Protests against deaths in police firing has been central to Mamata Banerjee’s policies. A TMC leader called Abhishek’s comment as immature.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew and heir apparent Abhiskek Banerjee on Wednesday said that he would have shot the attackers right in the forehead if he would have been a police officer deployed in the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) law violation programme the previous day.
“I told Debashis babu that I salute him. He did not do anything [to the attackers]. If I were at his place, and police vehicles were set ablaze and policemen were attacked in front of my eyes, I would have shot right here in the head,” said Banerjee, a Lok Sabha MP, pointing at the middle of his forehead.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Debashis Chatterjee on Wednesday suffered multiple injuries, including on his head, after activists part of the BJP’s law violation protest beat him up with sticks. He was hospitalised. The police have registered multiple cases, one for the burning of police vehicle and others for attacks on cops. Attempt to murder charges have been pressed against the accused. Four persons have been arrested as of Thursday after being identified form videos.
Despite the instances of violence by attendees in the BJP’s event called to protest corruption by TMC leaders, Abhishek comment of shooting protesters in the head does not go well with the politics of TMC as the party has always criticised incidents of police firing during protests.
What’s more, deaths of protesters in police firing have been central to the TMC’s very existence. On July 21, 1993, after a rally led by Mamata, then the president of the Bengal unit of Youth Congress, went violent, 13 participants in the protest died in police firing. This event remained central to her political career and, since the launch of the TMC in 1998, the party has observed the ‘martyrs’ day’ event commemorating the deaths as its annual flagship event.
Then, in 2007, it was the death of 14 anti-displacement protesters in police firing in Nandigram —during the last leg by the Left Front rule— that proved a turning point in Mamata’s political career, eventually playing a major role in catapulting the street fighter-politician to the chair of the chief minister.
The Mamata government, since coming to power in 2011, has remained cautious about police firing at protest events.
In 2011, after police firing claimed the life of two commoners in Magrahat of South 24-Parganas district during a protest over a dispute between locals and the state power department, the administration immediately “closed” the officer-in-charge of the police station as well as two other officers, transferred the sub-divisional police officer and also set up an inquiry commission headed by a retired judge. The administration took similar measures when police firing during a protest claimed one life at Tehatta in Nadia district in 2012.
Even on Wednesday, after the BJP’s event in Kolkata, Mamata said, “The police could have opened fire but that’s not desirable. The police restrained themselves and tried to manage the situation peacefully.”
“The chief minister gave a standing instruction to top police bosses never to approach any protest carrying firearms. Water cannons, tear gas shells should be the primary method for dispersing mobs. Then comes the question of lathi charge or use of rubber bullets. Firearms can be used in extraordinary situations but that, too, should remain limited to blank fires,” said a senior police officer who did not want to be identified
Going by the TMC’s politics, it’s not just the July 21 deaths that they talk about. In March 2021, during the state assembly election, the party launched a scathing attack on the BJP when its state unit general secretary Sayantan Basu called upon central paramilitary forces to “shoot in the chest” whoever attempted to “loot votes”. The BJP’s “Uttar Pradesh brand of police highhandedness” was not suitable for Bengali culture, TMC leaders alleged at that time and even approached the Election Commission of India (ECI), seeking action against Basu for his comments.
In April, after four voters died in firing by central paramilitary forces at a polling booth in Cooch Behar district, and Basu repeated his remark, Mamata called upon people to defeat “trigger-happy BJP”.
“I have seen video footage showing some BJP leaders speaking in favour of the central forces after the firing incident. They have no feeling when people die in other families. What if it had happened to someone in your family?” said Mamata at the time.
However, no one in the BJP had criticised Basu at the time.
On Wednesday, following Abhishek’s comment, however, Bengal BJP leaders took digs at him. While the Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari alleged that the TMC heir apparent was “talking like criminals”, the party’s state unit president Sukanta Majumdar said, “Abhishek, the prince awaiting coronation, will gift Bengal with trigger happy cops. That’s the reality.”
No TMC spokesperson agreed to speak on Abhishek’s remarks.
“The chief minister herself has said that police firing is undesirable. What more could a party and government need to say?” said a Lok Sabha MP, refusing to be identified.
“The comment reflected Abhishek’s lack of maturity,” said a TMC minister, who also spoke on condition of anonymity.