On Wednesday (December 1), actress Swara Bhasker appealed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to guard the democratic rules of the nation. She made the remarks throughout an interactive session with Mamata Banerjee that was performed on 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 younger folks had risked their lives, and employment to place up resistance towards the incumbent BJP authorities.
She named ‘comedians’ Munawar Faruqi, Aditi Mittal, Agrima Joshua and actress Richa Chaddha who’re supposedly placing out the ‘real story of India to the world’. Bhaskar claimed that these combating to protect the ‘idea of India’ are sandwiched between two sides: the mob of ‘unaccountable’ folks and the State that makes use of 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 within 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 guard the liberty of expression to an individual who has been jailing folks for memes and cartoons ever since she got here to energy in West Bengal.
Curbing freedom of speech since 2012
When Mamata Banerjee got here to energy in 2011, the residents of West Bengal had been below the phantasm that the firebrand chief would deliver a couple of paradigm shift within the political tradition of the State. Far from enhancing, the Trinamool Congress regime muzzled impartial voices, decimated political opposition by means of intimidatory techniques and worsened the tradition of political violence.
Swara Bhasker appeared to repose her Faith in a politician, who has a monitor report of curbing freedom of speech, silencing the voice of dissenters and inspiring violence towards political opponents. The actress selected to complain concerning the supposed lack of ‘creative space’ for comedians in entrance 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 below Section 66A of the Information Technology Act for sharing a cartoon on Mamata Banerjee.
To guarantee continued harassment, the West Bengal authorities now desires so as to add sections 500 and 509 of the IPC towards the professor. “It is more than nine and half years I have been fighting my case facing the torture of the establishment,” Ambikesh Mahapatra informed the OpIndia over the telephone. Ambikesh Mahapatra stated that he had not imagined that he must pay the worth for forwarding a easy 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 stated.
Jailing dissenters over a meme
In May 2019, Mamata Banerjee had once more displayed her intolerance and disapproval for dissenting opinions. Priyanka Sharma, BJP youth chief was arrested for posting a meme mocking Banerjee on her Facebook timeline. A grievance was made by TMC chief Vibhas Hazra, towards the convenor of BJYM, Priyanka Sharma for sharing a morphed image of Mamata Banerjee in Howrah.
Morphed picture of Mamata Banerjee that was shared by Priyanka Sharma
The MET Gala 2019 themed meme superimposed Mamata’s face on Priyanka Chopra’s physique. 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”, learn the grievance. Despite being granted bail by the Supreme court docket, the State equipment used all techniques to delay the discharge of the BJP employee from jail.
Fostering a tradition of violence by means of rhetorics
In the run-up to West Bengal polls, Mamata Banerjee had coined the time period ‘Khela Hobe’. The slogan turned a metaphor for violence towards political opponents. The Trinamool Congress supremo was seen repeating the slogan in her election rallies and laying the inspiration of the violence that was to return. TMC staff additionally created photos that confirmed the West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee placing her bandaged foot on Prime Minister Modi’s head.
Khela hobe rhetorics took a harmful flip after West Bengal elections
The photos had been a caricature of an earlier cartoon, the place Mamata Banerjee’s bandaged foot was proven on a soccer. TMC staff determined to switch the soccer with the pinnacle of PM Modi. Such imageries had been symbolic of the occasions that occurred in the course of the elections. Mamata Banerjee had additionally inspired folks to gherao safety forces throughout an election rally in Cooch Behar district’s Sitalkuchi space. 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 hinder them from voting.
Orchestrating violence towards opponents after ballot victory
Using violence as an instrument to subdue their political opponents has turn out to be a particular function of the TMC rule in West Bengal. Ever for the reason that Mamata Banerjee-led retained energy within the state, the persecution of dissenters and opposition staff has solely intensified. In an amazing variety of such incidents, the victims have been BJP supporters and staff whereas the accused had been stated to be the supporters of the TMC celebration. More than a dozen BJP staff have misplaced their lives within the post-poll violence that ensued following the victory of the TMC celebration within the meeting elections.
The violence unleashed towards them compelled a whole bunch of BJP celebration staff and supporters to flee their villages together with their households. They crossed over to Assam the place they’ve been offered non permanent shelter below the supervision of minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. It isn’t just the BJP however even CPI(M) which has accused the TMC of killing its staff. Reports of assaults on BSF jawans have additionally emerged within the media. On June 2, 2021, a month after Mamata Banerjee got here again to energy, the BJP stated 37 of its staff had been killed within the post-poll violence that convulsed the state.
There had been stories that stated girls in West Bengal had been raped, assaulted and, in some circumstances, even killed, simply because they adhered to a special political ideology. Recently, a sufferer who was raped by the TMC goons in entrance of her father shared her harrowing ordeal with OpIndia. She narrated how she was attacked and sexually assaulted by her perpetrators related to the TMC celebration. In the aftermath of the meeting election outcomes, TMC goons wreaked havoc, attacking and plundering the homes of their opponents. In one such assault, TMC goons lynched BJP employee Avijit Sarkar to loss of life.
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has in its detailed report had talked about how the widespread violence and focused killings of so many BJP staff was not spontaneous however well-planned. The committee had knowledgeable that many supporters of a political celebration had been compelled to flee their houses as a consequence of a focused assault.