NTT Desk
West Bengal Congress president Subhankar Sarkar invited Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee to attend the Congress' July 21 Martyrs' Day programme at Kolkata's Shahid Minar, urging her to admit that leaving the Congress nearly three decades ago was a political mistake. The invitation came after Sarkar reviewed preparations for the Congress' annual commemoration of the July 21, 1993 police firing incident.
"If Mamata Banerjee really has the courage, she should not distort history. She should admit that she took a wrong political decision in the past. She is welcome to come to our programme at Shahid Minar and pay tribute to the martyrs," Subhankar Sarkar said.
The state Congress chief maintained that the July 21 movement was organised under the banner of the Youth Congress and argued that its association with the party could not be rewritten. "The movement of July 21, 1993 was held under the Youth Congress flag. That is a part of history, and there is no scope to deny it. A political leader who respects his or her own political past earns greater respect," he said.
Subhankar Sarkar further suggested that Mamata Banerjee's participation in the Congress event, coupled with an admission that her departure from the party had been an error, would amount to a meaningful political gesture. "If she publicly says that leaving the Congress was a mistake and comes to the Shahid Minar stage to pay homage to the July 21 martyrs, it will be an important act of political atonement. It will at least show an effort to correct some of the mistakes of the past. The Congress stage is open to everyone, and she is free to come and pay her respects," he added.
The July 21 observance commemorates the 1993 police firing on a Youth Congress rally led by Mamata Banerjee, in which 13 people were allegedly killed. The incident has remained a defining moment in West Bengal's political history. Although Mamata Banerjee left the Congress in December 1997 to establish the Trinamool Congress, she continued to observe July 21 every year through large public rallies, which gradually evolved into one of the party's biggest political events and a demonstration of its organisational strength. During the same period, the Congress marked the anniversary with comparatively smaller programmes.
The political landscape, however, has changed following the Trinamool Congress' defeat in the recent Assembly elections, with the party now facing internal divisions. A rebel TMC faction led by Ritabrata Banerjee is scheduled to hold a separate July 21 programme near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in Esplanade. Meanwhile, another faction loyal to the former Chief Minister has been given permission by the Calcutta High Court to hold their programme in front of Kolkata’s Birla Planetarium.
