged property worth lakhs, beat up the students and molested the girls.”
Police said that two injured Presidency students were hospitalized.
State TMCP president Shankudeb Panda said his party did not approve of such violence and added he had not seen reports of Trinamool men being involved in the attack.
Incidentally, two senior State Ministers had on Tuesday said the left Front would have to pay the price for what they had done in Delhi.
State lF chairman Biman Bose, meanwhile appealed for peace claiming “at least 1,000 offices of left Front have been ransacked in Bengal” adding only Coochbehar district had seen 105 such attacks.
Bengal Governor MK Narayanan criticized the assault on Amit Mitra and the Chief Minister in Delhi saying: “The shocking premeditated assault on the Chief Minister, the Finance Minister and senior ministers of West Bengal in the national Capital is an extremely unfortunate incident and is a blot on India’s cherished democratic values.”
Condemning the “unprecedented incident in India’s modern history” he demanded a “public apology by the politburo of the CPI-Marxist.”
Soon after, the CPI(M) politburo in Delhi asked Trinamool Congress to immediately stop the “widespread violence” against it across West Bengal and also condemned the incident in the Planning Commission office.
“The CPI(M) has disapproved and condemned this incident. The party will look into how this has happened. However, on the pretext of this incident, widespread violence has been unleashed against the CPI(M) and the left in West Bengal,” the party politburo said in a statement.
Mamata had on Tuesday called off a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who later telephoned Banerjee to enquire about her health. Following her encounter with SFI activists at Yojna Bhawan, the Bengal CM had to be put on oxygen support at night after her blood pressure dipped and she complained of restlessness.
Before leaving for Kolkata, Banerjee told reporters: “Delhi is not a safe place. Today, I was supposed to have a meeting with the Finance Minister. But I am returning to Kolkata. I was unwell since last evening and had to be administered oxygen. I will come back, but Delhi is not a safe place. I am sorry.”
Two senior TMC leaders claimed that the incident at Yojna Bhawan was a ploy to kill Banerjee. “It was a ploy to kill Banerjee. Had Firhad Hakim not prevented an SFI supporter from attacking her with an iron rod she would have received fatal injuries,” Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee said. Trinamool MP Sukhendu Shekar Roy made a similar claim
Meanwhile, BJP President Rajnath Singh reached out to Banerjee and telephoned her to enquire about her health. He agreed with Banerjee’s claim that Delhi was not a safe place and blamed the UPA-regime for the deteriorating law and order situation in the national Capital.
“Whatever has happened with Mamataji and (West Bengal Finance Minister) Amit Mitra, I condemn it strongly. In clean politics, it is expected that if any political party or organisation wants to lodge its protest on an issue, there is a way to do so. But if anyone tries to lodge its protest by taking to violence, I feel the Government should take stern steps against them,” Singh told reporters.
The Congress termed the attack on Banerjee and her colleagues by SFI activists in Delhi as “extremely unfortunate.”
Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari said: “Whether it is our friends from the left, or our friends in the Trinamool Congress or political parties across the length and breadth of this country, everybody needs to exercise restraint”.
“Whatever happened between the left and the TMC, neither the Central Government nor UPA has anything to do with this. It is a very sad thing. We have already expressed our regret that Sudipto Gupta- an SFI activist - is no more with us,” he said.
However, another controversy has erupted over whether or not Banerjee ignored an advice to enter the Planning Commission building through the VIP gate. The Delhi Police conveyed to the Union Home Ministry that Banerjee ignored the advice to enter the Commission premises in the heart of the Capital through the VIP gate and instead came though a main gate where she along her Finance Minister Amit Mitra were gheraoed by the activists of CPI-M and SFI.
Banerjee, however, dismissed reports that she was asked by the police to enter through another gate, instead of the one where the demonstration was being held. “Not at all. Do you think I am a beggarIJ I never bow down my head. I consider myself as an lIP (less Important Person) than a VIP,” she said.