Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee last night, March 27, overcame a concerted attempt to disrupt a prestigious talk she had been invited to give at the University of Oxford. About a dozen protestors in the more-than-capacity audience barracked Banerjee and displayed posters complaining of ‘Trinamool Congress-engineered election violence’. The left-wing Students Federation of India later said members of its UK branch staged the protest. It accused Banerjee of being a ‘rape apologist’.
Far from subduing the chief minister, the demonstration energised her. “Didi is just like a Royal Bengal Tiger,” she declared.
Many in the audience – which included Bengali industrialists and journalists accompanying Banerjee – took strong exception to the barracking. At one point, tempers were getting frayed. But the protesting students eventually agreed to leave. “My best wishes to all of you,” the Bengal leader declared as the demonstrators filed out. “Please have a good sleep!”
The audience at @KelloggOx erupted. @MamataOfficial’s maiden speech at Oxford was met with unanimous outrage, as attendees protested against her mishandling of the #rgkarincident and her party’s association & endorsement of anti social activities#MamataBanerjee #Oxford pic.twitter.com/gnR0srijbQ
— Adit (@IndicSocietee) March 27, 2025
Jonathan Michie, the president of Oxford’s Kellogg College which was the venue of the event, offered a public apology to his guest “for the discourteous behaviour of some.” It’s unusual for an Oxford lecture to attract such a large audience and arouse such strong passions. Several professors in the audience were clearly astonished and alarmed by the turmoil – though some with experience of Indian politics commented it was all pretty tame by the standards of electioneering in Kolkata.
The West Bengal chief minister had been invited to talk about women’s empowerment. She spoke confidently for 45 minutes, mainly without notes, then fielded questions posed by the businessman Karan Bilimoria, a fellow of the college.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Her remarks had the tone of an election rally more than an academic presentation – addressing her own background, her people-centred approach to politics, and what she presented as the successes of her state government in West Bengal where she’s been in power for 14 years. She clearly relished the to-and-fro with the protestors. “I fight like anything,” she told the assembled audience.
Banerjee set the tone as soon as she appeared. Both she and Bilimoria insisted that the other should lead the way on to the podium. She won; the British Indian entrepreneur was the first to mount the steps. She insisted that she should be addressed not as ‘chief minister’ or ‘Mamata ji’ but simply as ‘Mamata’. Again, Bilimoria complied.
The chief minister at one point urged Oxford University to establish a presence in India. “Can’t you set up a campus in Kolkata?” she commented. “I can give you the land. And we have the students.”
The evening event at what many regard as Britain’s most renowned university was seen as the highlight of Banerjee’s visit to Britain. She also met British business leaders at a central London hotel to encourage investment in her state, and has been photographed jogging, with her retinue in tow, in Hyde Park.
While at Oxford, she was shown round the world-famous Bodleian library. She also had a private half-hour conversation with a group of Oxford academics who have an expertise in India. Several said they were impressed by the chief minister’s candid and confident approach as well as the deft way she dealt with critical or verbose questions.
Banerjee deliberately avoided making party political points, saying that would be inappropriate when outside India. When she was asked how she saw her country’s future, she parried the question, replying to Bilimoria: “I also want to see your country develop.”
Andrew Whitehead is a former BBC India correspondent.
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