On Sunday (11th February), the Trinamool Congress (TMC) party announced that ‘journalist’ Sagarika Ghose has been given a ticket for the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections in West Bengal.
In recent years, Sagarika Ghose had helped further the narrative of Trinamool Congress through her embedded journalism. Interestingly, the same Mamata Banerjee who approved her Rajya Sabha candidature had walked out of her interview 12 years ago.
The year was 2012. It had only been a year since the Trinamool Congress supremo took charge as the Chief Minister of West Bengal, which until then was ruled by the Left for 34 years.
Mamata Banerjee was invited to an interactive programme organised by CNN-IBN. ‘Journalist’ Sagarika Ghose, who served as the Deputy Editor of the channel, was the moderator.
Students of Jadavpur and Presidency University were present in the audience. During the Q& A session, a girl asked, “Do you think the cases involving crimes against women are dealt in the right way?”
Another student remarked, “Madam, I am from the Presidency College. You talk about goons and how you do not support them. Well, the conduct of certain people like Madan Mitra and Arabul Islam has left a bad taste in the mouths of most of us. People in power should be acting more responsibly, madam.”
On being asked about women’s safety, Mamata Banerjee lost her calm. She snapped, “I must tell you that you are CPI(M) cadres, Maoist cadres…I cannot reply to CPI(M) questions. The students are only asking Maoist questions and the CPI(M) questions…They are the Maoist students.”
The TMC supremo even pointed fingers at the students and asked them to go to jungles for supposedly being Maoists. On being told by Sagraika Ghose that the audience members were indeed students, Mamata Banerjee brazened out, “So what…they are only selected for Maoist activities.”
She walked off the stage and directed the police to click pictures of the students who quizzed her about the rise in concerns about women’s safety in West Bengal.
A year later in 2013, Sagarika Ghose was awarded the ‘Best Public Debate Award’ for her interview with Mamata Banerjee. In a Facebook post, she had written, “My stormy show with Mamata Banerjee picks up Best Public Debate Award at News Television Awards 2013!”
