West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was at the eye of a storm because of her remarks over medical students' movements at the Trinamool Congress rally on Thursday made it clear that she did not refer to the students or their movement but a popular parable by Hindu mystic Ramakrishna Paramahamsa on a "snake that refused to hiss.".
On one occasion, the story goes, a monk instructed a snake "not to bite anybody but surely hiss when attacked," implyinag that "while not harming is the principle, protesting against injustice is right."
Chief Minister referred to the apparently told parable to energise the activists of the student wings to oppose "propaganda" against her government on the issue of the rape and murder of a junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata earlier this month while addressing an event to mark the foundation day of Trinamool Congress' students' wing on Wednesday.
Criticisms started pouring in within a short time from both the opposition parties and different sections of society, all chanting that the Chief Minister was "instigating" her party followers to take the "path of revenge" aimed at silencing the voices of protest against the rape and murder.
For her part, the Chief Minister had said that her "hiss" remark was not against protests conducted by the medical fraternity or students to counter the "negative ".
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