Tue Apr 01 22:30:00 UTC 2025: ## Trinamool Leaders Criticize Party’s Inaction After Banerjee Protest at Oxford
**Kolkata, April 2, 2025** – A faction within the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is expressing strong dissatisfaction with the party’s muted response to a protest against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Oxford University. Last week, activists from the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) disrupted Banerjee’s lecture, questioning her about the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata.
While Banerjee appealed for the matter not to be politicized, several senior TMC leaders are now publicly criticizing the party’s apparent inaction. Debangshu Bhattacharya, spokesperson and state president of the TMC’s IT cell, questioned the party’s rank and file’s silence, stating their inactivity was unacceptable. He noted limited protests by the youth wing but lamented the lack of broader action from elected officials and party leaders.
TMC MP Kalyan Bandopadhyay echoed these concerns, criticizing both the SFI’s actions and the perceived inactivity of the TMC’s youth wing, the TMCP, beyond election campaigns. He highlighted the party’s lack of response to other recent incidents, including the suspension of doctors following the R.G. Kar Hospital rape case and an attack on the Education Minister.
However, not all TMC leaders share this view. MP Sougata Roy argued that the protest was insignificant and that Banerjee herself did not want a large-scale response. He contrasted this with the party’s strong reaction to a similar incident involving the then-Finance Minister Amit Mitra in 2013.
The internal criticism highlights a division within the TMC regarding its response to perceived attacks on its leadership and the appropriate level of mobilization in response to such events. The incident has sparked a debate within the party about its responsiveness and the role of its youth wing beyond electoral politics.
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