Will not allow anyone to diminish Bengal’s achievements: Mamata

Kolkata: A day after her speech at Oxford University was interrupted by a section of the audience, allegedly the members of the Left wing organisation who came with posters in hand, Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday on social media asserted that she will “not allow anyone to diminish Bengal’s achievements”.

Far from subduing the chief minister, the disruption by some students energised her. “Didi is just like a Royal Bengal Tiger,” she declared. On Friday, Banerjee in her social media post said that she will never shield away from the struggle. In a post on X she stated: “From the day I lost my father as a child, life has been a battle, one that I have fought as a student leader, as the voice of the opposition, and now as the head of a people’s government. I have never shied away from struggle, and I never will. But I will not allow anyone to diminish Bengal’s achievements or question the sacrifices that have shaped our progress.”

Referring to her Oxford speech, she said: “It was a moment of personal pride to see scholars, academicians, and thought leaders recognise the Bengal Model we have built with such dedication. Standing at the University of Oxford, one of the world’s most esteemed institutions, I had the privilege of sharing Bengal’s remarkable growth story. It was an experience I shall cherish forever.”

Banerjee on Thursday overcame a concerted attempt to disrupt a prestigious talk she had been invited to give at the University of Oxford. About a dozen protestors displayed posters complaining of ‘Trinamool Congress-engineered election violence’. The left-wing Students Federation of India later said members of its UK branch staged the protest.

While at Oxford, she was shown round the world-famous Bodleian library. She also had a private half-hour conversation with a group of Oxford academics who have an expertise in India. Several said they were impressed by the chief minister’s candid and confident approach as well as the deft way she dealt with critical or verbose questions.

Banerjee deliberately avoided making party political points, saying that would be inappropriate when outside India. When she was asked how she saw her country’s future, she parried the question, replying to Bilimoria: “I also want to see your country develop.”

Many in the audience – which included Bengali industrialists and journalists accompanying Banerjee – took strong exception to the incident. The protesting students eventually at one time agreed to leave. “My best wishes to all of you,” Banerjee greeted the protestors by saying “Please have a good sleep!” Jonathan Michie, the president of Oxford’s Kellogg College which was the venue of the event, offered a public apology to his guest “for the discourteous behaviour of some.”

The Bengal chief minister had been invited to talk about women’s empowerment and she presented a detailed account of her government’s development works. The Trinamool Congress, however, asserted that the disruption was a slur on the country as a whole and that people would “respond to the attack with interest”, while CPI(M)’s student wing SFI stated that the “chief minister has no escape from tough questions from the enraged student community wherever she goes”.

The ruling party in Bengal said that the main intention of the protestors was to disrupt Banerjee’s speech unless they would put their questions at the question answer session at the end of her speech. Slamming the Students’ Federation of India (SFI-UK), a left-wing organisation, for the protests, Trinamool Congress said that as they have no activities in India, they chose Banerjee’s speech at Oxford as a political platform.

Banerjee is expected to return to Kolkata from London on Saturday evening via Dubai.