Congress invites Mamata to Shahid Minar for 21 July event; Subhankar says "Mamata will find peace if..."

The Pradesh Congress is set to break a decades-long tradition by moving its July 21 Martyrs' Day commemoration out of the party headquarters at Vidhan Bhavan to the historic Shahid Minar premises. The political move has intensified an ongoing tug-of-war over the historical legacy of the event, which marks the anniversary of the 1993 police firing on a Youth Congress rally. Having secured official permission for the public venue, the state Congress leadership formally extended an invitation to Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal leader Mamata Banerjee to share the same stage for the commemoration.

Pradesh Congress President Subhankar Sarkar visited the Shahid Minar grounds on Tuesday to personally review the organizational preparations for the upcoming rally. Addressing the media from the venue, Sarkar issued a direct message to Mamata Banerjee, appealing to her not to distort the political history surrounding the tragedy. He asserted that the agitation in 1993 was conducted entirely under the banner and flag of the Youth Congress circle, which was an integral wing of the mainstream Congress party at the time. Sarkar suggested that Banerjee would find true "peace of mind" and political elevation if she publicly admitted her past mistakes regarding her political separation.

The state Congress leadership further alleged that the true underlying purpose of the July 21 martyrs' commemoration has been structurally destroyed over the years due to its appropriation by the Trinamool Congress. Sarkar pointed out that the actual administrative culprits responsible for ordering the fatal firing on the youth activists have still not been brought to justice. In a bid to unearth the truth, the Pradesh Congress has released a public poster campaign demanding the immediate declassification and release of official files belonging to Manish Gupta, who served as the Home Secretary during the Left Front regime and later became a minister in the Trinamool government.