Kolkata rape-murder case | Political slugfest errupts over an 'apolitical' protest to demand CM Mamata's resignation

Bhattacharjee emphasised that the investigation into the rape-murder of the doctor has been transferred to the CBI and dismissed the call for the CM’s resignation as politically motivated.

Kolkata: A call for a march to ‘Nabanna’, the seat of the state government of West Bengal, in Kolkata on Tuesday to protest the rape and murder of a doctor escalated the war of words between the ruling Trinamool Congress and the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, even as police tightened security in and around the city.

The West Bengal police denied permission for the march stating that with the prohibitory orders in force around ‘Nabanna’, the state secretariat building, it was not possible to allow such a protest demonstration in its vicinity. Supratim Sarkar, Additional Director General of Police (South Bengal), told journalists on Monday that the state police had information that an attempt could be made to trigger unrest during the march.

The march to the state secretariat has been convened on social media platforms, initially by three youngsters, who denied any links to any political party. They rather insisted that the participants in the march must come without the flag of any political party.

The TMC, however, alleged that the BJP was trying to politicise the rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee doctor at the R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata and playing a behind-the-scenes role in orchestrating the march.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s party also accused the saffron party of hatching a conspiracy to deliberately turn the march violent and thus forcing police personnel to act so that the state government could be destabilsed.

The TMC cited the links between Subhankar Haldar and Sayan Lahiri, two of the three main organisers of the march, with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh as well as the student and youth wing of the BJP to drive home the point that the so-called apolitical march was being organised at the behest of the saffron party.

Kunal Ghosh, a senior leader of the TMC, released two videos at a news conference in Kolkata on Monday. The videos had people, allegedly BJP leaders, saying that the protest over the rape and murder of the young doctor might take a new turn if some people were killed during the march to the state secretariat on Tuesday.

“The videos exposed that the right-wing forces, like the RSS and the ABVP (Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad), as well as some leftists want some people to get killed during the protest,” Ghosh said on Monday. “We have information that outsiders are being brought to the state to trigger unrest. We have learned some people will be wearing police uniforms during the march and fire on people to lay the blame on the police.”

Police later arrested two local leaders of the BJP from Ghatal in Paschim Medinipur district of the state in connection with the two videos.

The BJP denied the TMC’s allegation although the party heavyweight and Leader of Opposition in the state assembly, Suvendu Adhikary, not only extended support to it but also said that he might join the march, albeit without his party's flag.

“As the appeal of ‘Nabanna Abhiyan’ (March to Nabanna) by a non-political student community is gaining momentum, it has certainly raised Mamata Banerjee's blood pressure,” Adhikari posted on X, alleging that the state police had resorted to the unethical way of spreading gossip and rumour through social media to contain the outrage over the rape and murder of the young doctor.

The saffron party itself announced a series of protest demonstrations over the next few days demanding the TMC supremo’s resignation from the chief minister’s office. The party, however, did not schedule any protest on Tuesday, indicating tacit support to the ‘Nabanna Abhiyan’. Sukanta Majumdar, a union minister and the state BJP president, said that if any protester was injured due to police action, the saffron party would arrange ambulances to send her or him to hospitals.

Haldar, Lahiri, and Prabir Das said that they, along with other marchers, would peacefully proceed to the state secretariat under the banner of the Pashchim Banger Chhatra Samaj (Students Community of West Bengal), demanding the resignation of the chief minister.

Haldar also said during a news conference that he was a “proud member” of the RSS. Lahiri too admitted in response to a question from a journalist that he had been associated with the BJP.

Nearly 6000 personnel would be deployed in and around the state secretariat as well across the rest of the city to pre-empt any attempt to trigger violence.