On the evening of August 26, Shubhajit Ruidas, a 25-year-old from Howrah in Bengal, sneaked out of his house.
Phrase was that the police have been choosing up members of the Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj, of which Ruidas was the coordinator. “The police have been after us,” he stated.
Days earlier than, the coed physique had known as for a protest march to the West Bengal state secretariat to protest in opposition to the homicide and rape of a junior physician in a Kolkata authorities hospital.
The state capital, Kolkata, has been roiled by protests by ladies and medical doctors since August 9, when the younger physician was found murdered in a seminar room within the hospital. Howrah, the place Ruidas lives, is 40-odd km from Kolkata.
Little was identified in regards to the Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj apart from that it had been arrange amid the gathering anger in opposition to the Mamata Banerjee authorities over its alleged makes an attempt to cowl up the crime. Even now, the Chhatra Samaj shouldn’t be registered as an organisation nor does it run out of an workplace, considered one of its convenors instructed Scroll.
For a scholar physique with little obvious organisational presence, the protest on August 27 was a formidable one, with a few hundreds attending.
Ruidas was amongst these main the march that started in Santragachi. “We have been demanding Mamata Banerjee’s resignation over the rape-murder case as she is each the well being and residential minister,” he stated. “She is attempting to save lots of the accused.”
Till then, the protests by ladies and medical college students in opposition to the rape and homicide at RG Kar Medical Faculty and Hospital in Kolkata had been largely peaceable.
The rally, headed to Nabanna, the secretariat, rapidly turned violent.
Protesters fought pitched battles with the police in Howrah and Kolkata, leaving a number of law enforcement officials injured.
The state authorities cracked down. About 200 individuals, who participated within the rally, have been arrested. This included three key conveners of the organisation – Sayan Lahiri, Prabir Das and Subhankar Halder. All three are actually out on bail.
The protest stood out for an additional motive – whereas the medical doctors’-led protests demanding justice for the 31-year-old physician have been determinedly non-political, there don’t look like many levels of separation between the Paschim Banga Chhatra Samaj and the Bharatiya Janata Get together or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
“Earlier than the rally, we obtained to know that the organisers have been someway associated to the BJP or the RSS or are energetic members of these organisations,” Aniket Kar, one of many coordinators of the West Bengal Junior Docs’ Entrance, which has led the agitation demanding justice for the crime in opposition to the physician, instructed Scroll. “Political events need to use the protests to additional their very own agenda however they don’t need justice. We won’t enable them to hijack it.”
The leaders of Chhatra Samaj have reiterated that they don’t seem to be backed by the Bharatiya Janata Get together, that they’re “apolitical”.
Hyperlinks to RSS?
The beginnings of the Chhatra Samaj have been on social media, Lahiri, the convenor of the organisation, instructed Scroll.
“It was a name on social media from YouTubers, to demand justice and full accountability from the chief minister, ” he stated. “The one that posted this requested me to hold ahead the motion. The three of us – Subhankar, Prabir and I – met the press on August 23. 4 days later, we organised the march.”
Ruidas and Lahiri stated the organisation has 2,000-odd members, although they nonetheless wouldn’t have any workplace or formal presence.
In response to Ruidas, the member from Howrah, the thought of making such a entrance was impressed by the widespread student-led protests that unseated Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh. “We noticed everybody was combating individually, in contrast to the scholars in Bangladesh. We needed to unite the scholars to guide the protest,” he stated.
On the press convention on August 23, Subhankar Halder, one of many convenors of the organisation, instructed reporters that he was a “proud member” of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.
Lahiri instructed Scroll that in 2021 he was a member of the Bharatiya Janata Get together’s Kolkata unit, simply as he had joined the Trinamool Congress earlier when he was in faculty. “At the moment I’m not with any political get together,” he stated.
Nonetheless, he added that he’s “related to the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, simply as a common member.”
Ruidas admitted that the outfit does have RSS members. “The primary motive to be an RSS employee is to self-discipline oneself. It’s the largest organisation within the nation. So, our members might be from the RSS. We don’t have any difficulty with it.”
He added: “There are makes an attempt to malign our motion by giving it a political colour.”
Authorized support from BJP
A day after the march, and the police motion on the protestors heading to Nabanna, the BJP introduced a statewide bandh to protest in opposition to the “incessant lathicharge and use of brute drive, tear gasoline and water cannons on the agitators marching peacefully.”
BJP chief Suvendu Adhikari not solely reiterated his get together’s full help to the arrested leaders on social media, but additionally stated they’d pay the price of authorized proceedings to launch them.
When requested if the BJP had a job within the Nabanna protest, chief spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya instructed Scroll: “If you happen to get a juice full toss, what do you do? We’ve to play it. You need to step out and hit the ball over the boundary.”
‘Mamata’s resignation not our demand’
The agitating junior medical doctors have identified that their checklist of calls for doesn’t embody the resignation of the chief minister.
“If you’re asking for her resignation, you’re asking Narendra Modi to type a authorities,” stated a physician, who is among the conveners of the West Bengal Junior Docs Entrance, a newly fashioned pan-state discussion board. “That’s not our motive….our motive is simply to press for calls for which will be fullfiled by the well being division and the CBI.”
The medical doctors who’re a part of the discussion board stated that their protests have been spontaneous.
One physician stated that lots of the physicians have left-liberal leanings, although they don’t seem to be members of the Communist Get together of India (Marxist), which dominated West Bengal for a number of many years until it was ousted by the Trinamool Congress. “You’ll be able to’t maintain a protest with out an ideology and coordinated planning,” he stated.
He stated that a number of left-leaning leaders have helped them organise. “The Bangladesh occasions have had an affect, as we share that language and tradition.”
A possibility
Observers stated the BJP senses a possibility within the nearly-month lengthy protests, which have pushed the Mamata Banerjee authorities on the again foot. “That’s the reason they needed to create a law-and-order scenario,” a Kolkata-based journalist stated.
A junior physician instructed Scroll that as BJP doesn’t have a help base amongst civil society organisations, they fashioned this “so-called scholar” outfit in an effort to create “chaos” and hijack the protest to place strain on Mamata Banerjee. “The rally was a determined try by the BJP.”
What stops them from capitalising on the anger in opposition to the Trinamool Congress is the Bharatiya Janata Get together-led state governments’ unenviable monitor document in dealing with crime in opposition to ladies, observers stated.
The rally organised by Chhatra Samaj might not have swung public opinion in direction of the get together both. “The August 27 violent clashes helped the state authorities and the Trinamool Congress as they shifted the main focus to how the police have been being attacked,” stated the journalist.
The Chhatra Samaj is but to renew its protests after the discharge of its leaders.
“We are going to proceed to protest,” Ruidas instructed Scroll. “In the intervening time, our foremost focus is on the demand for the resignation of the chief minister however we’ll take up the reason for corruption within the close to future.”