It happened this past Saturday in West Bengal’s Sonarpur. Banerjee had come to see some families he says have been hard hit by post-poll violence, but the visit was derailed by the scuffle and the old debate over who’s in charge of keeping the peace in the state.
What went down in Sonarpur
According to the police, some unidentifiable folks made a beeline for Banerjee with a mix of stones, footwear and eggs as he was making his way around. There were ‘thief’ chants in the air and some in the crowd made a move to get physical with him.
His security detail put up a wall and made quick work of getting him out of the lane. You could tell from his tattered shirt and the police helmet he was wearing that it had been a close call before they could put him under their wing and leave.
If you look at a video of the scene that’s been going around, you can spot a guard with an arm out in front of Banerjee to block the flying debris, while the rest of the cordon makes its way through the commotion.
Sides of the story
As things got heated, some in the opposition were heard with ‘chor chor’ (thief) slogans. The TMC leader found himself face to face with some locals in the process.
Banerjee won’t have any of it; he says it was all set up in advance and there wasn’t a cop in sight when it started. “Look what they have done to me,” he said. “This was pre-planned. There is no police in the area. They want to kill me.”
He made it clear he wasn’t going anywhere until the local force showed up to put some cover on the people he had come to see. “I will not leave this place till the local police send their force and offer protection to the victims’ families,” he put it.
The impact on the ground
You could say the whole point of the trip was to put in an appearance for some of the families in the wake of the post-poll trouble. But the scuffle has put the focus on where the security let up and the growing divide between the Trinamool and the BJP.
Banerjee is pointing a finger at the BJP, saying it’s just how they do democracy. It shows how much of a role party politics is playing in even the most basic relief work and how it is being taken.
Here is what we know by the time the evening rolled in:
– An attack while he was with the victims’ kin
– Police confirm the throwing of stones, shoes and the like
– A lot of ‘Chor chor’ from the onlookers
– Banerjee says the BJP was behind it
– He was put in a helmet and shown the door by security
On the subject of security and governance
Now the policing in these hot spots is under a microscope. Banerjee says there was no one there, yet you have footage of a very prompt escort once the heat was on. Makes you wonder about the timing.
For his part, he has tied his position to the need for the families to be safe, and he wanted to see some officers on the ground before he would make a move to leave.
Looking ahead
The Sonarpur run-in has given some heft to the talk of making sure politicians and the civilians in their way are better protected. It’s also primed the ground for more back-and-forth on who is to blame for the violence and who should be stopping it.
With the parties at each other’s throats, the families Banerjee was there for may well be left in the background. Sonarpur is now a case study in whether the authorities can hold the line while leaders like him try to make inroads in such a charged-up atmosphere.
