A ruckus broke out after people from Droh Carnival at Dorina Crossing suddenly forced the state minister and senior Trinamul Congress leader Sujit Bose’s car to halt this evening.
Police said a truck carrying the idol was returning to the Sreebhumi Sporting Club after being displayed at the carnival. Behind it was the car of the state’s minister and club official Sujit Bose. On Tuesday evening, at Esplanade, a human chain protest was organised by junior doctors. As soon as Mr Bose was spotted in the car, the crowd participating in the protest expressed their anger. Hundreds of people were seen rushing towards the minister’s car. Mr Bose alleged that bottles were hurled at his vehicle. The situation escalated into chaos at the Esplanade intersection. However, the minister’s car did not stop and continued driving straight along Central Avenue. Some people hit the back of the moving car. Regarding the incident, the minister commented, “Everyone has the democratic right to protest, but what kind of uncivilised behavior is this of attacking a car?” He further added, “Our puja crowd was much larger than theirs. If there had been retaliation, would that have been good? I didn’t want the situation to escalate during the festival.”
Shortly after Mr Bose left, the protesters surrounded Kolkata Police’s DC (Central) Indira Mukherjee and demonstrated against her. “Go back” slogans were raised by the crowd. The protesters claimed that despite seeing the human chain, the minister’s car almost drove over the crowd. Labanya Das, a resident of Baranagar who had come to participate in the protest by the junior doctors, said, “Just because he’s a minister, does that mean he can run over people? The way his car passed by, if there had been the slightest deviation, my leg would have been crushed.”
On one hand, there was a carnival of dissent, while on the other, a human chain at the same location on Tuesday, Esplanade, which virtually paralysed traffic movement.