Kolkata, Nov 4 (IANS) The West Bengal Pradesh Youth Congress on Wednesday suspended 26 of its youth leaders, including six district presidents, for remaining absent during the party’s November 1 protest programme in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan.
The decision to suspend the leaders were taken to teach the leadership of Youth Congress a lesson in ‘discipline’. However, party leader Rohan Mitra has requested the state leadership a review of the decision.
The party has suspended a total of 26 office bearers, including presidents of several districts of the organisation in the state.
The suspension order issued on November 3 said that this decision will be effective immediately until further orders.
The order published on the letterhead of West Bengal Pradesh Youth Congress said that the All India Youth Congress leadership has seriously considered the absence of the office bearers concerned in the movement in Delhi. That is why it has been decided to take this organisational action against them.
The list of 26 suspended people includes Cooch Behar District Youth Congress President Sukamal Barman, Jalpaiguri’s Nabinendu Maulik, North Dinajpur’s Mamun Reza, East Burdwan’s Mithun Sarkar, North Kolkata’s Abhishek Gupta and South Kolkata’s Indrajit Mandal.
West Bengal Pradesh Youth Congress Vice President Babul SK and several leaders holding the post of General Secretary have also been suspended.
The list includes Shafiqul Mallick, Kunalkanti Chowdhury, Subarthi Chakraborty, Tariq Anwar Sheikh, Sahil Nawaz, Parikshit Nag, Sanjay Khan, Sajid Mollah, Mou Mandal, Tariq Anwar, Purab Kumar Basu, Arpan Sinha, Badsha Alamgir, Arijit Chakraborty, Rezaul Chowdhury and Parwaz Khan.
Besides, suspension orders have also been issued against General Secretary Bapirul Mondal and Secretary Sainur Reba, Dabish Istiyak and Chandrashekhar Gangopadhyay.
The order was signed by the organisation’s National Secretary and West Bengal in-charge Ehsan Ahmed Khan and West Bengal Pradesh Youth Congress President Sourav Prasad.
Opposing this decision, Pradesh Congress leader Rohan Mitra stood by the suspended leaders and workers.
He said, “Those who have been holding the Congress organisation together for a long time in adverse circumstances should not have been suspended all at once without considering the reason for their absence.”
He appealed to the leadership to look at the matter from a humane and realistic perspective.
According to Rohan Mitra, “Many Youth Congress workers come from very ordinary families. Despite spending eight to ten years of their lives working for the organisation, many of them do not have the financial or political power. Moreover, there is an age limit for being active in the Youth Congress after the age of 35. Despite this, many have worked for the organisation for years.”
Meanwhile, the decision to suspend 26 office bearers for their absence from the Delhi movement has given rise to a new debate within the West Bengal Youth Congress.
–IANS
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