People's Democracy

Trinamul Goons Indulge In Violence Near Singur

THE corporate-run television channels of Kolkata are never known to be averse to Mamata Banerjee and her outfit’s prankish ways. They would offer support and justification also when – and this happens often enough – the outfit and its supremo would choose to go into the utterly destructive mode, destructive of everything in sight, people not excluded. 

Refreshed after a month-odd stay away from the usual fray that Trinamul Congress regards as its own brand of politics, Mamata Banerjee, raring to go, travelled to the outskirts of Singur on February 10 to spew venom at the Left Front government over her pet bug-bear — industrialisation and Bengal’s development, both being anathema to her, for reasons that are connected with her political survival.

Her address at the rally, a thin and sparse attendance urging her to resort violence of language with suitable emphatic gestures in tow, was a mix of the provoking and the damning. Her anger was palpable when her lieutenants morosely informed her that the gathering was dominated by those brought in from outside in hired vehicles to the extent that just 60-odd people from Singur itself managed to turn up.

Among the incoherent sputtering that emanated from her were:

• CPI(M) sponsors the Tatas financially

• The Singur factory was a quid pro quo between CPI(M) helping Tatas buy the Corus group of companies and the Tatas setting up the automotive factory 

• The tears shed by the ‘wronged kisans’ at Singur ‘provoked rainfall in Kolkata that led to the calling off of a cricket match’

• With Cr Pc 144 being taken off on February 14, the Trinamul Congress cadres should be ‘ready’ for Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s rally at Singur on February 15

A kind of climax was reached at Singur when Trinamul Congress cadres, provoked by the leadership’s exciting words, launched a fierce stoning on the OB vans of two TV channels, ending up by smashing the sensitive electronic equipment in both. A tragedy of sorts occurred when the local cameraman of a TV channel, never known for his antipathy to the Trinamul Congress, was beaten up mercilessly when he tried to shoot Trinamul Congress cadres breaking apart the two OB vans. 

Both the CPI(M) state secretary Biman Basu and Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee have used stern words to condemn the incident. (B P)