Durand Cup: Politics and football merge for Kolkata fans in giant tifos, banners

The political overtone in messages from Kolkata’s football fans on giant tifos and banners have been making news – for the right reasons – for sometime now. If the Mohun Bagan and East Bengal fans were in sync around the same time last year to demand justice for the alleged rape and murder of a junior lady doctor at a state Hospital, no less engaging had been the banners during the ongoing Durand Cup this month.

 After a rather one-sided group league game which saw local giants East Bengal romp to a 6-1 win over Indian Air Force team at Kishore Bharati Stadium on the southern fringes of the city, their supporters displayed a giant banner with a thank you message which drew a loud cheer: ‘’11 PAF Airbases, 9 terror camps, forever in the fear of Indian Air Force.’’ No prizes for guessing, it was a tribute to the national air force for their exploits during Operation Sindoor and it soon went viral on social media.

 ‘’It’s our tribute to a section of the armed forces who help in maintaining the sovereignty of the country. We had brought this along and the plan was to display it after the match, irrespective of the result,’’ said a member of East Bengal Ultras, one the supporters’ groups which has become more proactive in the age of social media.

Last week, there was a strong message from the East Bengal supporters at the Salt Lake Stadium in reference to the festering trouble over a number of states randomly branding people speaking Bangla as a Bangladeshi – and making a case for deporting them as illegal immigrants. An issue which has strong political overtones with the BJP and Trinamool Congress trading charges between but the East Bengal fans displayed a message with strong emotional element.

The poster in Bengali, when broadly translated, means: ‘’Yesterday, we were hanged fighting for India’s freedom. And today, for speaking our mother’s tongue, we become Bangladeshi?’’ The social history of Indian football says that the East Bengal Club, founded in 1920, was meant to be a refuge for the millions who crossed over for their ethnicity during the partition as well as the 1971 Bangladesh War.

Last year, the Bidhannagar City Police had issued a notification – restricting the use of tifos during a match between Mohun Bagan Super Giant and Bengaluru FC in Durand Cup but the Kolkata High Court turned down the notification, allowing spectators to use tifos. Sociologists see this as a new phenomenon in India where fan groups are choosing such public venues as a safe space to express dissent and gain mileage since public protests are monitored.

The culture of tifos and banners with a message, as opposed to be it’s history of idolising the favourite teams and stars, have caught on for quite a few years. At least five years back in 2020, several fan groups had spoken up about the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) as tifos called out for inclusivity and adherence to the constitutional values. Rakta diye kena mati, kagoj diye noi (we have acquired this land with blood, not papers) went a famous one during a Kolkata derby of the Indian Super League (ISL).

Last year, even football stars were not immune to the voices seeking justice in the RG Kar case. A derby was called off in anticipation of crowd trouble while thousand of fans of Kolkata’s Big Three took to the streets where Subhasis Bose, Mohun Bagan captain and the AIFF Footballer of the Year for 2024-25 season, was a conspicuous face in one of the protest rallies.

 "The RG Kar incident was absolutely horrific and mindnumbing, but the details coming out along with the authorities’ attempts to hide the truth and silence the people is beyond shocking,’’ Bose, a senior international defender, had tweeted with pictures from the protest.