Kolkata: A seemingly innocent classroom exchange has snowballed into a full-blown political row in West Bengal, forcing the Trinamool Congress to send a high-powered delegation to the Election Commission on Wednesday, accusing the BJP of running a “malicious disinformation campaign” against Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
The trigger? A 15-second video from Mamata’s recent visit to a North 24 Parganas school where, while interacting with students, she responded to a child’s question with a polite “Yes, sir.”
The clip went explosively viral after the BJP’s IT cell spliced it with old footage of Mamata criticising the Modi government, captioning it “Ab Sir bolne lagi Didi”— implying she had finally submitted to Delhi’s authority.
Within hours, the hashtag #YesSirMamata was trending nationwide, with morphed videos and memes flooding social media. Furious over the “deliberate distortion,” TMC alleged that the BJP was using “deepfake-like editing” to humiliate Bengal’s elected leader and demanded the immediate removal of all such content.
Led by Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien and state minister Chandrima Bhattacharya, the delegation submitted a 12-page complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer, seeking strict action under the Model Code of Conduct and IT laws. “This is not humour; this is the character assassination of a three-time chief minister,” O’Brien told reporters outside the EC office.
The BJP, however, laughed off the protest, with state president Sukanta Majumdar daring TMC to explain why Mamata herself addressed a schoolboy as “Sir” first. As Bengal braces for panchayat polls next year, a light classroom moment has turned into the latest weapon in the state’s never-ending political slugfest.