Reportedly, West Bengal’s four-way battle for July 21 ‘Martyrs’ Day has fractured
into four-way political tug-of-war.
Mamata Banerjee’s absolute monopoly over the 1993 legacy has shattered, with split TMC factions, the Congress, and the BJP vying for ownership of the event’s historical significance.
The Trinamool Congress has split, prompting dueling public demonstrations of organizational strength. Mamata Banerjee’s camp hosted its rally near the Birla Planetarium, while a massive parallel event was mounted by a rebel TMC faction (commanding a majority of the party MLAs) under The Indian National Congress, which spearheaded the original 1993 movement that left 13 Youth Congress workers dead, hosted its own independent programme at Shahid Minar to reclaim its historical ownership of the event.
The ruling BJP government introduced a highly unexpected counter-strategy by releasing the long-pending Sushanta Chatterjee Commission of Inquiry report on the 1993 police firing. BJP leaders used the report’s publication to table recommendations that the previous Trinamool government had withheld, alleging that Mamata Banerjee built her political career on the tragedy without implementing compensation for the victims’ families.
The political stakes escalated into physical confrontation when Mamata’s camp alleged that “BJP-backed miscreants” vandalized their stage and tore down banners on the eve of the event, forcing the former CM and senior party leaders to keep an overnight vigil at the rally site to secure their tribute.
News Edit KV Raman
