Shoot the messenger has always been the cult weapon in the hands of political fraternity to nail down the media and journalists in this country. This has been the common practice by politicians who would not waste any time to compliment the media for attacking their rivals but same media becomes unethical or bad when it does stories against the same party. Offlate, this trend has changed to worst as politicians either try to vandalize media offices or threaten to ruin the house if they don’t stop stories against them. In recent years, we have seen how popular channel offices were vandalized by political goons.

The recent attack has come from Soutaga Roy, veteran Trinamool MP and close confidant of Supremo Mamata Banerjee who has become a habituated ‘hate speech’ monger. Roy, who is a retired professor of Physics from Ashutosh College, Kolkata has been in the headlines for his acidic remarks against the opposition last week. Roy, has allegedly warned popular Bengali news channel Calcutta News (CN) to shut down. He asked CN not to cross its limits as he has the power to close the channel. Soon after the claim, Kolkata Mayor and Mamata Banerjee confidant, Firhad Hakim (Bobby) in his typical rhetoric asked why media is accusing Roy who has commented innocently and not follow Bharatiya Janata Party leaders who make regular remarks.

The Trinamool MP warned opposition by saying if they don’t stop branding all Trinamool leaders as corrupt or relate to Partha Chatterjee and Anubrata Mandol then party workers would beat the opposition with shoe. He warned by saying that opposition must get prepared if they don’t stop and not complain if such a thing happens. A day after this he asked his party Rajya Sabha MP and former bureaucrat he attacked senior retired bureaucrat Jawhar Sircar for slamming the party having leaders like Chatterjee, and Mandol. Roy, asked Sircar to leave the party. He also lectured Sircar not to cross his limits. The point perhaps this loyalist Trinamooli has forgotten is today his party has lost its face value and there is no need for the opposition to play politics, people by large in the state are cursing themselves for electing the party to power in 2011.

The party high-command is yet to respond the issue. However, not much can be expected from the Supremo. After coming to power in the state, Mamata Banerjee had removed all the publications (newspapers and magazines) from state run libraries those who dared to express views or write against the wrongs of Trinamool and Banerjee. She even restricted the movement of journalists to Press corner at the Writers Building. It means no journalists were allowed to meet or take interview MLAs or ministers without prior appointment even on immediate or recent development stories.