The 18-Year Vow: How a Night at the Gandhi Statue Redefined Bengal’s Political Destiny

The genesis of this defiance began on May 6, 1993, involving a speech- and hearing-impaired girl from Nadia district named Dipali Basak. Basak had become pregnant after allegedly being raped by a CPM worker, yet the police had turned down her complaint according to Rikta Kundu, the then Mahila Congress president of Nadia. Shocked by the encounter with the survivor and her mother, Banerjee, then the Youth Congress chief, an elected MP, and a Union Minister of State in PV Narasimha Rao's cabinet, sought an intervention with Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. Despite a 3 pm appointment being fixed at the Writers’ Building secretariat, the Trinamool delegation was informed upon arrival that Basu was busy. The Chief Minister subsequently left the building without meeting her.

This cancellation infuriated Banerjee, who, according to then Deputy Commissioner of Police Abani Mohan Joardar, saw no inclination from the Chief Minister to speak to a Union Minister. Refusing to yield, Banerjee squatted in the corridors outside Basu’s office alongside the rape survivor, demanding the arrest of the accused. The sit-in lasted three hours before police physically removed her from the secretariat. During the ensuing chaos, Rikta Kundu recounted that police resorted to lathi-charging the protesters, resulting in injuries to the pregnant survivor who was rushed to a hospital. Banerjee was thrown into a police van and taken to the Lalbazar police headquarters by Goutam Mohan Chakraborty, the then deputy commissioner of the detective department.

Despite her ministerial status, Banerjee was placed in a lock-up. Joardar, who later joined the Trinamool as an MLA, noted that while detainees usually seek bail or court production, he was instructed to release her. Though initially reluctant to leave, she agreed after speaking with him. As she exited Lalbazar, Joardar observed a crowd of Youth Congress supporters brick-batting the police, an escalation Banerjee personally intervened to stop. She eventually agreed to be dropped home in a police vehicle, pausing for her historic moment of reflection at the Gandhi statue. This forceful eviction prompted Banerjee to vow never to set foot in the secretariat again until the administration changed. She maintained this exile for 18 years, only returning on May 20, 2011, to ascend the throne as the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal, finally entering the Writers’ Building on her own terms.