Kolkata journalist beaten, stripped for covering poll violence: How West Bengal govt is imposing 'fascist' clampdown on media

The term ‘fascist terror’, that the Trinamool Congress once used against the CPM to overthrow their government and wash out of the Communist party’s existence in the state of West Bengal, is something they themselves have resorted to, it seems. While at one time, visuals and footage from Nandigram provided by the media gave the then Opposition – led by Mamata Banerjee – a huge advantage to establish their point about ‘a need to change’, today the same party – now in power – wants to make the media impotent. On Monday, the so-called fourth pillar of democracy in Kolkata was faced with the ugly side of the ruling party’s planned and systematic atrocity in the city, once again. A freelance photojournalist, Biplab Mondal, on assignment for The Times of India was allegedly assaulted, stripped and threatened to death. He was covering how TMC cadres were conducting random searches and taking measures to filter Opposition candidates coming in to file nominations at the Alipore Treasury Building. All he did was click a few pictures – precisely the job he was assigned. [caption id=“attachment_4271913” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. PTI[/caption] While briefing Firstpost about the incident, a senior journalist from The Times of India said: “We saw women being brutally kicked and punched by TMC men during the panchayat elections nomination filing in Hooghly. A woman was being dragged by her hair because she wanted to file a nomination. Had it been 10 years ago, such footage would’ve created much hue and cry… unlike the present situation, where people are getting used to such atrocities. It was media who brought up pictures from Nandigram, and it is the same media they want to control.” The state’s law and order machinery has been on edge ever since TMC had allegedly directed its cadre to prevent Opposition candidates from filing their nominations, leading to clashes between members on both sides. Mondal, on reaching the Alipore Treasury Building, found that there were at least 200 TMC cadres spread across, scanning people irrespective of gender, age and stature to make sure not one nomination from the Opposition was filed. They even made sure that no journalist or photojournalist enter the building and take pictures. It was at that point that Mondal’s journalistic mind kicked in and directed him to click a few pictures on his phone before leaving the place. “’Ei ke tui? (who are you), give us your phone,’ they said. In reply, I said I am a photojournalist… why am I supposed to give you my phone? Before I could even understand what had happened, I was kicked in the back, then punched in the face… it kept coming for two-three minutes. I could only hear them saying as they were beating me, ‘how dare you’, ‘you media people have gone far’,” recollected Mondal. His phone was snatched and all the photos on it were deleted. He was then searched thoroughly to see if he has any pictures on his camera. After deleting the phone pictures, they reportedly decided to teach him a lesson and set an example of sorts so that no one else from media ever dares to picture the cadres’ alleged misdeed. He was taken to a nearby slum soon after. [caption id=“attachment_4428841” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] A freelance photojournalist, Biplab Mondal, on assignment for The Times of India was allegedly assaulted, stripped and threatened to death on Monday. Firstpost/Amita Ghose[/caption] “When they grabbed me by my collar to take me to the ‘dera’, I saw a few TMCP cadres whom I have known for a long time (this is also why I can say they were TMC people. They saw me and requested the gang to release me, but in vain). The leader of the gang shut them up and the torture began,” he said. Mondal was released post an hour of torture, only after other photojournalists brought a ‘TMC leader’s nod’ to leave him. Post his release, his medical reports observed that Mondal had sustained a severe back injury, decreased hearing ability and trauma. A report filed by The Telegraph on Thursday said that Mamata had claimed that the allegations were fabricated and said, “I got to know of the march and checked with the police. They told me that nothing of the sort had happened as they checked with the journalists concerned.” During elections or political rallies in the state, journalists and media persons have been beaten up a number of times. But what has shaken the media fraternity in Kolkata this time is the modus operandi – a journalist being stripped, taken away in front of the police. In order to stage a protest against what happened on Monday, the media fraternity of Kolkata gathered near the Press Club and held a silent protest.

Amid protests and criticisms from various sections of the society, Mondal’s assault reminded people of last year’s Nabanna Abhijaan (CPM’s rally to the state secretariat that had taken place last year on 23 May, where at least 50 journalists were severely beaten up by police).

Video footage showed how the media was abused and intimidated by the police. The cameras of some media persons were also smashed. A reporter had said that she had seen how the police were marking journalists and asking the task force to beat them up. A few people even put forth the fact that it was the police’s treatment towards media that, in a way, encouraged such hooliganism. “It could have been a female photojournalist instead of Mondal… what would they be doing then? A tussle with the police or political parties has been part and parcel of the job but it looks like the trend of assaulting the media recklessly came in post-Nabanna Abhijaan,” a senior photojournalist with Hindustan Times said. In another such incident, on 2 January, 2014, several journalists were brutally beaten up by the police in front of Governor MK Narayanan and Mamata at Nabanna. [caption id=“attachment_4428843” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Jounalists protest against the assault on a freelance photojournalist, Biplab Mondal. Firstpost/Amita Ghose[/caption] Every day, at least one case of atrocities on the media surfaces in various districts across the state. The fact that such attacks are becoming so reckless and regular is raising an alarm among the journalists. Pointing out at the police’s mum gesture, an investigative reporter Soma Basu said that it is very natural that the police won’t react as they happen to be the state’s subject. “Political parties use police as their s_arkari_ goons, that is the reason why they don’t want to introduce police reform law here, which says the police stays independent and not a subject of the state.”

If one digs up a little deeper, the fact that the TMC government has always retained a stance of intolerance becomes clear. Such is the extent of the problem that a Jadavpur professor was sent to jail for sharing a caricature of Mamata on his social media account.

It is the government of the same chief minister, who had called the Park Street rape case a staged incident. It is the same chief minister who, in a press conference, had threatened a photojournalist of slapping and throwing out of the room. “Don’t forget, it is the same Mamata who I have seen distributing boxes of sweets to journalists when I was at the Statesman. She has now become West Bengal’s Narendra Modi. Not that I support CPM, but she has spread much filth across by her random assertions on media and journalists. Once, I happened to write about her comment on the characters of the girls from northeast after finding it gross. Since it was a press conference over muri and chai, she did not expect a blasting article on her comment. The immediate effect was a stone pelting incident at my Saltlake house…  a ‘Maa Maati Manush’ bike following my taxi on my way back from office and what not. She and her party was one of the major reasons why I had to relocate,” added Basu, who now works independently and is based out of Siliguri. [caption id=“attachment_4428845” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Post his release, Mondal’s medical reports observed that he had sustained a severe back injury, decreased hearing ability and trauma. Firstpost/Amita Ghose[/caption] Basabdatta Sarkar, a female photojournalist, stated that in her long career in journalism this was the first time when her family had asked her to stop going to work for the time being. “Kolkata was never like this. There have been major attacks in the districts but these hooligans never spread their wings in the city. Now that one incident has happened and the perpetrators are still roaming free, it would be nothing but a ‘go ahead’ for the others to thrash the media left and right” she said. Reporters exposing corruption, nepotism and crime have always risked their lives and media organisations have always conveniently passed such news on to the most left corner of the fourth or fifth page. ‘Incidents have been reported’, they can always boast about it but one would wonder why in a manner so that no one notices. Political outfits trying to create a havoc, a sense of fear in the media are not that scary, what is scarier is how the rest of us are becoming used to it.