A big rally to the West Bengal secretariat on the outskirts of Kolkata descended into chaos on Tuesday, triggering an ugly war of words between the state’s ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in a new flashpoint that also involved allegations and rebuttal over the detention of four protesters.
Dramatic scenes unfolded on Kolkata’s streets as rallygoers marching to the state secretariat, Nabanna, broke barricades and faced off with police, who fired tear gas shells and water cannons. Just hours before, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari said that four student activists, who were to be part of the protests against the rape-murder of a trainee doctor at a state-run hospital, had gone “missing”. The West Bengal Police reacted swiftly, saying the four people were arrested for what they called planning violence during the rally — and had not gone missing. The war of words between Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, and the Bengal Police played out on social media platform X.
Adhikari fired the first shot. “The following Student Activists who were distributing food to the volunteers, who were arriving at Howrah Station, suddenly went missing after midnight…Neither they can be traced nor are they answering their phones. We apprehend that they may have been arrested/detained by the Mamata Police. If something happens to them Mamata Police will be held accountable,” he posted, naming four students as Subhojit Ghosh, Pulokesh Pandit, Goutam Senapati and Pritam Sarkar.
The police returned fire. “A certain political leader has been trying to create a false narrative about four students who have apparently been missing since last night. The truth is, nobody is missing..,” they said, taking a veiled dig at Adhikari. “The four were planning to orchestrate large-scale violence during the Nabanna Abhijan today, and were involved in a conspiracy of murder and attempted murder. They have been arrested in the Interest of public safety and security, and their families have been informed.”
To this, Adhikari posted: “The families have approached Hon’ble Calcutta High Court. See you in Court Mamata Police…” He was referring the force as “Mamata Police”, a dig at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also the home minister of Bengal.
CM Banerjee’s lieutenant, Kunal Ghosh, asked a series of questions in his post, terming Adhikari’s allegations provocative. “Who are they? Are they really missing?” he asked, before the police’s response to Adhikari. He also asked where the so-called “students’ group” was getting its funding from.
A day before, the TMC and the police had alleged conspiracy to foment trouble and trigger bloodshed during the protests. The BJP, for its part, said the TMC was afraid of a spontaneous students’ rally against the Kolkata rape-murder that has shaken the nation.
As trouble erupted on Kolkata’s streets on Tuesday, the bickering continued. “Mamata Banerjee, the tinpot dictator, is so scared of students’ movement, that she has ordered Kolkata Police to put large containers on the road, to stop protesting citizens from reaching Nabanno,” BJP leader Amit Malviya said in an X post.
“Is she imagining students’ seeking justice for the RG Kar rape and murder victim marching ahead in tanks? The same Kolkata Police was a mute spectator when Lungi Vahini of the TMC attacked peacefully protesting doctors at the RG Kar Medical College & Hospital on the intervening night of 14-15th Aug,” he added in his post, referring to vandalism during a midnight protest at the government hospital in Kolkata where the 31-year-old trainee doctor was raped and murdered.
The TMC was not far behind. TMC’s Ghosh, in a series of X posts renewed allegations of conspiracy by the BJP and accused the rival party of provocation. “What did they think: that there would be no police and the BJP would visit Nabanna for a trip?” he wrote in Bengali.
On August 9, the body of a trainee doctor was found in the seminar hall of state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. The city police arrested Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer, for the alleged rape-murder. The case was later handed over to CBI amid allegations of cover-up, though both the Bengal government and the police denied such claims. The incident has sparked massive protests across the nation, brought the functioning of the hospital under scrutiny, led to the ouster of its controversial principal, triggered a political war of words, reignited the debate on security of women at workplace, and prompted interventions by the Supreme Court and the Calcutta High Court. The BJP has demanded CM Banerjee’s resignation over what it describes as deteriorating law and order. The ruling Trinamool Congress has accused its rivals, the BJP and the Left, of politicising the protests.
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