Mamata's 'hiss' advice spurs TMC leaders to bare fangs

Amid the ongoing protests that have rocked West Bengal following the rape and murder of a 31-year-old junior doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9, revelations of the Trinamool Congress government's laxity, if not direct involvement of its party cadres in various wrong-doings in the health sector, the alleged police cover-up of the murder have all contributed to the impression that the Trinamool Congress government and party under Mamata Banerjee have a lot to hide and give answers for.

- SUPROTIM MUKHERJEE

The sustained public protests across the state and their demand for "Justice for RG Kar" have also triggered similar protests in other states as well as in foreign countries by the Indian diaspora.

In a bid to talk up the spirits of her party members, Trinamool supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee chose the platform of her party's student wing on August 28. However, she ended up causing more damage with her intemperate remarks.

Advising junior doctors who are on strike across the state to rejoin work, Mamata Banerjee said: "Junior doctors' future will be ruined if FIR (First Information Report) is filed-they will not get any chance, they will not get a passport, visa. But I do not want to ruin their lives."

This was construed as a threat by a section of doctors who vowed to continue with suspension of work, and protests.

Targeting those who are blaming her party for the ills of the state, Mamata Banerjee also said that she felt it was time her earlier slogan, "Badla noi, badal chai (I want change, not revenge)" be abandoned.

"I never wanted revenge. But now I say, you will understand well what needs to be done. I don't want trouble. Today, you will understand what needs to be done. But the ugly, slanderous one that bites you every day, you don't bite him but you can hiss," she added, much to the delight of her party's members who are feeling the heat in their areas. "You need not bite anybody, but at least you can hiss," she said, referring to a parable attributed to Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa.

As per the parable, the monk advised a snake "not to bite anybody but surely hiss when attacked," meaning that "while not harming is the principle, protesting against injustice is right."