'I Won't Be Afraid': TMC MP's Social Media Barrage Over Kolkata Rape-Murder Draws Party Ire, Mamata Govt Scrutiny

The year was 2022 when a Bengali ‘bhadrolok’, who happens to be an authority on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, saw his stature rising rapidly in Trinamool Congress.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee decided to meet party MPs informally in Delhi and the venue turned out to be the official residence of the TMC’s Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Roy. A year before, he was made the party’s in-charge for Haryana when the TMC decided to go pan-India. The upward trajectory continued the next year when Roy was appointed the editor of TMC’s mouthpiece Jago Bangla after the party sacked Partha Chatterjee — its state minister arrested in a job scam.

Cut to 2024, the TMC MP appears to be more in sync with protesters than with his own party over the RG Kar Hospital rape and murder case of a junior doctor that has rocked India.

When the TMC leadership was still scrambling to present the party’s stand, Roy decided to sit on a dharna over the gruesome incident and called it ‘satyagraha’. During the dharna, in an interview with a news channel, he stated in no uncertain words that he believed the Kolkata Police investigation wasn’t proper.

It was soon followed by a unilateral letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah, proposing a “stringent law” in the Winter Session of Parliament to prevent atrocities against women in places like “hospitals, nursing homes, educational institutions, asylums, shopping malls, public transport, trains, and govt-semi govt-private workplaces and other establishments” with suggestions like deploying armed women guards or “minimum of 3 fast track courts” in every district which shall complete the hearing in six months. This letter was sent on his official letterhead but in a personal capacity.

Then came the bombshell in the form of a tweet that made a rare demand — “custodial interrogation” of not just the former principal of RG Kar Hospital but also the police commissioner, calling it a “must to know who and why floated the suicide story”. He also asked CBI to find out “who patronised Roy to be so powerful” and “Why sniffer dog were used after 3 days”.

Soon, Kolkata Police issued a notice to Roy, asking him to be present. Police called the information of sending a sniffer dog after three days false, arguing that the canines were sent twice earlier — once on the 9th and later on the 12th. Coincidentally, this alleged fake news was part of the same tweet that asked CBI to take the Kolkata police commissioner into custody.

On Sunday evening, around 10pm, Roy posted yet another tweet — this time a YouTube link to a Bengali Rabindra Sangeet. The song titled “Ami boy korbo na” — which roughly translates into “I won’t be afraid” — is seen to be a deliberate message by the TMC MP to both Kolkata Police and his own party.

However, sensing impending trouble, Roy knocked on the doors of the Calcutta High Court on Monday for anticipatory bail. His lawyer, while speaking to the media, termed the notice to Roy a case of “police excesses”.

With each social media post, the 75-year-old seems to be garnering more online support. In Kolkata’s soccer culture, a football match between Mohun Bagan and East Bengal is nothing less than India and Pakistan playing cricket. But Sunday’s match was cancelled after the Bidhannagar police commissioner said they were apprehending attempts by some elements and organisations to create trouble at the Salt Lake stadium. In a rare moment, the two warring sides came together for a spontaneous protest during which many were detained. Roy “appealed” to “protest unitedly” against what he called “arbitrary arrests”.

On an average, Roy’s social media posts on X had very limited views and impressions, mostly within 1,000, till a week ago. But his post announcing a dharna garnered 1,44,000 impressions, while his tweet advocating custodial interrogation of the Kolkata Police commissioner garnered 1,12,000 impressions within hours. His post with the appeal to football lovers to “protest unitedly” garnered 43,000 impressions in three hours.

As you enter Roy’s Mahadev Road residence, a giant photo of Mamata Banerjee from her younger days greets you. Roy has always preferred to conduct television interviews with this photo in the background. Even when he would hold press conferences at his residence, Roy would keep a photo of the West Bengal chief minister on the table. The last couple of weeks, however, seem to have changed many things.