Mess at Messi’s Kol event triggers political slugfest
Times of India | 14 December 2025
Kolkata: Football fans have a right to be angry, Trinamool Congress said on Saturday stressing on the fact that Lionel Messi's event at Salt Lake Stadium on Saturday was not organized by the Bengal govt and the party did not have any links to it, even as the opposition attempted to corner the govt over the incident.
Stung by protests both within the party and outside, Trinamool said an enquiry committee led by a retired high court judge has been asked to bring all the facts to the table, including how sticks and bottles, which are not allowed in the stadium, were allowed to enter and identify "Jai Shri Ram" chanting provocateurs who allegedly incited the vandalism.
Trinamool spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, "Bengal is a football crazy place where Messi has a huge fan base. People paid Rs 10,000 for tickets and came from far-flung places to catch a glimpse of Messi. The least the organizers could have done was to put up giant screens and move Messi in an open hood jeep."
"People had come to see Messi, not the organizers and their cohorts," Ghosh said, adding, "This was not an event organized by the Bengal govt. The party has no links to it."
Suvendu Adhikari, BJP senior and leader of opposition in the assembly, shot off a letter to governor CV Ananda Bose in which he sought the governor's intervention and appointment of a separate enquiry headed by a sitting high court judge as he questioned the state govt-constituted panel's neutrality. Adhikari also called for refunds for the tickets sold.
Bengal BJP slammed the state govt, targeting Bengal power minister Aroop Biswas and fire and emergency services minister Sujit Bose, who were in the stadium alongside the footballer.
Biswas said, "The state has ordered an enquiry. I won't comment on anything until the enquiry is complete."
Trinamool, on its end, defended Biswas. "Biswas is Bengal's sports minister. This was a sports event and he was there as an invitee. Had the Bengal govt intervened earlier, it would be criticized for throwing a spanner into an international football event," said Ghosh, the party spokesperson.
Ghosh slammed the "greedy and shameless people" hovering around Messi and blocking out fans from catching a glimpse of him. "These organizers should be taken to task. They have brought shame with their greed," he said.
Adhikari wrote on X: "Thousands of Bengali football fans were humiliated. They paid heavily for steeply-priced tickets for a glimpse of Messi, but instead got crammed like a herd of cattle and watched in desperation as ministers' entourages hijacked the event, blocking the view, and turning the ground into their exclusive VIP durbar. The vandalism was no accident, it was orchestrated by lawlessness."
Ghosh said, "This cannot be a commentary on the state's law and order. It is not a fact that police did not act, they did not use force and tried to pacify tempers. Only when vandals ran amok, they intervened. Messi had back in 2011 played a 90-minute football match against Venezuela in the presence of CM Mamata Banerjee. Nothing happened at the time. These things would not have happened if the private organizers had not messed up and ran only after profiteering."