On Camera, Protesters Confront Mamata Banerjee At Oxford Event, Question Her On RG Kar, Singur

Mamata Banerjee was on Thursday heckled by a group of protesting students who interrupted her speech at the Kellogg College, Oxford University in London.

Banerjee, who leads the Trinamool Congress, was speaking on ‘Social Development – Girl, Child and Women Empowerment in West Bengal’. The event turned into chaos after students confronted the West Bengal Chief Minister on the August 2024 RG Kar rape case, her take on Hindus, Tata’s pullout from Bengal, and more.

(On October 3, 2008, under the pressure of relentless protests, Ratan Tata announced the decision to pull out from the plan to set up a car factory at Singur in West Bengal’s Hooghly.) In response to the agitation, Mamata said, “That is wrong. They have already started Tata Cognizant. I am not lying, my brother please listen, please see that Tata set up their industry in Kharagpur last year, if you ask me, nobody is left out.”

As the students questioned her on the RG Kar rape case, the Chief Minister retorted, “Speak a little louder, I cannot hear you. I will listen to everything you have to say. Do you know that this case is pending? The responsibility of investigating this case is now in the hands of the Central government, the case is no longer in our hands.”

“Don’t do politics here, this is not a platform for politics. That you can do with me in my state, not here” she further said.

Later, the protesters also raised the issue of the Jadavpur University incident, to which Banerjee addressed to them as ‘brother’ and said, “Don’t lie. I have sympathy for you. But instead of making this a platform for politics, go to Bengal and tell your party to strengthen itself so that they can fight with us.”

The Chief Minister also told them, “Don’t disrespect your institution by insulting me. I have come here as a representative of the country. Don’t insult your country.” Later, she told the protesters, “Tell your party to increase its strength in our state (West Bengal) so that they can fight with us.”

She also asked the university administration to set up an institute in Kolkata and claimed she would “give land within a day” for the same. As the chaos continued, she pulled up an old image of herself from the early 1990s, showing her with a bandaged head, claiming it as proof of an attempt to kill her during her time in the opposition.

“If I die, before my death, I want to see unity. Unity is our strength and divide is our fall. It is Swami Vivekananda’s faith. To keep unity is a very difficult thing and to divide the people, it takes only a moment. Do you think the world can sustain with such [divisive] ideology?,” Banerjee said at the event.

“When I am in the Chair, I cannot divide the society. I have to look after the weaker section and poor people. We have to work hard for them. At the same time, we have to work for all religions, castes and creeds together. We have to go ahead with them and help them,” she added.

Former Indian cricket team captain Sourav Ganguly was also present among the audience at the time of the incident. The drama unfolded when an audience member asked her about ‘specific investment proposals’ worth “lakhs of crores” that she claimed the state had received while the Chief Minister was speaking about West Bengal’s development and investment opportunities.

As she tried to respond, another member of the audience intervened. The Chief Minister urged the audience to stop as it was not a press conference. In an X post after the event, the All India Trinamool Congress wrote, “We raise the people’s voice, not suppress it.”

STUDENTS’ FEDERATION SAYS ‘QUESTIONED MAMATA BANERJEE’
Later, the Students’ Federation of India – United Kingdom said they openly confronted Mamata Banerjee and asked her to provide evidence of the development she claims to have pioneered in West Bengal. According to the Federation, the police were called in to control the situation.

Speaking further, the Federation said, “We questioned her on victim-blaming and lethargy against the RG Kar incident. When Mamata Banerjee claimed to support the students and democratic rights in West Bengal, we asked her why the students have not been able to hold university elections in the last six years.”

“We asked why students at Jadavpur University are being tormented and attacked for demanding their rights to student democracy. When Banerjee claimed to have advanced women’s empowerment in the state, we asked why the female school dropout rate increased by 19 per cent in the last year and why the state has one of the highest incidences of child marriage,” it said.

“We questioned Kellogg College on its justifications for platforming a rape apologist, who has consistently put profits before people. The President of Kellogg College claimed to be leading a revolutionary institution. We asked whether it is revolutionary to endorse an anti-democratic leader who has orchestrated violence against local communities defending their lands against corporatisation,” the Federation said.

BJP SHARES VIDEOS
Later, the Bharatiya Janata Party’s IT cell chief Amit Malviya shared videos of the protest during Mamata Banerjee’s address. He also shared the Bengal Chief Minister’s conversation and wrote, “Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has a problem with India becoming the world’s largest economy… This is truly shameful. She is a disgrace to the constitutional office she holds. Who behaves like this on foreign soil?”

In another post, Malviya also shared photos of the posters shown to Mamata Banerjee during her address. “Just a few posters that were held up to Mamata Banerjee… She is a disgrace to West Bengal. The Hindu Bengali diaspora wants her out as the Chief Minister for destroying Bengal’s legacy and putting them through such ignominy,” Malviya wrote.

The West Bengal Chief Minister is on an official visit to the United Kingdom. She had arrived in London on March 23 and had attended a high tea reception at India House, hosted by Vikram K Doraiswami, the High Commissioner of India to the United Kingdom.

On March 25, she met some industrialists to seek investments for West Bengal’s development.

She is expected to return to India between March 28 and 29.

This marks her second visit to London, the first being a business engagement in November 2017.