New Delhi: The Election Commission ordered the removal of Vivek Sahay, West Bengal director of security, the suspension of Purba Medinipur SP Pravin Prakash while transferring district magistrate Vibhu Goel for poor police bandobast last week when CM Mamata Banerjee received injuries during campaigning in Nandigram. The EC acted on reports of the incident received from the West Bengal chief secretary and its own special poll observers that pointed to non-adherence of laid-down security protocols for Mamata, a ‘Z-plus protectee’.
The EC has asked charges to be framed against Prakash for “major failure of bandobast” and has also taken note that there were no significant pointers to suggest a premeditated or planned attack on the CM. Its special observers Ajay V Nayak and Vivek Dube cited the Nandigram returning officer’s inputs that made no mention of any atrocious view of Sahay “grossly failing in discharge of his primary duty to protect” the CM. In fact, Sahay was found sitting in the bulletproof vehicle for the CM in the convoy when she sustained her injury. The EC reports said as an investigation was ongoing, it would be premature to come to any further conclusions regarding the incident.
Mamata hits road
Meanwhile, Mamata, her plastered left foot supported by the raised footrest of a wheelchair, resumed her poll campaign on Sunday with a 5.4km Trinamool Congress procession through the heart of south Kolkata and a new war cry: "Always remember, a wounded tiger is more dangerous."
The CM, who had injured her foot while campaigning in Nandigram, later told a gathering at the Hazra crossing, "I am in a lot of pain. But the responsibility of protecting democracy is far more important. The sight of democracy being trampled on is unbearable. I will move around the whole of Bengal with my injured leg, sitting in a wheelchair. Khela hobe (the game is on)."
Mamata urged the supporters gathered there, the majority of whom were young party functionaries and college students, to maintain peace and show restraint. "The Hazra crossing is a place of historic significance for me," she said. "This is the place where I suffered a life-threatening attack (in August 1990, during a Congress called strike). This is also the place that gave me my life back."
"I have faced a number of attacks throughout my life, but I never bowed my head. In the last few days, whenever someone would ask me if I was in pain, my response was: 'Who will reach out to the people of Bengal if I take bed rest?' That would have meant success for the conspirators." Mamata said her doctors had advised her 15 days’ bed rest, but she chose to get back to the job at hand in a wheelchair. "The doctors have plastered my leg and I need to see them again after seven days. A team of doctors will stay with me."
Mamata said she was injured “after being pushed against her car” in Nandigram, hours after she filed nomination papers to contest the assembly election from this East Midnapore constituency. After filing the papers at the Haldia sub-divisional office headquarters she visited the Ranichak Giribazar temple in Birulia, after which she walked to her car. It was then that “a few unknown persons pushed the CM against her car and then slammed the door on her foot”, Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray said.
