CM Mamata alleges harassment under SIR, vows Dharmatala protest will go on | Watch

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday intensified her criticism of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process while addressing supporters from the protest stage at Dharmatala, alleging that the exercise was causing harassment and humiliation to several citizens. Speaking during the ongoing dharna, she said the protest would continue and claimed that even respected individuals were being subjected to unnecessary scrutiny under the process.

Referring to poet Joy Goswami, Mamata Banerjee alleged that he too had been harassed in the name of SIR. After Goswami addressed the gathering, the Chief Minister said he had been summoned for a hearing despite his stature, describing the incident as “nothing but an insult and humiliation.” She then invited Mamatabala Thakur to speak on behalf of the Matua community during the protest programme.

Addressing the gathering, poet Joy Goswami shared a personal memory involving the Chief Minister and recalled an incident at the residence of writer Mahasweta Devi. According to Goswami, it was around 11:15 pm when Mamata Banerjee was eating muri and chanachur and preparing to leave for Nandigram. When he asked whether she would return home instead, she reportedly replied calmly, “What else can we do except work, Joy-da?” Goswami also expressed solidarity with the Chief Minister, saying he would continue to stand by her.

Mamata Banerjee further announced that the dharna at Dharmatala would continue in the coming days and claimed that several irregularities had been detected in the voter list under the SIR process. She alleged that there were cases where living voters had been marked as dead in the electoral rolls and said such individuals would be brought to the protest site to demonstrate the issue.

During the programme, another speaker from the Ramakrishna Sarada Mission claimed that his name had been removed from the SIR list despite serving as the president of the Minakha Ramakrishna Sarada Mission for the past 14 years. The speaker said he had approached the Chief Minister regarding the matter and expressed hope that the SIR process would be withdrawn if such issues continued to arise.