Trinamool’s annual show of might rooted in Congress’s tragic loss

Every year, the All India Trinamool Congress observes Martyrs’ Day on July 21. Except for the two pandemic years, the day was marked with a massive political gala in Kolkata every year by the party that is in power for the third consecutive time since 2011.

As it is July 21 again, there would be no school for children. Traders, businessmen, office-goers—all have rescheduled their tasks based on the activity at the Esplanade junction in the heart of Kolkata, which would be the epicentre of the biggest annual political activity of the region today.

Thousands of Trinamool supporters have congregated in Kolkata to throng the venue of the Martyrs’ Day celebration at the Esplanade and nearby streets. Party workers and supporters are in the city to hear party supremo Mamata Banerjee, to watch and cheer for celeb-politicians, and to raise slogans in unison against ‘divisive’ forces. For the Trinamool Congress, the Left is no longer a danger, but the Bharatiya Janata Party.

However, all this celebration—Trinamool Congress’s ostentatious and prestigious political event—is steeped in a tragedy that struck the Indian National Congress in 1993, when Trinamool Congress was not even in existence.

Trinamool adopted this day because of Mamata Banerjee, who was once a Congress party worker and headed the agitation that led to the death of 13 Youth Congress supporters.

For the generation that doesn’t have a political understanding beyond the last decade, it could be a bit confusing to realise that those killed were from the Congress party—which has now lost the ownership of a serious event in their political existence in the state.

On this day, almost three decades ago, 13 Youth Congress workers died in police firing during a protest against the then Left government in the state for alleged electoral fraud.

Amitabha Chakraborti, who was president of West Bengal Youth Congress for ten years, recalled the incident: “We had gathered at five points. Then, I was a student worker. I remember Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi (veteran Congress leader) was active on the ground. He was monitoring all five points. There were four to five workers with him. I saw a teargas shell landing right next to him. Of course, it was Mamata Banerjee who led the protest, but Dasmunsi’s contribution has been ignored. He communicated with the supporters at all five points.”

According to Chakraborti, many of the leaders in today’s state Congress, or even in Trinamool, do not have any link with that tragic protest. He said that during his tenure as the Youth Congress president, the day was routinely observed with due dignity. What is unpleasant to him is that such a serious matter has turned into a festive occasion with musical celebration. “Congress shouldn’t have dropped the issue so completely,” he said.

Unlike many of his party colleagues from the state who moved to Trinamool when it was formed, Rana Ray Chaudhury stayed with the Congress party, with which he has been associated from 1971. Today Chaudhury is 77, and heads the north Kolkata district Congress committee as president.

“We all followed Subrata Mukherjee. Banerjee was initially into student politics in Jogamaya Devi College. I remember the protest march towards Writers’ Buildings—the seat of power in those days—was decided in Subrata’s presence. At that point she (Banerjee) was the state president of the youth Congress,” Chaudhury said.