A video is causing sensation on social media where West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, oblivious that she was being filmed while staying put in a Nandigram poll booth on Thursday, is seen swinging her “injured” foot without a care in the world and topping it with putting the other leg on top of it as if normal.
The clip (below) has been shared by multiple twitteratis on internet including the BJP spokesperson in Bengal Pranoy Roy who, in a Facebook post, said thus: “I am not an astrologer. But in more than one TV channels, I said long ago that when the vote of Nandigram is done, the leg will be fixed.”
बंगाल में हिनà¥à¤¦à¥à¤“ं का रकà¥à¤¤ बहाने वाली मोमता की टूटी टांग की नौटंकी देखिà¤..#RaagKenoDidi@TheDeepak2020In pic.twitter.com/w7scQEZdAp
— अमृता 🇮🇳 (@SomvanshiAmrita) April 2, 2021
Readers would recall that Mamata had “injured” her leg after filing her papers in Nandigram constituency on March 10 which she claimed was an “attack” on her but which was subsequently verified by Election Commission as an “accident” since the open door in the moving car had closed on her, either by push of swelling crowd or as some TV channels reported, slammed shut by a stumped iron bar, trapping her left leg .
Mamata had then chosen to come to Kolkata in car (not in ambulance), a good two-hour drive, and admitted herself into a hospital where initially it was said to be a “severe bone injury” but obviously not bad enough since she walked out of the hospital two days later.
Mamata has since moved around in rallies and everywhere in her wheelchair in the last three weeks, the final sight of her being in Nandigram, on the day of the polling yesterday, where she was upset at not being able to move out of a school-of-a-polling booth, and as she complained to the Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar from the spot, because of ruckus between BJP and Trinamool Congress supporters outside the school.
Now in this video, conversation being in Bengali, between Mamata Banerjee and apparently one of her security personnel, the chief minister is asking for 300 cups of tea for journalists. “I am ordering for 300 cups of tea. My journalists would have,” she is seen gesticulating.
By the looks of it, an onlooker gets the impression that Mamata’s “injured” leg obviously is not in bad shape. She is able to swing it freely, and the foot is also good enough to bear the weight of her other leg. Secondly, it doesn’t appear that she is “detained” in the booth, as it were, since she appears relaxed and is looking for a timely serving of a cup of tea. Thirdly, the word “my journalists” is patronizing and kind of derogatory on the neutrality of scribes present.
Roy, in his Facebook post, further writes: “Only one request, those who have got police jobs on qualifications, at least don’t hurt them by making them push wheel chairs. Many friends I know work in police. It feels bad when I see that even after being educated, they have to bear insults only because of keeping a job.”
After the circulation of this video, Mamata Banerjee, if she persists in moving in wheelchair, could draw derision from the voters and worse, it would be an opportunity her opponents wouldn’t miss for life.
And the West Bengal election still has a month and six phases left to negotiate!
