JOIN USIt was 18 years ago she was forcefully evicted by police from the Buildings while on a dharna with a rape victim before the chamber of the erstwhile chief minister Jyoti Basu.
Humiliation
Then a Union minister of state and a Congress leader, Banerjee felt so humiliated after the incident that she vowed not to enter this edifice again by compromising her dignity and honour.
Friday’s entry as the chief minister of West Bengal must have been quite pleasant and satisfying for her as she not only could retain her pledge, but also succeeded in presenting herself in a new avatar.
What had brought Mamata on her feet 18 years ago was the fact that despite being a Union minister and having prior appointment with Jyoti Basu, the latter left the secretariat through a different gate without meeting her.
“I do not know what procedure was followed. She refused to take bail. In such cases a person is produced in court the next day,” the then deputy commissioner of police Abani Mohan Joardar, now a TMC MLA, said.
“Mamata Banerjee was initially reluctant to leave the lockup. She did so after I spoke to her. When she was being escorted out of police headquarters, Youth Congress supporters started brickbatting the police. Mamata personally intervened and stopped them. She was later driven home by the police. On the way, she spent some time alone at the Gandhi statue on Mayo Road crossing,” Joarder said.