Kolkata : In a major embarrassment to West Bengal’s Left Front,a Commission of Inquiry in its report said that the July 21, 1993 police firing in which 13 Congress workers were killed was “unprovoked, unconstitutional and “worse than the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.”
The Mamata Banerjee government had constituted the one man Commission of Inquiry head by retired Justice Sushanta Chatterjee who has submitted its report to the state government on Monday. The state government set up the Commission of Inquiry soon after the Trinamool Congress came to power in 2011. In her election campaign before the 2011 Assembly elections, Mamata Banerjee had assured public that she would constitute the Commission if her party form the government.
In his report, Justice Chatterjee observed that the Kolkata police was responsible for the incident and there was no necessary to open fire.
The report also said that the police resorted to open fire to please their political bosses. The firing took place at the time of Left Front regime. Jyoti Basu was then Chief Minister of West Bengal and former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was the home minister of the state.
The report of Justice Sushanta Chaterjee has put the Opposition Left Front especially the CPI (M) in an embarrassing situation. Both Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and CPI (M) state secretary Biman Bose had given their witness to the Commission of Inquiry and had justified the police firing. While interrogated by the Commission, Bhattacharjee defended the police firing on Youth Congress supporters at Esplanade area saying that it became necessary to contain the violence unleashed by the crowds whose target was to enter forcibly and occupy the Writers’ Buildings, the administrative headquarters.
