Demo-crazy!

West Bengal BJP, the State opposition, has called for a gherao of Nabanna, the seat of governance in West Bengal, against the alleged recruitment scams and malpractices by the ruling Trinamool Congress. Thousands of BJP supporters started arriving in the city from yesterday, even as the police force’s attempts to thwart their march to the city.

 

Many areas in Kolkata and Howrah are restive, as the security personnel have erected barricades. Similar to scenes witnessed during the farmers’ agitation in Delhi, the police dug roads and welded iron beams to strengthen erected barricades. Such attempts to scuttle protests are unprecedented and unseen in West Bengal in the post-independent era, in a State priding for unlimited rights when it comes to protesting in whatever forms and whichever way.

 

As I write, many leaders, Suvendu Adhikari, Rahul Sinha, and Locket Chatterjee, have been taken into custody and hauled up in police vans. Dilip Ghosh, the former State BJP president, is leading the march to Nabanna from the Sealdah area and has no chance of crossing the several barriers en route.

 

Now comes the question, what could the opposition do amid the several scams and cash seizures by the ED? The raids and seizures were an opportunity for a party, smarting from their Assembly election setbacks. The arrest of the ruling party’s General Secretary and a District party president had given a fillip to the opposition. Rather than admitting lapses, the CM and many of her colleagues have surprisingly absolved or exonerated the arrested leaders, further strengthening the opposition’s resolve to take it to the streets for ‘public justice.’

 

In the cut-money case that showed up before the Assembly elections, the CM quickly distanced herself from the mess and threatened to act against the errant partymen. However, her present tirades against the Central agencies seem rhetoric, as hills of cash have been seized from various places belonging to or connected to her partymen.

 

Whatever that be, the counter steps by the police in preventing the opposition from boarding trains to Kolkata/Howrah to stop them from marching has disquieted the already charged-up atmosphere. So, today’s protest may not end as a day programme and could manifest in many new forms soon, the measures to rout the protests have pulled down the image of West Bengal. I recall Didi, a relentless streetfighter, heading for the Writers’ Building on 21 July 1993 with her partymen and the resultant firing that became the turning point in her career and the biggest single annual event for the Trinamool party.

 

Why are the policemen beating up peaceful protesters as if they are from an enemy country? The stone has started rolling down and the gathering moss is a fait accompli!

 

Sampath Kumar

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