On Wednesday (December 1), actress Swara Bhasker appealed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to protect the democratic principles of the country. She made the remarks during an interactive session with Mamata Banerjee that was conducted at the Y.B. Chavan Centre in Nariman Point in Mumbai, Maharashtra.
In a video shared by journalist Pooja Mehta, Swara Bhasker was heard as saying, “Everyone in this room is doing their bit. There are older, illustrious people who have spent their lives on it”. The actress then claimed that a group of young people had risked their lives, and employment to put up resistance against the incumbent BJP government.
She named ‘comedians’ Munawar Faruqi, Aditi Mittal, Agrima Joshua and actress Richa Chaddha who are supposedly putting out the ‘real story of India to the world’. Bhaskar claimed that those fighting to preserve the ‘idea of India’ are sandwiched between two sides: the mob of ‘unaccountable’ people and the State that uses measures to curb freedom. “There is a state which is distributing the UAPA and sedition charges as a prasad from a God we don’t want to pray to,” she alleged.
#Watch| Actress Swara Bhaskar tells #WestBengal CM #MamataBanerjee in the interactive session in Mumbai, “There is a state which is distributing the UAPA and sedition charges as a prasad from a God we don’t want to pray to.” pic.twitter.com/oG756fiUpw
— Pooja Mehta (@pooja_news) December 1, 2021
However, the irony is that Swara Bhasker appealed to protect the freedom of expression to a person who has been jailing people for memes and cartoons ever since she came to power in West Bengal.
Curbing freedom of speech since 2012
When Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011, the residents of West Bengal were under the illusion that the firebrand leader would bring about a paradigm shift in the political culture of the State. Far from improving, the Trinamool Congress regime muzzled independent voices, decimated political opposition through intimidatory tactics and worsened the culture of political violence.
Swara Bhasker seemed to repose her Faith in a politician, who has a track record of curbing freedom of speech, silencing the voice of dissenters and encouraging violence against political opponents. The actress chose to complain about the supposed lack of ‘creative space’ for comedians in front of Mamata Banerjee, who had jailed a Chemistry Professor from Jadavpur University in 2012 for sharing a meme. Ambikesh Mahapatra was arrested and charge-sheeted under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act for sharing a cartoon on Mamata Banerjee.
To ensure continued harassment, the West Bengal government now wants to add sections 500 and 509 of the IPC against the professor. “It is more than nine and half years I have been fighting my case facing the torture of the establishment,” Ambikesh Mahapatra told the OpIndia over the phone. Ambikesh Mahapatra said that he had not imagined that he would have to pay the price for forwarding a simple cartoon. “There is no democracy and no freedom of speech in West Bengal. I am above 61-years. What they call a crime was not a crime,” he said.
Jailing dissenters over a meme
In May 2019, Mamata Banerjee had again displayed her intolerance and disapproval for dissenting opinions. Priyanka Sharma, BJP youth leader was arrested for posting a meme mocking Banerjee on her Facebook timeline. A complaint was made by TMC leader Vibhas Hazra, against the convenor of BJYM, Priyanka Sharma for sharing a morphed picture of Mamata Banerjee in Howrah.
The MET Gala 2019 themed meme superimposed Mamata’s face on Priyanka Chopra’s body. She was arrested and produced in Howrah Court. “She not just tries to insult our Hon’ble Chief Minister, but she trying to insult the culture of our Bengal by her post on Facebook and which is Cyber Crime”, read the complaint. Despite being granted bail by the Supreme court, the State apparatus used all tactics to delay the release of the BJP worker from jail.
Fostering a culture of violence through rhetorics
In the run-up to West Bengal polls, Mamata Banerjee had coined the term ‘Khela Hobe’. The slogan became a metaphor for violence against political opponents. The Trinamool Congress supremo was seen repeating the slogan in her election rallies and laying the foundation of the violence that was to come. TMC workers also created images that showed the West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee putting her bandaged foot on Prime Minister Modi’s head.
The images were a caricature of an earlier cartoon, where Mamata Banerjee’s bandaged foot was shown on a football. TMC workers decided to replace the football with the head of PM Modi. Such imageries were symbolic of the events that took place during the elections. Mamata Banerjee had also encouraged people to gherao security forces during an election rally in Cooch Behar district’s Sitalkuchi area. She had alleged that the BJP and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have ordered the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) jawans to harass voters and obstruct them from voting.
Orchestrating violence against opponents after poll victory
Using violence as an instrument to subdue their political opponents has become a distinctive feature of the TMC rule in West Bengal. Ever since the Mamata Banerjee-led retained power in the state, the persecution of dissenters and opposition workers has only intensified. In an overwhelming number of such incidents, the victims have been BJP supporters and workers while the accused were said to be the supporters of the TMC party. More than a dozen BJP workers have lost their lives in the post-poll violence that ensued following the victory of the TMC party in the assembly elections.
The violence unleashed against them forced hundreds of BJP party workers and supporters to flee their villages along with their families. They crossed over to Assam where they have been provided temporary shelter under the supervision of minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. It is not just the BJP but even CPI(M) which has accused the TMC of killing its workers. Reports of attacks on BSF jawans have also emerged in the media. On June 2, 2021, a month after Mamata Banerjee came back to power, the BJP said 37 of its workers were killed in the post-poll violence that convulsed the state.
There were reports that said women in West Bengal were raped, assaulted and, in some cases, even killed, just because they adhered to a different political ideology. Recently, a victim who was raped by the TMC goons in front of her father shared her harrowing ordeal with OpIndia. She narrated how she was attacked and sexually assaulted by her perpetrators associated with the TMC party. In the aftermath of the assembly election results, TMC goons wreaked havoc, attacking and plundering the houses of their opponents. In one such attack, TMC goons lynched BJP worker Avijit Sarkar to death.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has in its detailed report had mentioned how the widespread violence and targeted killings of so many BJP workers was not spontaneous but well-planned. The committee had informed that many supporters of a political party were forced to flee their homes due to a targeted attack.
