A simple debate with her friends on Facebook about Mamata Banerjee has turned into a nightmare for a 21 year old engineering student in Kolkata. On Friday, she criticized the Chief Minister’s parade for Goddess Durga. On Sunday, her post turned out to be a giant street side banner in the Dum Dum area, where the youngster lives. “We condemn the criticism of the Chief Minister,” it read in bold letters.
The student from Calcutta University is terrified, apparently she has been threatened by local women with links to the ruling Trinamool Congress. The hoarding had been put up by a group called “Dum Dum Ward 8 Citizens Committee”. It says if the student has the right to criticize Ms. Banerjee, others have the same right to denounce her publicly.
The Chief Minister’s parade of Durga idols on Friday was pitched as Kolkata’s answer to the Rio Carnival. The student argued in her post that it was a bad idea at a time Bengal is battling joblessness and poverty. Deep Das, a resident of Dum Dum, disapproved of the woman’s views. “How can a 21year old say such things? Especially when the Chief Minister is doing so much for the state,” he said.
The area’s Trinamool councillor Avijit Mitra said the woman’s post had crossed lines – he quoted her as saying the Chief Minister “should be given a dunking in the river”. “This hoarding is CPM propaganda. The girl is a member of its student wing SFI. I will take no responsibility. I will not remove the hoarding until locals ask me to in writing. Or else they will say I had put it up,” he said.
Back in 2012, the arrest of a professor for e-mailing Mamata Banerjee cartoons had caused public outrage. In 2016, there has been no arrest, but criticize the Chief Minister and one runs the risk of public naming and shaming.
