Ground Report From Nandigram: Where Mamata Banerjee’s Claim Of Being Attacked Has Few Takers

Virtually no one in this ‘ground zero’ of Bengal polls 2021 believes Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee’s claim that she sustained an injury on her left foot because she was attacked by a group of four to five men.

Instead, this claim draws widespread disbelief and a large measure of disdain. Even Trinamool functionaries admit that the ‘attack’ claim has become indefensible and it is better to move on.

But that hasn’t stopped Trinamool seniors from repeating their supremo’s allegations. And that’s perhaps why they have been trying to ensure that eyewitnesses to the accident toe the ‘attack’ line or, at least, keep silent.

An eerie silence prevails at Birulia Bazar where the accident occurred on Wednesday (10 March) evening.

No one is willing to talk about that evening and it takes a lot of cajoling to make people open up. There is a palpable fear of strangers and it is evident that a stern warning may have been delivered to all shopkeepers, vendors and others to remain silent.

The reason for the diktat: to prevent eyewitnesses from puncturing holes in Trinamool's narrative that a group of men ‘attacked’ the party chief.

Shopkeepers and others who witnessed Banerjee’s cavalcade rolling down the crowded Gholpukur Bazar-Talla Road on Wednesday evening say that there was no question of anyone attacking the chief minister given the fact that she was surrounded by her security guards and the presence of many ardent Trinamool supporters waving party flags.

Piecing together eyewitness accounts, this is the sequence of events that emerges:

-Mamata Banerjee stepped out of a temple at Birulia in the heart of Nandigram on Wednesday evening and walked to her SUV.

-On getting to know about Banerjee’s visit to the temple, a large crowd of Trinamool supporters gathered outside the temple and on the roads leading from the temple to the crowded Birulia bazar.

-Seeing the enthusiastic crowds who were chanting ‘Didi, Didi’, Banerjee got on the footrest of the SUV and stood there with folded hands and waved at them even as the SUV started moving slowly.

-Personnel of Banerjee’s inner security ring, who are always clad in dark safari suits, had formed a cordon around the SUV and one of them was holding the door of the SUV half-ajar and also supporting Banerjee, who was precariously perched on the footrest.

-The jostling crowds, in their enthusiasm to get close to ‘Didi’, surged forward and that is when the door of the SUV got pushed.

-It is not clear if the door of the SUV got shut--thus hitting Banerjee on her left ankle and her shoulders--by the jostling crowds or the security person who was holding the door half-ajar and supporting Mamata Banerjee pushed it shut inadvertently.

-Mamata Banerjee shrieked out in pain and immediately got inside the vehicle, sat in the front passenger seat and clutched her left leg.

-It was apparent that she was in pain. A commotion broke out and some people got bottles of cold water as well as ice cubes from a restaurant very near to where the accident occured to apply on her injured leg.

-Mamata spent a few minutes inside the SUV allowing people to put ice and cold water on her injured ankle.

-Local policemen, including the officer-in-charge of Nandigram police station who was present on the spot, pushed back the crowds to make space for the convoy to move away.

-The convoy drove off from Birulia bazar.

-In the few minutes that Banerjee was at Birulia Bazar, from the time she hurt herself to the time her SUV drove off, she (Mamata) never once alleged that she has been ‘attacked’ or ‘pushed’.

-Eyewitnesses said she seemed to realise that her injury was purely by accident and she herself was at fault for standing on the footrest of the vehicle.

After driving off from Birulia Bazar, the convoy traveled for about fifteen minutes and stopped at a spot where television camera crews had gathered.

The first visuals aired on news channels on Wednesday evening show Mamata Banerjee’s SUV stationary at a spot where there are no crowds and she is holding her head with a towel.

She then alleges that four to five men had attacked her, pushed her against her car and injured her. She said she had sustained injuries in her left leg, chest and shoulder.

Mamata Banerjee had also said that she was feeling feverish and was having difficulty in breathing. Medical experts say that the sort of mild injuries she sustained definitely do not induce fever or breathlessness.

Now the moot question is: what could have led the Trinamool chief to spring the allegations of being attacked?

Had Mamata Banerjee been really attacked as she claimed she was, it would have triggered a flurry of activities by her security guards as per the standard operating procedure.

“Had she been actually attacked, the personnel manning her inner security perimeter would have instantly noticed that since they are highly trained people. And then, as per the SOP, she would have been asked to get into her vehicle immediately and whisked off from the spot. Her security people would never have allowed others to get cold water and ice to apply on her leg and spent a few minutes at that spot if they would have sensed she had been attacked,” said a senior police officer who had been in charge of former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s security for a couple of years.

It would have been impossible for a group of four to five men to infiltrate the inner security ring and attack the chief minister, and then get away undetected, said the former police officer who retired at the rank of Inspector General of Police.

“Given the large crowd of Trinamool supporters present, no one who would have pushed the CM would have been able to get away undetected. Had she been attacked, she would have shouted and that would have attracted everyone’s attention. And the attackers would have been nabbed instantly,” he added.

During those intervening fifteen-odd minutes when the convoy left Birulia Bazar and till the time it stopped at the deserted spot for no apparent reason save for providing sensational bytes to TV camera crews, the Trinamool chief’s advisers must have decided to leverage the accident and give it a spin to garner public sympathy for Mamata Banerjee.

A vehicle with an injured person will head straight to a hospital or clinic and not stop midway to allow the injured person speak to media persons.

According to a former Trinamool leader who was once close to Mamata Banerjee but left the party after a bitter fallout with her, the probable chain of events after the chief minister’s convoy left Birulia Bazar could have been like this:

-Mamata Banerjee would have immediately called her senior colleagues and her hired strategist Prashant Kishor to inform them about the accident.

-Someone--most probably Prashant Kishor--would have advised her to spin the accident as an attack in order to gain public sympathy.

-The Trinamool’s media management cell, which controls the media in Bengal, reached out to TV camera crews present in Nandigram and asked them to converge at the spot where Mamata Banerjee’s convoy halted

-Plans were also made to bring Mamata Banerjee to Kolkata and get her admitted to the super-speciality government-run SSKM Hospital (and not any private healthcare facility where VVIPs always head to) in order to create an impression about the gravity of her injuries (Fact is, she suffered only abrasions and mild injury on her left ankle and not even suffer a hairline fracture; such an injury could have been treated even at a small clinic).

For the people of Nandigram, the allegations of an ‘attack’ levelled by Mamata Banerjee evoke only derision.

Many eyewitnesses Swarajya spoke to wondered why Mamata Banerjee failed to shout out for help if she realised she was being attacked by a group of men.

“If a person realises she is being attacked, she will shout and scream and ask for help. Mamata Banerjee did nothing of that sort and simply got inside her vehicle, sat down and clutched her leg in pain. She did not say anything about the attack when people were applying ice. We were very close to her and we did not hear her saying anything about an attack to her security personnel. The attack allegation came much later,” said a shop owner who was a witness.

The glaring discrepancies in the Trinamool chief’s version of the accident (terming it as an attack) and the events that unfolded in Kolkata have added to people’s disbelief.

Visuals showing Mamata Banerjee lying on a bed with a badly-plastered left leg, and that plaster transforming into a neatly tied crepe bandage the next day, are being shared widely by the people of Nandigram.

“This is a pathetic drama. Even a paramedic at a primary healthcare centre in Nandigram will do a much better job at plastering a leg. Look at the way it has been plastered so haphazardly and the leg is at an uncomfortable angle,” pointed out a physician attached to a private polyclinic in Nandigram.

“I’m sure an amateur, and not a doctor or nurse at SSKM Hospital, plastered her leg. The mild injuries she sustained did not necessitate a cast. Only in cases of severe sprain or a fracture is a limb immobilised by putting it in a cast,” he added.

This physician, like many others who Swarajya spoke to, requested anonymity.

He also pointed out that plaster casts made out of plaster of paris have been discarded many years ago. “For many years now, synthetic casts that are lighter and much more convenient are used. But making a synthetic cast requires a little bit of practice and expertise,” he said.

That perhaps explains why Mamata Banerjee’s left leg was put in a plaster or paris cast. Most probably the doctors and paramedics at SSKM Hospital refused to put her leg in a cast since it was not necessary at all.

Someone else--a hospital ward boy or worker or even some Trinamool functionary--must have been called in then to fetch plaster of paris and make a cast. That explains the completely unprofessional manner in which the cast was made.

“No orthopedist or paramedic will ever make such a horrendous cast. It was a completely unprofessional job and the cast actually forced her feet at a certain angle which would be extremely uncomfortable for the patient and accentuate her pain and injury,” said a senior orthopedic surgeon attached with the state-run NRS Hospital in Kolkata.

The surgeon said Mamata Banerjee’s left foot was cast in a ‘plantar flexion’ position--that is, the top of the foot pointing away from the leg. “It is criminal to put a patient’s foot in a cast in such a position. It can cause further injury and cause immense distress to the patient. No trained person will ever commit this cardinal mistake,” he added.

All this has not been lost on the people of Nandigram. They have also noted that in a short video recording from her hospital bed that was released on Thursday, Mamata Banerjee did not repeat the ‘attack’ allegation and made no mention of the group of people who she alleged had assaulted her.

“She should not have made such false allegations. No one here believes she had been attacked. People are angry and disgusted with her for making such a false allegation. She will be punished for this on the day of polling,” warned the owner of a shop selling garments at Birulia Bazar.

This man, incidentally, was an undecided voter till Wednesday evening. “I saw what happened and while the accident was unfortunate, I was stunned when I saw her (Mamata Banerjee) making those allegations on TV. It was then that I decided I would not vote for her. I have told all my friends and relatives and everyone agrees that such a person cannot be supported at all,” said this 48-year-old man who is well-known and respected in the local community.

A lot many others Swarajya spoke to in Nandigram echoed these sentiments. Many also said that a candidate resorts to falsehoods when he (or she) is not confident of winning.

“Mamata Banerjee knows she will lose, and that is why she created this drama. But in the process, she has insulted the people of Nandigram and they will teach her a lesson,” said a close aide of Nandigram’s BJP candidate Suvendu Adhikari.

With her false claims having been punctured, and with even the Election Commission ruling out her version, Mamata Banerjee appears to have painted herself into a corner. This episode has only eroded her credibility, especially in Nandigram.

Also read—Explained: Why Mamata Banerjee’s claims of being ‘attacked’ seem hard to believe, and why it could be a move to put EC on the defensive