There was a saffron-clad monk, a balding middle-aged man carrying a backpack, a woman with vermillion on her head.

But the student count during Tuesday afternoon’s march to the state secretariat to demand the resignation of chief minister Mamata Banerjee over the rape and murder of the postgraduate trainee at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was debatable.

What was established beyond doubt was that Mamata’s administration was more than prepared for this march.

RAF personnel lathi-charge during a protest march by Paschimbanga Chhatra Samaj activists to Nabanna (state secretariat) against the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor, in Howrah on Tuesday. PTI picture.

Unlike on the eve of Independence Day when a group of goons broke into RG Kar Medical College and Hospital – where the rape and murder had occurred on August 9 – and assaulted on-duty cops and doctors protesting on the premises of the hospital.

The mob smashed up parts of the hospital as well.

On that night the Calcutta police was accused of not standing up for the city’s residents and not being able to protect and preserve what is in police parlance called a “crime scene.”

This time, the cops were not willing to take any chances.

Barricades were erected overnight and welded together, with bamboo poles supporting to add another layer, cement poured to strengthen these structures, spikes put up, guardrails and cargo containers assembled to block the major thoroughfares leading to the state secretariat located across the Vidyasagar Setu in adjoining Howrah.

Police use water cannons to disperse students marching from Howrah Maidan towards the state secretariat in protest against the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital incident, in Howrah on Tuesday. PTI picture.

Cops and restraining measures were deployed at the lanes and bylanes in the residential areas around the state secretariat.

The purpose: to stop the protesters from reaching anywhere close to where Mamata was attending office during the day.

The BJP had given its blessings to the protest by Chhatra Samaj, a 10-day-old organisation spearheaded by two known RSS and BJP functionaries, Shubhankar Haldar and Sayan Lahiri.

The Congress and the Left along with their frontal organisations involving youths and students as well as independent organisations of the medicos had already distanced themselves from Tuesday afternoon’s protest.

The BJP finally emerged on the scene towards the fag end, as some of its leaders attempted a march towards the Calcutta police’s headquarters at Lalbazar and the state BJP president Sukanta Majumdar announced a 12-hour Bengal bandh for Wednesday.

The three main starting points of the protest rallies were at College Square in central Calcutta, and Santragachhi and Howrah Maidan, as well as the Howrah Bridge.

Roads were emptied as the day progressed.

Yet the spilling of blood could not be avoided, of protesters and cops. A police bike was also set ablaze at Babughat on a day of high drama.

Once the protesters rushed towards the barricades – and in some places succeeded in uprooting those – the cops unleashed their fury using tear-gas shells, tear grenades, water cannons and the old trusted lathi to disperse the assembly.

The cat-and-mouse game between the protesters and the cops was played at several spots: the foot of Howrah bridge, Howrah Maidan, Foreshore Road, part of Hastings in Calcutta, Sealdah.

Police detain a Paschimbanga Chhatra Samaj activist during a protest march to Nabanna (state secretariat) against the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor, in Howrah on Tuesday. PTI picture.

The apprehensions of the government, especially Mamata’s own in handling the unrest building among the doctors, medical students and core votebank, women, has been evident.

Mamata had mentioned the word Bangladesh almost a fortnight ago when the protests had just begun.

Trinamul leader Kunal Ghosh on Tuesday described the rape-and-murder as “samajik-bichhinno-kutsit aparadh” (a social, isolated, ugly crime) while talking to the media during Tuesday’s protests.

Ghosh also blamed the media, just as Calcutta police commissioner Vineet Goyal had on the night of August 14 when the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital was vandalised.

“Multiple [TV news] channels are provoking unrest, encouraging the attackers,” Ghosh wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “Spread of violence is an attempt to promote the criminals. In the evening they will turn into social workers. There is no meeting. There is no dais. Some goons came with the plan to break the barricades. Stones and bricks were pelted at the police. The CI of Chanditala was injured. This is peaceful? The cops were forced to use lathis, tear-gas and water-cannons and the media is instigating them. What does the media want?”

A former Rajya Sabha MP, Ghosh runs a Bengali daily close to the ruling Trinamul.

“Won’t the police stop them? Should some BJP-backed goons be allowed to walk up to Nabanna? If they are stopped and stones are pelted, is that a movement? If the police try to stop that attack, is it unjustified?” Ghosh asked.

“The twisted narrative by the electronic media is largely responsible for this provocation. The anti-social elements tried to break barricades at many places and broke them too. Media is showing this as a glorious event. Police have shown restraint by doing the bare minimum [to contain the violence]. What do they want? Enter Nabanna by breaking the barricades? One-sided provocative statements are being made. Is this the way to seek justice? Unrestricted violence. Anarchy. An attack with the demand to be allowed to go to Nabanna. Do you support this conspiracy?”

Ghosh, state minister Chandrima Bhattacharya and the chief adviser to Mamata Banerjee Alapan Bandyopadhyay appealed to Bengal’s residents to foil Wednesday's bandh called by the BJP.