“…all great world-historic facts and personages appear, so to speak, twice…the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” ~ Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Napoleon.

Back in 2012, Communist Party of India (Marxists)’s student leader Ritabrata Banerjee was one of the most prominent voices rallying against the arrest of Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra. Mahapatra was one of West Bengal’s first and much-publicised social media post-related arrests. The professor had posted a harmless little collage, satirically questioning the authoritarianism of Bengal Chief Minister and CPI(M) nemesis, Mamata Banerjee. The sheer ridiculousness of arresting someone for an innocuous social media post cast Banerjee as a thin skinned, tin-pot dictator. Opposing her, CPI(M) took on the mantle of being a champion of free speech, which is a role that other chapters of the party have also performed.

From free software to net neutrality, CPI(M) has consistently been on the side of free speech on the internet. In fact, CPI(M) MP, P Rajeev, was the first to raise questions in Parliament about the infamous Section 66A of the Information Technology Act, which criminalised posts deemed politically incorrect.

But on February 15 2017, that reputation took a hit.

At the unearthly hour of 3:29 am, Ritabrata Banerjee, who is now a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament, purportedly shot off an email to the co-founder of a Bengaluru-based software start-up. (Newslaundry has read this email.)

In the email – which Banerjee has since denied writing – the MP appears to have targeted a 24-year-old college graduate from Kolkata who works for that tech start-up. There are accusations that the employee spread hate speech against Banerjee and maligned his image. In the email, Banerjee also threatened “to lodge a formal complaint with the Delhi police and take legal steps”, unless action was against this employee.

Intimidated by the email, the owners formally asked the employee for an explanation, but indicated in person that he should look for a job elsewhere. Being a small start-up, they were in no position to take on an MP going after them personally, a source in the start-up said to this reporter.

But why would a lawmaker who is the very face of the CPI(M) Bengal’s next generation and a fixture on TV talk shows, go after an unknown young man for a Facebook post? When Newslaundry reached out to Banerjee to hear his side of the story, he told us that he does not know “anything about the matter” and that he never wrote the email.

Fittingly for a scandal involving Bengali politicians and student leaders, it all began with an East Bengal-Mohunbagan football match, according to a source.

On February 12, Banerjee was in Siliguri, watching an iLeague match, and he had posted selfies taken with members of the crowd. In the photo, he was seen wearing an Apple Watch and carrying a Mont Blanc pen, tucked in his shirt. The photo found its way on to a Facebook group called Baam Bangalir Adda (Left-Bengalis’ Chat). The group is a raucous haunt of CPI(M)’s Bengali supporters and has been a virtual battleground for the party’s many factions.

The 24-year-old employee of the Bengaluru start-up was among a few others who had wondered aloud about a full-time politician from the Communist Party, with a meagre income and personal assets of under Rs 10 lakh, being able to afford such expensive accessories.

“The cost of the most basic model of the watch itself is five times his monthly salary,” one comment under the selfie noted.

The questions soon spiralled into a virtual brawl among warring factions and the selfie found its way to internal party forums. The young software engineer comes from a family of long-time party loyalists, and is a party member himself. Not only was he an activist of the student union of which Banerjee was once leader, the young man was until recently a delegate to the highest forum of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (the CPI(M)’s youth wing). Moreover, he has been an active member of the party’s social media campaigns. It wasn’t surprising that the techie was part of one of the online debates that took place on an internal party forum, discussing Banerjee’s expensive tastes.

In a letter addressed to the secretary of the Kolkata district committee Niranjan Chatterjee, the 24-year-old explained his stance:

On 14th Feb, 2017 – a post was circulated on Facebook, where some pointed questions were raised regarding material possessions of CPIM (sic) Rajya Sabha MP Comrade Ritabrata Banerjee. While the same was being debated on public forums, it was also being discussed in internal closed party groups composed of party workers and supporters. I participated in the discussion in one such group. However, at no time did I use any malicious content or language, including falsehoods, while participating in the discussion. Also, I did not have any direct interaction during this discussion with Comrade Ritabrata.

He further goes on to blame Banerjee for trying to silence him using pressure tactics and refers to the email that his employers received. Mincing no words, the letter reminds the party leaders that “freedom of speech”, “right to criticize” and the “engaging in self-criticism” are part of CPI(M)’s own programme and rules.

The letter is copied to the West Bengal state secretary and chief ministerial candidate Suryakanta Mishra, and to the parliamentary affairs leader and party general secretary, Sitaram Yechury.

Only after repeated assurances of maintaining his privacy did the techie speak to this reporter. He said he wrote the letter to the party’s top brass sensing danger to his professional life and party membership. “They [the company] haven’t sacked me but I’m obviously under tremendous pressure,” he said. “If this [Banerjee’s email complaint alleging hate speech] goes on record and becomes part of the hiring database, who is to say I’ll ever get another job?”

For now, the young techie remains employed with the start-up but he fears the email complaint will tarnish his reputation within industry circles. According to the start-up’s co-founder, the MP had sent the email to the ID listed on the company’s website so it went to a common mailbox. However, on Banerjee’s part there seems to have been some change of heart.

On February 15, about eight hours after the first email was received, the co-founder of the Bengaluru-based start-up received a second email from Banerjee, saying there had been some misunderstanding and confusion.  

 This second purported email, which Newslaundry has reviewed, shows a marked change of tone. While the former is fire and brimstone, the latter refers to the previous email as “a consequence of serious miscommunication and misunderstanding.” In stark opposition to the first one, this email says, “Therefore, I request you not to take any disciplinary action against [employee name].”

It’s an abrupt volte face and one that Banerjee has explained by saying that he wasn’t responsible for the first email. Did the fact that the techie’s family is made up of long-time Left supporters help him get the party’s attention? Would the fact of being a politician give someone like Banerjee immunity if he had actually sent the first email?

No explanation has been offered so far for how or why Banerjee’s email had been used to send the first email. If this is a case of identity theft, then one would imagine CPI(M) would have a lot to say about the desperate need for privacy laws in India, but we’ve heard nothing so far. Neither has there been much of a conversation about the intimidation tactics that the first email exhibited. Whether or not Banerjee himself is responsible for the email, the fact is an email from his id was sent out to the company. Despite being in another state and Banerjee belonging to a party that holds relatively little sway in Karnataka, his threats were frightening because he’s a politician and therefore, he potentially can directly or indirectly affect the company’s fortunes in Bengaluru.

And let’s not forget – CPI(M) lays claim to a history of working for the little people and empowering them to not be exploited and silenced by the establishment.