From Biman Bose to BJP: Mamata offers courtesy and a warning

A simple white note carrying a brief message — 'Respected Biman-da, stay healthy. Stay well' — offered a rare glimpse of political courtesy in Bengal on Thursday, 3 September, even as the state's political temperature remained high.

The message was sent by Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo and former chief minister Mamata Banerjee after she learnt that veteran Left leader Biman Bose had returned from hospital following an illness. TMC leader Kunal Ghosh delivered the note to Bose (87), who has returned to his room at the CPI(M) headquarters on Alimuddin Street.

Bose had fallen ill while travelling to Delhi and was admitted to AIIMS after reaching the capital. Doctors later implanted a pacemaker in his heart on medical advice.

The gesture from Banerjee was not without precedent. When R.N. Ravi was sworn in as governor, Bose was seated in the third row at the ceremony at Lok Bhavan (formerly Raj Bhavan). Banerjee insisted that he move to the front and made space for him beside her, despite his initial reluctance.

The moments of courtesy stood in sharp contrast to the bitterness that has long characterised Bengal politics.

That bitterness returned quickly, however. In a Facebook live session on Thursday, Banerjee launched a sharp attack on the BJP over an alleged intrusion into the TMC IT office on Camac Street in Kolkata in the early hours of the morning.

The TMC released a video of the incident, while Mamata and her nephew and MP Abhishek Banerjee were among senior party leaders who condemned the alleged vandalism. "Yesterday, at midnight, the BJP sent goons to our IT office. Why were our computers taken? Why were our official papers, documents, records and files ransacked?" Banerjee alleged.

She claimed that four people were trapped inside the office and "confined and tortured", and questioned why the nearby Shakespeare Sarani police station had not intervened. "I believe this happened because those involved were confident that there would be no immediate police intervention," she said.

Police have arrested six people in connection with the Camac Street incident and an investigation is under way.

Banerjee also alleged that nearly 4,000 TMC offices across Bengal had been occupied or looted. "They didn't even spare the chairs and tables. They trampled everything underfoot," she said, accusing the BJP of creating a culture of intimidation and criticising the police for allegedly allowing political workers to be targeted. "I want the police to work as protectors, not as predators. I do not believe that every police officer or every police family is bad," she said.

She also criticised what she described as growing pressure on the media, saying journalists had the right to decide what they reported and that this freedom should be respected. "Which news a journalist chooses to report, examine or highlight is entirely the journalist's right. That freedom should be respected," she said.

Banerjee also objected to what she described as disrespect towards the colour saffron, saying it represented "sacrifice and renunciation". Referring to a photograph of people walking over a saffron-coloured carpet at a state government programme, she questioned why the colour was being treated differently when used by journalists, in an apparent reference to the BJP's attack on Anandabazar Patrika for its headline 'Gerua Gundami (saffron rowdyism)' while describing the vandalism at Jadavpur University.

Despite her attack on the BJP and the Centre, Banerjee said the TMC would continue to maintain democratic decorum. "Whenever the country's interests are at stake, we will always support the government constructively. We love our motherland, we love our country, we love democracy, we love our Constitution, and we respect our judiciary," she said.

But she warned that continued political pressure could lead to a larger confrontation. "If these atrocities do not stop, I am sorry to say that I will have to march to Delhi," she said, adding that she could, if necessary, sit on a dharna outside BJP leaders' residences.