Rewind to '69 state Assembly raid

the terrorist raid on parliament reminds me of the day the state assembly was attacked. both the events had no precedent, the difference being that the assembly raiders were the state's own policemen and no terrorists . it happened in 1969. those were turbulent days when governments came and went and violent agitations were the order of the day. ajoy mukherjee headed the second united front government with jyoti basu as his deputy.during an agitation by the suc, one of the front partners, a policemen was murdered in a brutal manner at kultali in the sunderbans. when his body was brought to the bodyguard lines at alipore, his colleagues were furious. they took the body in a procession to the assembly house. as they reached the main gate, all hell broke loose. roaring in unison, they stormed into the house. ministers, mlas and we, the reporters, ran pell-nell, not knowing where to go. the speaker, bijoy banerjee, dashed out of the well and went out of the building through a window about which congress mlas would needle him for a long time. i took shelter in the room of labour minister, subodh banerjee, and then realised that i had chosen the wrong place. banerjee, famous for introducing the gherao, belonged to the suc and was a controversial figure. a group of policemen stood outside the door and shouted, "subodh banerjeer mundu chai" (we want his head). we secured the door with chairs and tables and waited with our hearts in our mouth. once i lifted a curtain only to see a hefty cop delivering an upper cut to an mla who went sprawling. however, our room was not attacked. when the noise subsided, a few of us walked to basu's room. he was shouting at the top of his voice, giving the rebelious cops a tremendous dressing-down. a group of them stood by, silent and sheepish. they had entered his room and broken ajug, but didn't dare go any further. he alone was enough for the whole lot of them. we followed him back to the house. it was empty except for torn papers and broken microphones. the rebellion was over. the incident turned into a feather in basu's cap. a big rally at the maidan followed, as was the custom in those days, where everyone praised him for his guts. he and his party blamed the congress for inciting the policemen. but the political scene had dramatic changes soon after and the assembly raid quietly passed into history.