A complaint was filed against Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee at Bhowanipore police station on Wednesday for an old social media post allegedly against the Gujarati community by using the word “gang” to describe them.
Based on the complaint, police have drawn an FIR late on Wednesday night.
“...what can trigger upheaval and disturbance in society is the fact that Shri Abhishek Banerjee, being sitting member of Parliament and being sworn on oath to uphold the security and territorial integrity of India, had labelled the Gujarati community as being constituting a ‘gang’-an expression that connotes something negative, a word that is associated with crime, the underworld, an expression that is far removed from the social mainstream-and that which is far from the truth,” Bhowanipore resident Arnab Kanti Das wrote in the complainant.
Das was referring to Abhishek’s post on X on May 2: “Ten lifetimes won’t be enough for your Bangla Birodhi Gujarati gang and their stooge Gyanesh Kumar to put even a dent in my Diamond Harbour Model...”
Das, in the complaint, wrote that the Gujarati community in Bengal, the rest of the country and the world is “very industrious, very peace-loving, extremely law-abiding” and contributes to the growth and economic prosperity in Bengal and the country.
Das requested the officer in charge of Bhowanipore police station to take cognisance of the complaint and alleged that Abhishek’s post could trigger “political violence against the Gujarati community”.
In the X post, Abhishek had challenged the entire “Union of India” to go to the Falta Assembly constituency, part of the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha seat from where he is the MP, and do whatever it could to stop its so-called Diamond Harbour Model, the complainant wrote.
“A political context and a political rivalry should remain political only, but to
drag a constitutional body that is appointed by the President of India and to throw a challenge to the very State (Rashtra) in the guise of spewing venom against a rival political party, doesn’t then, remain political anymore. Such expression then...takes the shape of an open declaration of rebellion against the nation, against the Constitution, against the State (Rashtra),” Das stated.