One of Asia’s largest wholesale markets shut down “indefinitely” on Thursday following an assault on the 73-year-old general secretary of its traders’ association.
Bishwanath Agarwal, general secretary of the Posta Bazaar Merchants’ Association, was slapped, abused and had eggs hurled at him, according to a complaint lodged with Jorabagan police station. An FIR has been registered.
“A meeting of the association was scheduled for 2pm on Thursday. Around 1.30pm, a group of more than 50 people barged into his office. They demanded to know where the association got the money to build a glitzy office and started abusing him. He was accused of harbouring political links for financial gain,” an association member said.
A social media video shows Agarwal sitting on a chair with eggs splattered over him. A woman in a yellow sari slaps him more than once as he appears helpless and tries to reason with the attackers.
“They put a woman in front,” Agarwal told Metro.
“I have been part of this association for decades. I am 73. I never imagined I would live to see this day. The attackers levelled absurd charges. They accused the association of being in cahoots with politicians for money. Only a handful of them were members of our association. The rest were outsiders,” he said.
The association has convened a meeting at noon on Friday to decide its future course of action.
Set up in 1972, the association now has more than 1,000 members. “We are registered under the Societies Act and have always been an apolitical organisation. We work for our members. We have worked with the Congress, CPM, Trinamool and now look forward to working with the BJP,” Agarwal said.
Posta supplies groceries, spices, pulses and other essentials across most of Bengal. Around 8,000 labourers are engaged in loading and unloading goods from trucks there every day. Conservative estimates put the market’s annual trade volume at more than ₹80 crore.
“We will meet on Friday to decide whether to continue the shutdown and, if so, for how long,” one member said.
The association’s leadership is perceived by some as being close to Mamata Banerjee. The former chief minister inaugurated the Jagaddhatri Puja in Posta almost every year. Political commentators said the outreach was aimed at demonstrating her proximity to the non-Bengali trading community and countering the perception that the community leaned towards the BJP.
Sources said the association has reached out to the BJP since the change of guard in Bengal. State minister Dilip Ghosh and some BJP MLAs visited the association’s office recently.
Since the change of guard in Bengal, several Trinamool leaders and their aides have been targeted in egg attacks in the presence of police.
On Tuesday, a division bench of Calcutta High Court observed that hurling eggs “has become a social evil” and that making stray arrests would not solve the problem.