Look who's gheraoing now

Bolpur, Jan. 11: A college principal today slumped unconscious in his office after Trinamul Congress-backed students deployed a weapon once associated with the Left: the gherao.
A Trinamul minister condemned the incident but advised "some principals obsessed with political ideology" to "maintain impartiality". A Trinamul student leader openly admitted his party's supporters were involved and said since the principal had not fainted during similar protests earlier, it must have been "dramatics" this time.
But governor M.K. Narayanan did not mince any words. "Stern action should be taken to curb campus violence and attacks on teachers and principals. Our teachers and principals are important persons of our society. Students should respect them," Narayanan said on the sidelines of a meeting in Calcutta.
The students gheraoed Shibashis Banerjee, the principal of Rampurhat College in Birbhum, asking him to explain why he told the media yesterday that they had threatened him with a "repetition" of last week's assault on a principal in Raiganj.
The principal regained consciousness at the Rampurhat sub-divisional hospital an hour after treatment.
"He will be kept in the hospital today and observed. He is under sedation. We think he had fallen unconscious because of mental stress," a doctor said.
Banerjee is the third principal over the past one week to be heckled by students owing allegiance to either Trinamul or the CPM.
Today's gherao started around 11.30am when around 25 college students allegedly belonging to the students' wing of Trinamul, barged into the principal's chamber and started shouting. "Apni kano media te mithya bibriti diyechhen (why have you given a false statement to the media?). Apni akjon cheatingbaj (you are a cheat)," cried out a student.
Banerjee, in his fifties and heading the college for the past two-and-a-half years, had told reporters yesterday that some "right-wing" students had threatened him with "a repetition of the Raiganj incident" if he did not take action against SFI members who allegedly beat them up in the college union room.
After regaining consciousness, Banerjee told reporters from his hospital bed that Trinamul students had gheraoed him. "Students belonging to Trinamul carried out today's gherao. I started feeling ill and became unconscious, unable to bear the noisy protest," he said.
A witness, a non-teaching employee, said: "The students were all known Trinamul Chhatra Parishad faces and they were angry. Many were banging their fists on the principal's desk. The principal stood up and tried to reason with the students. He told them that he had only told the truth to the media but the students continued to shout."
Around noon, the principal collapsed in his chair. Group D employees lifted the principal, laid him on a table and virtually pushed the students out of the room. Already taken aback, the students had started to leave in a hurry.
The employees informed police and called an ambulance in which Banerjee was taken to the Rampurhat sub-divisional hospital. Teachers decided not to hold any more classes for the day.
A team arrived from the Rampurhat police station and dispersed students crowding near the gate. District superintendent of police Hrishikesh Meena said no complaint from the college authorities had been lodged against any student till this evening.
Trinamul-supported students at the college later claimed that the principal had resorted to "dramatics in a pre-planned manner".
"Trinamul Chhatra Parishad members were in the principal's room today. We have carried out a number of agitations in the principal's room earlier. But nothing like this has happened before. We believe the principal resorted to dramatics in a pre-planned manner," said Amit Ghoshal, the president of the Trinamul Chhatra Parishad unit at Rampurhat.
Local Trinamul MLA Ashish Banerjee echoed Ghoshal and alleged that the principal was "making up all this" to avoid an impending inspection at the college.
Banerjee, however, said he was aware of the inspection. "We are all prepared for the inspection."
Condemning the Rampurhat incident, state urban development minister Firhad Hakim said: "At the same time, it is being noticed that some principals are still obsessed with their political ideology. I would request them to run colleges impartially and keep their political ideology at home. They should realise that change has taken place in the state."
He also pointed fingers at the Rampurhat College principal. "He was blaming a particular political party for the past few days, holding it responsible for the trouble. It appears that he has done it intentionally. We have come to know that there are charges of financial irregularity against the principal," the minister said.
State higher education minister Bratya Basu, who had vowed to depoliticise education, said it was a "law-and-order problem and it is the responsibility of the home department to look into it".
"We, too, are concerned. We have urged the home department to take necessary steps to prevent occurrence of such incidents," Basu added.
The rift between the allies was apparent in the reaction of Congress minister Manoj Chakrabarty. "This kind of hooliganism should be stopped immediately," Chakrabarty said.
Raiganj leave
Shatrughan Singh, the new principal of Raiganj College where the season of assault began, has gone on leave a day after taking charge. Citing "personal reasons", Singh has handed over charge to a history teacher.
The Congress had said Singh, who was appointed principal after the assaulted Dilip Dey Sarkar resigned, had links with Trinamul.
"There is some sudden personal work. I do not know when I will complete the tasks and I have not specified any joining date," Singh said.
A section of the teachers said Singh, who had requisitioned personal security round the clock, had been saying threat calls were made to him and he was feeling insecure. The Raiganj campus violence was a fallout of the turf war between Trinamul and the Congress.

Shows the true colour of Mamta Banerjee.
Her fangs are showing now like Red Riding Hood's big bad wolf.