SFI on dharna seeking action against TMC student wing leaders for assaulting its members in Bengal

NEW DELHI: Members of CPIM's student wing SFI on Sunday held a sit-in near the office of the Superintendent of Police (SP) of Cooch Behar in protest against the alleged attack on three of their activists by TMCP local unit during a football tournament in the district. The incident happened on Saturday. Around 200 Students' Federation of India (SFI) activists blocked a portion of the road near the SP's office demanding the arrest of Trinamool Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) district unit leaders who were involved in the alleged attack on the SFI district committee member Jit Kumar Paul and two others.

They were allegedly dragged away from the playground during the match at Dinhata town and beaten up. The police personnel are keeping a watch on the situation and holding discussions with the demonstrators, a police officer said, till the last reports came in. In another development, the FAM (Fearless AITC Members), a social media arm of the Trinamool Congress, posted a message on social media, in Bengali, which meant: "We should never beat up dogs/cats, while not sparing CPI(M) leaders Md Salim and Sujan Chakraborty."

A war of words between the Left parties and the Trinamool Congress has begun over the incident of the disruption attempt of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's lecture at Kellogg College in Oxford, recently. A spokesperson of FAM said, "In the post, we have said leaders like Md Salim and Sujan Chakraborty should not be spared. They should also face protests by our members for plotting the humiliation of the chief minister at Kellogg College, London, and trying to malign our state.

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TMCP leader warns SFI activists

Even animals are better than these people." She said if the SFI members threaten to counter the protests by FAM, TMCP activists and supporters, "they will receive the treatment they deserve". "We will not sit idle," she said. TMC state General Secretary Kunal Ghosh said the language of posts might look a bit intemperate but reflected the anger among the youths against the attempt by SFI to heckle Banerjee at Kellogg College before the world audience. She, however, kept her cool and replied in a dignified way with facts and figures.

SFI state committee leader Srijan Bhattacharya on Saturday said, "If the TMCP dares to physically touch a single SFI member in any part of the state, they will face the music as we will not reciprocate with sweets." CPIM central committee member Sujan Chakraborty said the comments by TMC youth and student activists reflected the party's culture which believed in intimidation, threat, and using unparliamentary words. The Marxists don't attach any importance to such words, he said.