Saffron-clad protesters vandalise newspaper office after 'controversial' headline

The ruckus by fewer than a hundred men, escorted by police, lasted an hour or so on Tuesday, 1 September, outside the gates of the Ananda Bazar Patrika office in Kolkata. Within two hours of the group having dispersed, the walls were scrubbed clean and painted back in white. The demonstration by the unruly group appeared to vindicate the headline ‘Gouriyo Gundami’ (saffron goonadism) to describe the midnight vandalism by saffron-clad groups of men in the Jadavpur University campus on 20 August.

Speaking at a Raksha Bandhan rally, a new innovation by Adhikari in the state, on 28 August, the chief minister had threatened that thousands of saffron-clad monks were getting ‘ready’ and were waiting for his consent. He did not elaborate what was the consent for. The ‘particular newspaper’ would have to apologise for the offensive headline, he said, adding menacingly that there would be no compromise. He would not allow any insult to ‘saffron’, the chief minister had added.

People, Adhikari said, might say that he was speaking like the leader of the opposition (Dolo Netri), a Freudian slip as he clearly meant Mamata Banerjee who is neither a member of the Assembly nor has the support of a majority of the 80 Trinamool MLAs elected in the assembly of 294 members. People might say that since he was now the head of the government, what was he waiting for. Just wait, he told a motley crowd of a few hundred outside Jadavpur Univer

Andabazar Patrika, however, did not issue any apology as demanded by the chief minister; nor did it retract its report. The newspaper however did publish a follow-up story and carried the CM’s statements. Curiously, the newspaper was seen as highly critical of the previous Trinamool Congress government before the assembly election in May 2026 and was seen to be tilting towards ‘change’. ABP’s Bengali TV channel TV Ananda was also seen to be pro-BJP. The last several weeks, however, saw the newspaper criticising ministers, policy failures and administrative failings. By all appearances the state government has stopped advertising in the newspaper in the past few days.

On 28 August itself Bowbazar Police station in Kolkata registered an FIR against Anandabazar Patrika editor Ishani Dutta Ray and chief reporter Soma Mukherjee and other members of the editorial team. The case was filed on a complaint by one Shastri Maharaj, described as a Hindu monk. It raised objection to the term, ‘gerua gundami’. “It is necessary to ascertain through investigation who proposed the expression, who approved it, who was involved in editing the report and determining the headline…” the complaint said.

Videos circulating on social media and shared by AltNews and co-founder Md Zubair show two men painting two pillars at the main entrance of the Ananda Bazar office while several police personnel stand by. Some of the police officials can also be seen recording the incident on their mobile phone. Several other saffron-clad men at the gate raised slogans such as “Bhagwa ka apmaan nahi sahega Hindustan” (Hindustan will not tolerate any insult of saffron colour) and “Anandabazar Patrika haye haye”. The men, confided an ABP employee, were not carrying any banners, did not look like students and were mostly non-Bengalis.

TMC MLA Kunal Ghosh recalled, “There was an attack on the newspaper during the Left Front regime and printing was stopped for a few weeks in 1984; but we find it hard to believe that some miscreants were allowed by the police to deface the office of a renowned newspaper.” Nothing of the sort happened during the Trinamool government’s tenure, he recalled, although the media house was often critical of the state government. A former ABP journalist Aniket Chatterjee said this was an attempt to browbeat the newspaper and saffronise it at gun-point.

A spokesperson of the Kolkata Press Club, speaking on condition of anonymity, said, “It is regrettable and unexpected. While the Press Club does stand by individual journalists under attack, since the Editors’ Guild and the Federation of Press Clubs have already condemned the incident and because this involves editorial policy of a newspaper, we have refrained from commenting on it for the time being”.