Mamata Banerjee Did The Right Thing
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
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By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-01-24 06:02:46
About the Author
Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator.
View all posts by this Author
When the Central government organizes any function in any state, it is obviously a government function which has national importance. The profile of the function gets raised several notches when the Prime Minister and the state Chief Minister attend it. The function does not, and should not, belong to the political party that rules at the Centre and the party or its leaders and workers should have nothing to do with it. But in order to show their importance and perhaps to ensure a sizeable gathering, the state leaders of the party at the Centre often use their influence to fill the venue with their supporters. This happens everywhere and has now come to be an accepted practice. But these party workers in the crowd seldom become unruly or disrupt the function as they know its importance.
But West Bengal and especially the BJP workers in the poll-bound state are different. The way a section of the crowd that was admitted allegedly on 'party passes' heckled chief minister Mamata Banerjee with chants of "Jai Shree Ram" knowing well that the said chant has come to be associated with the BJP and that Mamata is totally against it (she had stopped her cavalcade and got down from her car during one of her tours in the state to accost people who tried to 'greet' her with such slogans a couple of months back) was regrettable and unacceptable. Mamata Banerjee declined to read out her speech and said that the Centre and the BJP had insulted her by allowing such a thing to happen at an official function attended by the Prime Minister and organized by the Centre to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Didi was absolutely right. The BJP workers had no business disrupting the function with such chants. Those who had given them the passes should have schooled them in the protocol and discipline to be maintained at such events of national and international importance. But that is too much to expect from a party that is carrying out a no-holds-barred campaign against Mamata Banerjee to oust her from power. When it became clear that Didi was angered, the Prime Minister could have taken the mike to admonish the chanters and assuage Mamata's hurt feelings. His stature as a statesman would have gone up several notches. But nothing of that sort happened and Didi returned to her seat without delivering her speech.
Although it was a very graceful reaction from her which registered her protest and did not escalate matters at the solemn function, one feels that she could have used the opportunity to put those rowdies in their place. She could have woven their chants in her speech and could have pointed out that Netaji was secular (his Azad Hind Fauz has soldiers and patriots from all religions, regions and caste) and would have not approved of what they did. That would have been a tight slap for them. However, as usual, Didi chose to be different and registered her protest in the way she thought was best. But the least the BJP can now do is to identify the miscreants and hand them over to the police. They should be booked under relevant sections of the IPC for trying to disrupt an official function. The BJP must also ensure that such a thing does not happen in future. For, it was an insult to the Prime Minister too.
