Politics Of Protest, TMC MPs Detained By Delhi Police

Dramatic scenes were witnessed in the national capital on Tuesday showing

Delhi Police personnel forcibly evicting and subsequently detaining Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders during their protest asking that pending MGNREGA funds be released.

The leaders had sat on a dharna inside Krishi Bhavan in New Delhi, where they had gone to the Rural Development Ministry at the Krishi Bhawan on Tuesday to meet Minister of State Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, after seeking an appointment, stated multiple media reports.

However, things took a dramatic turn when the leaders were not able to meet the minister and then sat on protest in the premises. They were later evicted and subsequently detained for hours. According to a report in The Hindustan Times, the “protest continued till 9pm, after which they were detained by the police and evicted from the ministry premises”. The TMC leaders were taken to Utsav Sadan in Delhi's Mukherjee Nagar. “Over two dozen TMC supporters detained, including Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O’Brien”, the HT quoted a senior police officer.

Those detained included TMC general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, MP Mahua Moitra, Derek O'Brien, Dola Sen and others, stated news reports. A of the physical eviction of Mahua Moitra, went viral on the intervening night of Tuesday-Wednesday. They were reportedly released late at night.

West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, founder Chairperson All India Trinamool Congress took to X to say “The Delhi Police, acting as the BJP's strong-arm, shamelessly manhandled our representatives who were forcibly removed and whisked away in police vans like common criminals, all because they dared to speak truth to power. Their arrogance knows no bounds and their pride and egotism have blinded them. They have now crossed all limits to repress the voice of Bengal!”

The TMC leaders were protesting inside Krishi Bhavan demanding NREGA funds for West Bengal. This came a day after the TMC staged a protest at Mahatma Gandhi’s samadhi Rajghat for MGNREGA funds.

Led by Abhishek Banerjee, TMC MP and General Secretary, hundreds of workers

gathered at Jantar Mantar on Tuesday to continue the agitation and

demand the release of MGNREGA funds for West Bengal and also the funds

for other schemes.

After his release from police detention Abhishek Banerjee posted on social media that “Bengal will not bow down before the zamindars!”

Abhishek Banerjee told the media that the party, "Will carry out a campaign 'Raj Bhavan Abhiyan' against manhandling done by Police, on October 5 at 3 pm with 1 lakh people at Raj Bhavan. Will also meet the Governor and hand over the 50 lakh letters to him".

He reportedly added that “around 5,000 to 10,000 police personnel, RAF and

other forces” were sent “to stop 50 leaders of the TMC” at Rajghat and another massive security contingent was there the next day, “the number

of security personnel here makes it appear as if India-China war is

going on here," Banerjee was quoted by ANI’s social media handle.

The TMC leader accused the central government of trying to threaten

the protesters and said despite all its efforts, the Centre could not

stop the TMC.

Speaking to The Citizen, a party member said that the MGNREGA fund has

been withheld for a long-time impacting thousands of workers, “the

issue has been going on for a long time but we had to come to Delhi to

grab the Central government’s attention.

The MNREGA is a social security and employment scheme aimed at

providing at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a fiscal

year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do

unskilled manual work. It comes under the Ministry of Rural

Development was implemented in 2006.

According to the ministry, pending liabilities for the material

component under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS for states and UT in the

financial year between 2021 and 2023 was Rs 2,685 crores and for the

'wage component' under Mahatma Gandhi NREGS for 2021 and 2023 was a

total of Rs 2,748.

The TMC had called for the two-day 'Dilli Cholo: A fight for our

rights!' protest in the national capital. The ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has accused the BJP-led NDA government of withholding Rs 15,000 crore in dues to the state

under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act

(MGNREGA) and PM Awas Yojana.

Lok Sabha MP from Krishnanagar Mahua Moitra alleged the Centre is

collecting taxes from West Bengal, but not giving the state's dues. "We have not come here to beg but for our rights... Mamata Banerjee is fighting not only for Bengal, but for the people of the entire country," Moitra said.

Demanding the release of funds by the Centre, West Bengal Minister of Rural Development Pradip Mazumdar said Rural Development Minister Giriraj Singh, in a meeting with him on November 7, 2022, had assured that the funds would be released.

Meanwhile, the BJP will be holding protests across various areas in Bengal, alleging the presence of fraudulent job cards and calling for a CBI investigation into MGNREGA.

The BJP, however, called the protest a “drama” by the Trinamool government and said that Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee has sent a corrupt MP to hold protests in Delhi to divert attention from scams committed in her state.

Union Minister Anurag Thakur claimed there was no shortage of funds for implementation of centrally sponsored schemes in West Bengal but they were stopped after central teams flagged some irregularities in the implementation of rural job scheme MGNREGA and PM Awas Yojana and the state government did not take any action against those found involved despite several reminders.

“There have been scams after scams in West Bengal under Mamata Banerjee government like the Narada scam, Saradha scam, Rose Valley scam, coal scam, etc. In 2019, the chief minister had herself sat on a dharna to create hindrance in the probe,” he told the media on Tuesday.

On Tuesday TMC members waited to meet Union Minister of State for

Rural Development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti till evening but the meeting did not take place.

“We had an appointment at 6:00 PM to meet Jyoti, and we have been waiting for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Now we are being told that only five people will be allowed to meet her. TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee said that we will not meet if all of us are not allowed to meet her together. We have 8 victims with us,” TMC MP Santanu Sen told the

media amidst the protest.

After this, a 40-member TMC delegation decided to stay put at the waiting area outside the office of Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti. The Minister also took to X to share a video of her empty office and claimed that she “left the office at 08:30 while waiting for the Trinamool MPs.” She claimed that the TMC leaders were trying to make her meet party workers by “calling them public” and “that was against official protocol”

However, Mohua Moitra dismissed those claims.