Cartoon row: Four arrested for assaulting professor

Four people were arrested on Saturday after an assault complaint by a Jadavpur University professor, who had forwarded a cartoon on the internet allegedly showing West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in poor light.

According to the police, the arrests were made after Ambikesh Mohapatra lodged a complaint of assault against a group of 15 people on Thursday night. The four arrested were identified as Amit Sardar, Arup Mukherjee, S K Mustafa and Nishikanta Ghorai.

Two of them are alleged to be Trinamool Congress workers. All the four were given bail on personal security bonds of Rs 500 each by the Alipore court where they were produced.

Mohapatra and his neighbour Subrata Sengupta were arrested yesterday for forwarding a cartoon on a social-networking site, featuring Banerjee with railway minister Mukul Roy and his predecessor Dinesh Trivedi.

Banerjee, in a speech yesterday, said those conspiring against her or making fun of her were comparable to the Devil and the law was entitled to teach them a lesson.

“Cartoons have been part of satire on politicians since time immemorial. Even personalities like Pandit Nehru were the subjects of some great cartoon work. Mamata should not have reacted to such a small incident, but then that is becoming her style,” said a Kolkata-based industrialist.

Supporters turn critics
The incident has driven a wedge between the Mamata camp and intellectuals; the latter formed the greatest support base when she rode the “poriborton” wave to victory.

The names that had adorned her support list till last year included singer Kabir Suman, educationist Sunando Sanyal, professor Abhirup Sarkar, painter Suvaprassana, writer Mahaswheta Devi and theatre personalities Bratya Basu, Arpita Ghosh and Shaoli Mitra. Of these, Sanyal, Suman and Mahasweta Devi have become her staunch critics.

Sanyal openly criticised the arrest of the professor. “How can you arrest someone on such a flimsy ground? This is not the first instance. A lot of government decisions and comments made by the chief minister have let us down. The government is vindictive and does not seem to have patience,” he said.

Sanyal was earlier made chairman of the education committees of the new government; he resigned last November.

Kabir Suman who fought the 2008 Lok Sabha elections on a Trinamool Congress ticket has been rallying against Banerjee on the streets of Kolkata.

Even Sarkar, who is the current chairman of West Bengal Infrastructure Development Finance Corporation and vice-chairman of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, called the move unfortunate.

While the incident has now brought the hostility between intellectuals and Banerjee to the fore, tensions have been simmering for a while.