KOLKATA (TIP): An FIR was filedtoday against Union minister of stateAdhir Ranjan Chowdhury after theCongress supporters vandalised theofficial bungalow of Murshidabaddistrict magistrate Rajiv Kumar.They had assembled at the spot tosubmit a memorandum againstsuperintendent of police HumayunKabir.Ironically, it was Adhir Chowdhury,Union minister and one of the moststrident critics of the present chiefminister and the violence sweepingthe state, who presided over theunprecedented vandalism.

To be fair to him, he did try andpacify the crowd, but only after theyhad gone berserk.Trouble began after Congresssupporters marched to the DM’sbungalow to submit a memorandum.The DM was not present and theCongressmen had to deal with hisdeputy, Niranjan Kumar.Angered by what they consideredan insult, Congress cadres entered thepremises, smashing flower pots andanything that came in their way. Agovernment vehicle was alsodamaged.”I tried my best to control thecrowd,” Chowdhury said in hisdefence.

But his pleas for peace clearly wentunheard — even by his own men.Thursday’s incident is only one ofa series of violent politicalincidents — from streetfights towidespread campus violence toattacks on government officials —to rock the state ever since theTrinamool government came topower in May 2011.On November 14, 2012, a mob chaseda senior government in official inTehatta. He opened fire from hisservice revolver, killing one of thedemonstrators.In December last year, MLAs ofthe Trinamool Congress and theCPI(M) traded blows in a free-for-allinside the assembly, leaving at leasttwo legislators injured.

Thatincident reminded many of theNovember 30, 2006, violence, whenMamata Banerjee, then an MP,entered the assembly and asked herMLAs to protest against the mannerin which the police had stopped herfrom reaching Singur, where shewas to agitate against the Nanoplant. Trinamool MLAs smashedfurniture and other artefacts thatdecorated the state assemblybuilding.