Be Humble, Sympathetic: Abhishek Banerjee’s Advice To Party Amid Public Fury

Trinamool’s second-in-command Abhishek Banerjee has issued a warning to party leaders: Do not to speak ill of anyone from the medical fraternity or civil society. The message on X comes amid multiple ugly comments by party leaders since his aunt and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had apparently urged them to “hiss”. The Chief Minister has denied making any such comment, but that has apparently not convinced any of her party leaders. 

“Public representatives across party lines need to be more HUMBLE and SYMPATHETIC. I urge everyone in @AITCofficial not to speak ill of anyone from the MEDICAL FRATERNITY OR CIVIL SOCIETY,” the Diamond Harbour MP said. “Everyone has the right to protest and express themselves. This is what sets West Bengal apart from other BJP-ruled states,” he added.

Public representatives across party lines need to be more HUMBLE and SYMPATHETIC. I urge everyone in @AITCofficial not to speak ill of anyone from the MEDICAL FRATERNITY OR CIVIL SOCIETY. Everyone has the right to protest and express themselves- This is what sets West Bengal…

— Abhishek Banerjee (@abhishekaitc) September 2, 2024

On Sunday, Atish Sarkar, husband of a TMC councillor at Habra, had lashed out at protestors. “I will make a distorted picture of your mother and sister and hang it on the door of your house. You will not be able to leave your house,” he said. 

“Remember, our Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee advised us to hiss at times. If we start hissing, you will not be able to come out of your houses,” he was heard saying at a public meeting in his locality. After the video was widely circulated, the party had suspended him. 

The same day, four-time Trinamool MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who is also a medical practitioner, issued a statement apologising for her recent derogatory remarks about women doctors that infuriated the medical community. 

At a panel discussion on the horrific rape-murder of a doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College in a vernacular television channel, the MP had claimed during her days as a medical student, there was a trend where female students secured qualifying marks by “sitting on the lap” of teaching doctors. She also said the students who often protested against that were granted lesser marks. 

She had added that she never imagined the “trend” would ultimately take such a “nasty shape”.

Actor-turned Trinamool MLA Kanchan Mullick questioned whether protesting junior doctors would refuse to accept their salaries and bonuses. “I just want to ask whether people who are on ceasework and opposing the ruling party are accepting their salaries and bonuses? Will people from my fraternity withdraw the awards conferred on them by the state government?” he said at a protest meet organised by the party in Konnagar. 

In another video that was widely circulated on Sunday, a minister of the state, Udayan Guha, is purportedly heard asking party workers to retaliate against political adversaries.

“Some political parties are trying to do politics over the RG Kar incident. If they sting once, we will have to sting five times. If they leave a single tooth-mark, we will have to leave five teeth-marks,” he is purportedly heard saying. 

Trinamool’s Bankura MP Arup Chakraborty said once party workers take a stand and “hiss”, those who are protesting against the rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Hospital and “misleading people”, will “flee like dogs”.

All of it is apparently a take-off on something the Chief Minister had said a recent meeting last week. But on August 29, Ms Banerjee clarified the remark on X.

“I also clarify that the phrase (“phonsh kara“) that I had used in my speech yesterday is a quote from Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa. The legendary saint had said that occasionally there is a need to raise one’s voice. When there are crimes and criminal offences, a voice of protest has to be raised. My speech on that point was a direct allusion to the great Ramakrishnite saying,” her post read. 

The comments by the party leaders, though, have infuriated the medical community as well as the civil society, who have been on a massive protest over the rape-murder. Despite the Supreme Court’s request to stop the protest and return to work, the doctors have stuck to their course of action.