 Several writers, artists, poets, and academicians took a strong position against the police firing which in turn brought significant international attention.However, there has been some division in Bengal.While Mahasweta Devi, Aparna Sen, Saonli Mitra, Suvaprasanna, Joy Goswami, Kabir Suman, and Bratya Basu along with the environmental activist Medha Patkar condemned the government; Soumitra Chatterjee, Nirendranath Chakraborty, Tarun Majumdar defended the Chief Minister on the development issue.