Kolkata: A comment on Facebook criticising West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s decision to hold a Durga Puja immersion carnival last week and pledge to make the event a 10-Day affair has turned into a nightmare for Rajashree Chattopadhyay, a 21-year-old engineering student in Kolkata.
She criticised Mamata last Friday, and on Sunday her post became a giant street-side banner in the Dum Dum area, where she lives. “We condemn the criticism of the Chief Minister,” it reads in bold letters.
The student from Calcutta University is terrified, fearing for her well-being and that of her family after the banner put up for thousands to see. Rajashree says she has also been threatened by local women with links to the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC).
“A huge contingent of women, who are supporters of the ruling party in my locality, gathered near my house and repeatedly asked me to apologise for my post. I did not. My neighbours came to my rescue and they were forced to leave,” said Rajashree, who believes she is being heckled for being a supporter of the Students Federation of India (SFI), a Leftist student body.
“I did not like the idea of carnival as the state is reeling from severe financial crisis as has been claimed by the chief minister several times. I thought it was a wasteful expenditure when the government is unable to pay ‘dearness allowance’ to its employees. But no one can be heckled for expressing his opinion,” she said.
The decision to hold the carnival at the end of the Durga puja has been a highly debated topic on social media in the state. Many have supported the idea, while many such as Rajashree have considered it as a wasteful expenditure of public money while state is reeling from severe debt.
However, many including TMC supporters, including a local councilor, was critical of Rajashree. Councilor Avijit Mitra said the student’s post had crossed lines — he quoted her as saying the chief minister “should be given a dunking in the river”.
Her neighbours though support her for airing her views. “Social media posts are private opinions to which everyone living in a democracy is entitled to. Never thought someone can be heckled for the same,” Dabanshu Ghosh, a resident of Dum Dum.
In 2012, Javadpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra was arrested for circulating a cartoon showing Mamata and the then railway minister Mukul Roy in a negative sense.
“We are slowly turning into a theocratic state where no one can criticise the chief minister. Her followers will heckle, threaten and even use state forces like the police to shut you down. This is not the kind of Bengal we ever imagined,” said Sambhunath Ghosal, a professor of sociology.
