A 29-year-old BJP worker from West Bengal’s Salbani area was arrested on September 18 for allegedly sharing morphed photographs of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and posting obscene comments. The accused, identified as one Babuya Ghosh was arrested by Salbani Police after they received a complaint the day before. NDTV reported that this was not the first instance when the active BJP worker had shared similar morphed pictures on social media websites. 

Why was the BJP worker arrested?

Reportedly, Babuya had shared morphed images of CM Mamata Banerjee and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik with the caption, “When you don’t get married at a right age”. The original post in Bengali read, “ If a man doesn’t get married at the right age he can go mad, but everyone in West Bengal can understand what happens when a woman does not get married on time.”

Kabita Das, Inspector, District Enforcement Branch, West Midnapore, while talking to The Logical Indian said that the man had been arrested following a complaint by a member of the Trinamool Youth Congress who saw the post on Facebook. Ghosh’s phone, from which he used Facebook has also been seized by the police. Ghosh is still in custody and will be presented in court on September 20. 

A case has been registered against him under section 65 of the IT act (meddling with computer source documents), and section 292 (obscenity over the internet) and section 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace) of the Indian Penal Code.

Previous cases

This incident brings back the memory of 29-year-old Tarun Dey who was arrested by Howrah Police last year for posting morphed photographs of Mamata Banerjee and writing derogatory comments in an attempt to defame the Chief Minister.

Previously, a  Jadavpur University professor, who had circulated a cartoon featuring Mamata Banerjee with former Railway Minister Mukul Roy and Dinesh Trivedi, in 2012, had also been arrested. In the cartoon, there was an exchange of dialogues between the Chief Minister and The Railway Minister. The dialogues were from Satyajit Ray’s famous Bengali film ‘Sonar Kella’, which hinted at the replacement as Railway Minister of Trivedi by Roy.

The Logical Indian Take

While the comments that were made by Ghosh were undoubtedly derogatory and obscene in nature, politicians, as well as party workers, need to develop a thick skin when it comes to issues like these and work on the ground to ensure the promises that were made in the party’s manifesto. As mentioned, there have been cases in the past where complaints had been lodged against people for sharing cartoons or even for criticizing government actions on social media, however, those sitting at the helm of affairs should focus on issues which need to be dealt with urgency.

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