People's Democracy

Cartoon Episode Exposes

Autocratic Nature of TMC Govt

From Special

Correspondent in Kolkata

IN Mamata Banerjee's regime, everything – from the colour of roadside fences to choice of morning newspapers – will be decided by a single person. And, the chief minister herself has decided to issue all instructions. Any defiance will naturally invite reprisals. And any humor too.

A caricature doing the rounds on social networking sites has hurt the chief minister's sensibility to such an extent that the man allegedly behind it had to land up in jail. Dr Ambikesh Mahapatra found it the hard way. This chemistry professor from Jadavpur University had allegedly uploaded a caricature on social networking sites that showed Mamata and her lieutenant Mukul Roy discussing how to get rid of party MP and former railway minister Dinesh Trivedi. The innocent and witty strip was inspired by Oscar-winning filmmaker Satyajit Ray's iconic Bengali movie Sonar Kella (the golden fortress).

Mukul is, incidentally, the name of the child protagonist in Ray's film. The police arrested Mahapatra and his neighbour Subrata Sengupta for allegedly projecting Mamata, former railway minister Dinesh and his successor Mukul in poor light. He managed to get bail but not before his arrest sparked nationwide outrage.

The timing of the arrest is strange since the content has been doing the rounds on the Internet for some time now, ever since Mamata forced Dinesh Trivedi to resign from the rail ministry for presenting a rail budget against her liking.

The night before he was arrested, Dr Mahapatra  was  beaten up by Trinamool Congress activists. Later it was they who called up the police. And the police, instead of arresting the culprits, took the professor to the police station. He was arrested later on the allegations lodged by the same goons who beat him up. 

Even though immediate protests were evident, Mamata Banerjee justified the arrest. She saw a ‘conspiracy’ behind the cartoon. Her ministers also began to justify the arrest.

However, the entire state witnessed waves of protest for last few days. Within hours of the news of the professor's arrest reaching the campus, students of Jadavpur University organised a protest in the campus. The teachers joined in a procession singing Tagore songs, particularly the songs which were banned during the Emergency. Teachers in Calcutta University staged a demonstration in College street campus. 

The artists, singers, intellectuals have spontaneously reacted with numerous meetings, demonstrations held throughout Kolkata and in the districts. Artists gathered and openly painted cartoons of the chief minster in front of Jadavpur University. SFI-DYFI took out rallies demanding withdrawal of all cases against the professors.

The TMC government, in another development, has written a letter to Facebook CEO seeking deletion of all graphics and posts they think are ‘malicious’ against the state government and the ruling party. This has further infuriated the public opinion. 

Intellectuals and scientists from all over India and even international figures like Noam Chomsky have protested the attack on democratic rights in West Bengal. In a related development Molecular Biologist Partha Pratim Sur was arrested when he joined in a protest against eviction of poor slum dwellers from Nonadanga, in south Kolkata. Intellectuals wrote a letter to the prime minister against this atrocious decision of the state government. A section of intellectuals who harped for a ‘change’ in West Bengal has now openly expressed their disenchantment with the TMC government.