Cops henpecked at Writers’ as chickens come home to roost

The procedure involved bombarding the security guards with live chickens. And it was carried out with a precision befitting a commando operation.

There was no advance notification from the marauders. Nor was there any prior intelligence of their plan among the ruling party.

But out of the blue, around 1 pm, about two dozen men packed in cabs — representing Congress party’s Burrabazar youth wing unit — stormed the Writers’ VIP gate with over a dozen chicken.

The policemen manning the gate just had minutes to cordon off the entrance. And after the recent taste of mob fury at Dinhata and Bankura, they were in no mood to retaliate.

Not that they were in a state to.

What they were ready for was assault from human agency - stones, bricks and even the odd bottle. But the running, squawking, pecking, flapping, scared birds had the officers on duty chickening out in no time.

As per “unofficial” reports, two policemen were seen rushing for first aid - the injuries involved pecks in the elbow and the below the knee.

The commotion gave the Congress workers sufficient time to squat, show posters and shout slogans about bird flu infections and the police firing at Dinhata in front of the lenses.

While it was relatively easier to round up the Congress workers, it took a while for the policemen, no spring chicken themselves, to “arrest” the hopping, flapping, hiding chicken.

Traffic flow in the vicinity was severely affected, though for a short time.

Finally the men and the chicken were all packed into three police vans and sent to the central lock-up at Lal Bazar.

While the men were released later, the fate of the chicken is still undecided: “We have handed over the chicken to a local dealer to keep them in safe custody. The Kolkata Municipal Corporation has refused to take away the birds as Kolkata has not been declared a culling zone,” Vineet Goyal, deputy commission (headquarters) told The Indian Express.

Chief municipal health officer Dr DD Chattopadhyay contradicted the police version: “We were not contacted by Lal Bazar. And if we were, what can we to do? Do we have place for keeping chicken?”

The gimmick, however, has put the Congress state leadership in a spot, even though the ruling party is yet to cry foul.

Senior state Congress leader Pradip Bhattacharya said the demonstration is justified if it was against improper distribution of compensation money to the affected families: “They are a frontal organisation, and don’t require any permission from the state committee,” he added.

As for another senior leader, Manash Bhunia, “I won’t comment” seemed the only handy response.