A section of Trinamool leaders has expressed dissatisfaction over the party’s rank and file “staying silent” after activists of the Left-wing Students’ Federation of India (SFI) raised slogans against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and disrupted her lecture at Oxford University’s Kellogg College last week.
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A section of Trinamool leaders has expressed dissatisfaction over the party’s rank and file “staying silent” after activists of the Left-wing Students’ Federation of India (SFI) raised slogans against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and disrupted her lecture at Oxford University’s Kellogg College last week.

During the Chief Minister’s address at Oxford University on March 27, SFI activists in the U.K. questioned her about the rape and murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s R. G. Kar Hospital. Ms. Banerjee responded, saying the matter is sub judice and requested protestors “not to make it political.”

Days after the incident, spokesperson and State president of the Trinamool’s IT cell, Debangshu Bhattacharya, asked why the party’s rank and file were quiet and inactive “in a time of war” and why they were waiting for the party leadership to issue directions for action.

“At least members of the Trinamool Congress youth wing staged protests outside certain colleges. But no public representative, senior or junior, has raised their voice or hit the streets to protest this disrespect of the Chief Minister,” he told The Hindu on Tuesday.

Lack of spontaneity

Reports of threatening behaviour by Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) leader Amir Alam at Dinhata College in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district, aimed at his SFI counterparts, emerged a few days after the Oxford University incident. 

“Insulting a Chief Minister is not a small issue. It is very disappointing that this did not spark spontaneous protests among party workers and leaders alike. Whether it is speaking up on social media, making public statements, or taking to the streets to organise a movement against this disrespect, office-bearers and elected representatives at different levels could have done a lot more. They should not wait for the party’s instructions for everything,” Mr. Bhattacharya said.

Trinamool Congress MP Kalyan Bandopadhyay, while criticising the SFI for “misbehaving” with the Chief Minister in a foreign land, also expressed dissatisfaction with the Trinamool’s youth wing for allegedly remaining inactive outside of election campaigns.

“I am unhappy with the performance of the TMCP. They work during elections, but the rest of the year I do not see them. Shouldn’t they have mobilised when Trinamool-affiliated doctors were suspended after the RG Kar rape case or when the Education Minister was attacked at Jadavpur University recently?” he asked.

He added that the protests against the Chief Minister at Kellogg College should have triggered a movement by the party’s youth cadre and asked why they were waiting for orders from the top brass in such cases.

Senior party leader Shovandeb Chatterjee echoed the same sentiment.

Not a major issue

However, Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy contradicted statements by his fellow party veterans, saying that protests by SFI or BJP’s student activists would not affect the Chief Minister in any way.

“I do not think there is any need to raise a hue and cry about it… I think the Chief Minister herself does not want any protests over this. If she had given instructions, there would have been widespread agitations across the State at a day’s notice. But she did not say anything. A protest by a handful of students has no impact on her status,” Mr. Roy said.

It is worth noting that in 2013 the erstwhile State Finance Minister Amit Mitra was heckled by SFI protestors while he was entering the Planning Commission office in Delhi, leading to violent protests by Trinamool supporters across various districts of West Bengal. Reports of Trinamool workers attacking and vandalising properties belonging to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had emerged at the time.