A meeting of ‘takar hangors’, says Mamata Banerjee

KOLKATA: Nine hangars — something that the Brigade Parade Grounds saw for the first time in a political meeting — that were installed to save the crowd from the heat were an instant hit among BJP suppporters, hawkers and the cops on rally duty.



“I have lost count of the rallies that I have attended at this ground when I used to work and campaign for CPM. I remember how we used to stand in the scorching heat for hours, waiting for our leaders to arrive and speak. The heat used to be unbearable but being ardent party supporters, we kept waiting even as we got roasted. However, this time, it was a pleasant surprise. On Wednesday, I reached the venue at 10am and waited for seven hours for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to speak. But the shade offered by the hangars and the air circulation it maintained made the wait a breezy affair,” said Ganesh Singh, a farmer and a resident of Kalna in Burdwan.

Also impressed was LIC agent and Barrackpore resident Sanjay Kumar Shaw, who has recently switched camps from Trinamool Congress to BJP. The reason? His leader Arjun Singh, the Bhatpara MLA, has left Trinamool and joined BJP and is now contesting from the Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency.

“I was at the Brigade in January this year, donning Trinamool colours. This is my first BJP meeting ever and I must say I am happy with the arrangement. This is also the first time that I am seeing hangars being installed at a political rally. Had Trinamool Congress used similar hangars in its summer meeting and July 21 Shahid Diwas rallies, when it mostly rains, we would not have to get wet and sweat over the years,” said Shaw.

At her poll rally in Dinhata, chief minister Mamata Banerjee, however, heaped scorn on the BJP rally, specifically commenting on the use of the hangars. “Takar hangor-ra hangar-e meeting kore (It’s money sharks who hold their meeting in hangars),” she quipped, punning on the Bengali word for shark (hangor).

Sourced from multiple decorators in north Bengal, each of the hangars covered an approximate area of 11,250 square metre and accommodate 9,000 people if seated on the grass. Made of tensile and waterproof material, the roof of the hangars ensured neither heat not water could percolate. The 20ft high clearance on the side and a maximum height of over 40ft ensured proper air circulation. The party had put up 150 odd LCD screens and 1,000 odd loudspeakers along the area bordering the hangars to make sure no one misses any action.

“While conceptualising the hangars, our primary concern was to ensure comfort for our supporters during this extreme April heat. Since the concept has become a hit, we are planning to replicate it in other meetings in the run-up to the election,” said a senior BJP leader.

Last year, the party had arranged for dome-shaped hangars during Modi’s rally at Midnapore, when one of them had weakened by soft soil due to incessant rain with the added pressure of some attendees climbing up its scaffolding to get a better view of the PM. In the incident, around 90 people were injured. The cops had even slapped cases against the decorator. This time, however, party leaders said, they had done their homework. They had fixed the pillars to the ground and had deployed 800 volunteers just to keep a check on the attendees around the hangars.

BJP state general secretary and Lok Sabha candidate from Basirhat Sayantan Basu said: “We had first introduced hangars at an Amit Shah rally in Purulia last year. At that time, we had sourced the hangars from Ranchi. But they were much smaller in size. These are bigger ones. Each can accommodate even 20,000 people if crammed together,” said Basu.

The first day first show of hangars at the Brigade was such a hit that even cops and hawkers who were there at the ground praised the concept and said that other parties should follow suit. “On rally days like these, we often end up spending close to 12 hours on the field and the scorching heat makes the duty extremely painful. But the situation was much better on Wednesday as we were all under the shade. Rallies in open fields like Maidan should be done this way,” said a policeman in his 50s.