The BJP-RSS has unleashed a series of attacks on progressive bookstalls run by Left and communist parties across West Bengal, targeting spaces that have carried revolutionary literature and progressive ideas to the people for decades. In Kolkata’s Dhakuria and Jadavpur, as well as Bakhrahat in South 24 Parganas, BJP-RSS goons have resorted to physical assaults, vandalism and bulldozer attacks against bookstalls. Left activists and democratic voices have taken to the streets to resist these attacks and defend Bengal’s revolutionary cultural heritage.
On October 15, Comrade Babun Chatterjee, CPI(ML) Liberation West Bengal State Committee member and Secretary of the Jadavpur-Dhakuria Local Committee, was attacked by BJP goons near Dhakuria Bus Stand in Kolkata. The miscreants attempted to prevent the bookstall from being set up, verbally abused and physically assaulted Comrade Babun Chatterjee, veteran Comrade Amalendu Bhushan Choudhury and others. Comrade Babun Chatterjee sustained an eye injury. The comrades received preliminary treatment at Baghajatin Hospital.
The attacks continued on October 17, when the BJP-RSS regime brought bulldozers against progressive bookstalls run by communist parties at 8B Bus Stand in Jadavpur. Hundreds of Left activists and democratic voices took to the streets, pushed back the bulldozers and defended the bookstalls from demolition. Hundreds of activists stood guard at the stalls throughout the night, determined to protect these spaces of progressive literature and democratic expression.
On October 20, in Bakhrahat in South 24 Parganas, bookstalls run by CPI(ML) Liberation and other communist parties were also vandalised.
For nearly four decades, CPI(ML) Liberation and other Left parties have been setting up bookstalls across West Bengal as part of the state’s rich revolutionary cultural landscape. The BJP-RSS regime is seeking to bulldoze Bengal’s revolutionary cultural heritage, terrorise those who carry forward the legacy of people’s struggles, and silence the spread of progressive ideas. But the resistance at Jadavpur shows that books, ideas and the spirit of struggle cannot be crushed by fascist violence.
CPI(ML) Liberation condemns the attacks on progressive bookstalls and the physical assault on comrades and activists of left parties. The Party stands in solidarity with all Left and democratic forces resisting this violence. Terror, vandalism and bulldozers will not stop the spread of progressive literature or crush the spirit of resistance.
