A war of words has broken out in West Bengal over Shahid Diwas, with Dilip Ghosh launching a pointed attack on Mamata Banerjee. He said the site was not merely a protest ground but a platform dedicated to the martyrs, and asked why Mamata Banerjee had stayed there through the night. According to him, whether she sits there by night or by day makes no difference, because she has broken the trust of the martyrs, their families and the public, which is why she now stands alone.
Ghosh did not stop there. He brought up the families of those killed in the police firing of 21 July 1993, saying they have still not received the full compensation they were owed.
Serious allegations over compensation
Ghosh claimed that a court had directed that the martyrs' families be paid Rs 25 lakh in compensation, but the administration handed over only Rs 2 lakh to them. He alleged that officials pocketed the remaining amount for themselves, calling it an outright betrayal of the martyrs' families, and said this is precisely the fear that continues to haunt Mamata Banerjee even today.
Those responsible handed political posts instead of punishment
In another sharp charge, Ghosh said that instead of facing action for the 1993 firing, those involved were rewarded with positions as ministers, MPs and MLAs. In other words, people who should have faced accountability instead climbed the corridors of power.
The bloody evening of 1993 that gave rise to Shahid Diwas
West Bengal observes 21 July every year as Shahid Diwas. The day commemorates a police firing on a protest march in 1993, during the Left Front government's tenure, in which 13 Youth Congress workers were killed. That date has since become an emotionally charged occasion in Bengal's politics, with different parties marking it in their own ways each year.
This year's event returns to the actual site
TMC MLA Sandipan Saha said on Monday that his party has organised this event for years, but what is different this time is that the programme is being held on the very main road where the 1993 incident took place. Many see this as symbolically significant, since holding the event at the actual site brings back memories of that period more directly.
Congress seeks its own tribute programme
Before this row broke out, West Bengal Congress president Shubhankar Sarkar had said the party received formal permission to hold its own tribute programme at Shahid Minar. He made clear that Congress would organise its own memorial event, since the workers who lost their lives were carrying the Congress flag at the time. Sarkar also asked why Mamata Banerjee does not mark the occasion under that very flag, for which those workers had given their lives. The entire episode has emerged amid rising political friction within the TMC, and it could well escalate further in the days ahead.
