What They Say!

What They Say !

Nidhu Bhusan Das

What they say is chocolate-like

They’re pied-piper,not of Hamelin,

Superior rather, able to manipulate

Common folks,as Brutus,and then

Antony could swing the Romans.

They’re great, what they say

Being beyond comprehension.

They enthral with promises,often,

Not to keep.I like character-play

No matter,film or stage,even public pulpit.

Our orators, original or script-reader

Move us,and we don’t understand

What they say, exactly, at election

Rallies.They,no doubt, must be great.

Obscurantists

  We are not Obscurantists

   Nidhu Bhusan Das

Rabindranath Tagore in his Upanishadic and aesthetic wisdom describes the Taj Mahal as “the Brightest White on the Cheek of Time”.This mausoleum was conceived and executed by the Mughal architect-emperor Shahjahan in memory of his beloved wife.Tagore paid his glowing tribute to the emblem of love in his long eulogy to the great Mughal.

Of late disturbing puny voices are in the air against the  monument.It appears these are the voices of those who have the luxury to be content with the belief that ignorance is bliss.

My erudite friend and editor Dr. Rajendra Prasad Singh has condemned such voices with sound logic.I cannot but go by his standpoint since I believe with strong logic that the rich Indian Culture is a synthesis of many a culture and reflects the “Unity in Diversity” of India.

Now if we contend that the Mughals and other Muslim rulers are foreign invaders we ignore the fact that they made India their home like the Aryans.If we are constrained to accept the fact that Mughals contributed to Indian civilization,we cannot accept the contribution of the Aryans as well.In that case such voices smacks of ignorance and lose relevance.

The Aryans are early comers and brought with them a culture which enriches itself adopting and adapting suitably the existing Indian culture.India and Indian way of life existed before the advent of the Aryans who contributed to the culture once they made India their home.Aryans learned agriculture in the country from the Austric people who had been in agriculture here.The word “langalam” (plough) in Sanskrit vocabulary is a derivation from the Austric word “langal”.How can we ignore the existence of the advanced Harappan civilization much before the advent of the Aryans?

Like the Aryans,the Muslim rulers also made India their home and enriched the Indian culture.The Mughal architecture, cuisine,gardening are some examples.We cannot deny the contribution of rulers like Sher Shah who left behind for us the Grand Trunk Road,the land tenure system. The greatness of Indian civilization lies in its capacity to accept different cultures and experiences. India is an experience.The dynamism of Indian soul is amazing.We have been able to absorb Portuguese,French,English and many other ways of life which enriched our experience.

We have developed many Indian languages and literatures.Urdu,for example,has its birth in India out of the interaction between Hindustani and Persian,the court language of the Muslim rulers. Many Indian languages like Bengali have Persian words like “ukil” (pleader),”adalat”(court of law), Portuguese words like “anaras”(pineapple),”Alpin"(pin). Should we delete them from our vocabulary and disown the fact that Urdu is our language?

If we disown and delete these and monuments like the Taj, we are at perils of being equated by the educated and aesthetically enlightened world with those who have destroyed the statues of the Buddha at Bamiyan in Afghanistan.We cannot give in to the whims and caprices of certain crazy obscurantists and regressive forces.Civilization worth the name looks ahead for progress and retrospects to understand the the heritage to build upon.

Indian civilization is strong and mature enough to withstand assaults.

Keats teaches us,”Beauty is truth,truth beauty” and the core of Indian wisdom is:”Satyam,Shivam,Sundaram”.

The Taj is the incarnation of Beauty and Love which every normal human cherishes and appreciates in joy. Beauty is beauty itself,nothing else,and cannot be tinged with extraneous colour.Beauty emerges,cannot be constructed.It is the manifestation of Joy,not of thought.Even if there is thought behind beauty, that thought transmutes into joy for beauty to emerge.Hence Beauty is universal and cannot be compartmentalized.Let us try to realise the essence of beauty to understand truth.What is the essential difference between a potted rose and a wild flower when we can appreciate beauty?So,let the Brightest White on the Cheek of Time remain undefiled by the poison emanating from Ignorance.If we can do this,many a discord in our national life may disappear.

After all, “A thing of beauty is a joy for ever”.

When Populism Rules the Roost

When Populism Rules the Roost

Nidhu Bhusan Das

Democratic India has changed a lot.A bullet train project,first of its kind in the country, has recently been inaugurated,with loan from Japan and Japenese technology.This is that Japan which was doomed in 1945 under the severe impact of two atom bomb blasts on Hiroshima ( 6 August) and Nagasaki ( 9 August). India got Independence in August 1947 - two years from that doom of Japan.

True,India suffered from colonial exploitation for a couple of centuries and received Independence conceding the partition plan of the British.But it was not reduced to ashes like Japan which could have turned around and be back to the path of prosperity soon enough.It was possible because of the sheer determination of the Japanese and their political leadership.The discipline, etiquette and work culture of the Japanese are enviable and worth emulation.

Japan has not been in the throes of populist politics as we have in India.The politics there, evidently,is mainly focused on economy and economic welfare through effective employment of people.An epitome of humility,they are willing to work with diligence and always wear a smile.We have foregrounded politics and failed to provide a level playing ground for all sections and castes of the population despite the lofty ideals and dreams of the members of the consembly as found expression in our Constitution.Instead,we have succeeded in bringing in identity politics, and thereby divided the polity into myriad fragments,all for gains in electoral politics.We do not have an work culture which may be compared with that of the Japanese.

The consequences are there for us to see and suffer from.We are far behind Japan.We have played minority and caste cards but it has not helped their economic uplift.Whenever a government in recent times gave primacy to economics,and pulled the economy back to track from the brink of collapse,it was rewarded with rebuff at the hustings.The Narasimha Rao

government was denied a second term.Mohammad - bin - Tughlak is denigrated even today with the pejorative “Tughloki” for,inter alia,his economic measures.The humiliation of Narsimha Rao when he was Prime Minister is a matter of record.We heap Shahjahan with praise and consider him with awe as the architect Emperor for his Tajmahal and other architectural sites.However,historians of subaltern school highlight the miseries suffered by his subjects because of famine following the drainage of the exchequer as a consequence.What is in store for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government is right now a matter of conjecture if the electorate is swayed by populism.

Corruption is a bane of Indian politics.A section of influential politicians wear the garb of secularism and try to shield themselves as saviours of the minority when corruption charges come up against them and legal proceedings are drawn.In India populist and identity politics has often been found to  set in motion or accelerate corruption.

Topmost Global Scholar Prof.Nincompoop PhD

  Exclusive Interview With

 Topmost Global Scholar

 Prof.Nincompoop PhD

The Globe-trotter Prof, set to win Noball Prize for omni-knowledge anytime for his erudition, hypocrisy unlimited and wonderful capacity for turncoat-ism, has blessed us in The Eldorado Expose with time for a freewheeling discussion on 25 July, the red-letter-day in the history of human knowledge and which is also his birthday, when the world began to get rid of ignorance with the emergence of the solar-son. Human race is grateful to the Hypo-God for sending this saviour who was greeted in the cradle by three idiots and whose prayer for his immortality was granted by the God we worship now. The Excerpt:

The Expose : Prof. Nincompoop, you’re hailed worldwide for your  ignorant-knowledge and the Make-Believe University has been flooded with letters of appreciation from universities far and wide for awarding the PhD for your omni-knowledge and Himalayan Ignorance. How do you feel Mr. Brilliant?

Prof:  Well, I don’t care. You see, I’m everything, be it ignorance or be it omni-knowledge.Rether I am had giervance for the lateness in the Awared.If the professor wife of an professor feirend of myne at the estoopidity eunivarcity of aoar repooblic deed not discovord mai wondorfool noleze, I deed nat no wat kud hepon.

The Expose : We understand your grievance is genuine, you being a nincompoop.

Prof:   Junoon eu telled? Eat ish uper junoon.Eu no, dey form de Hobard eunivarcity gife mi – wat eat ish- too righting e garamar diconsary for mai supper noleze in Lengatistiksh.

The Expose: We know Dr.Nincompoop PhD, Noam Chomsky would like to appreciate your wonderful knowledge in Linguistics. You are gifted, indeed.

Prof:   Eu deed nat no, de sand a teem of enthoropliks wit a porpozal too estudi viomodikol espokt of enthoropoji.I telled dem I am mad bizi.

The Expose: That’s right Dr. Nincompoop, we understand. We feel we should not eat away your valuable time. We have many things to understand from you. One thing more, Sir. We have come to know, meanwhile, His Majesty and Her Majesty asked you to grace them dining in the Foyal Palace next Friday.

Prof:    Eu aar ebusulootly rite, mai feirend (with a wide smile). I heb hanged a shineboot acorosh de gait ov mai racidance: Hire lif Daktar Porfeshur.Nincompoop PhD, Toppermosh Golobal EScolor. Mai nibarsh suloot de aboot.

The Expose: Thanks sir, for slicing your valuable time for us.

Prof:     Woolkum for selising.

Editor: The interview is audio-recorded. We have tried to retain the pronunciation of Prof. Nincompoop PhD.

Gurung Has Promised the Sun

Nidhu Bhusan Das

It’s wise not to promise to pluck the sun for gifting to the people.Only those who don't know their limitations make such unrealizable commitment. Science tells us the sun is inaccessible; the mythological tale of Icarus’ futile attempt confirms it.Leaders who, from time to time, spearheaded the “Gorkhaland Agitation” may not have tried to find the wisdom in the aphorism:Fools rush where angels fear to tread.

However,it may not be wise to take them to be fools.Rather they appear to be sufficiently worldly wise.While most of the common hill people, meek,gentle and credulous,are incredibly poor,the political elite live in affluence.

Penury versus affluence is the stark reality in the hills.Hegemony has helped sustain the scenario.Hence one-party hegemony is the norm in Darjeeling Politics.Whenever such an hegemony faces challenge or financial audit is sought to be initiated,the hegemony stirs into action and force the innocent people to respond to their call to shut the hills to the perils of the commoners and their untold misery.

Is it possible for Mr. Gurung and his loyalists to give the people of the hill the eldorado of Ghorkhaland?Why is such a demand? What good has they been able to deliver to the common people with the fund made available to the GTA? Mr. Gurung should co-operate with the State Government in carrying out the audit so that the people of the hills and the country may know how the fund has been utilized and who are the beneficiaries.It is important.Mr.Gurung is a politician,and swears he believes in democracy.If democracy is his chosen path,he is supposed to be accountable to the people of the hills and of the country.He must prove how much he is accountable,and be subject to public scrutiny.

At the same time, he should not go against the democratic process his party and others have initiated with the participation in the dialogue with the State Government which is encouraged by the Union Government.It’s strange,he and his close associate Mr. Roshan Giri have abstained from the talks. It’s, perhaps, unwise to believe that Gorkhaland is going to be a reality given ,inter alia,the strategic location of the hills vis-a-vis the visible territorial ambition of one of our neighbours.

If Mr. Gurung and his coterie choose to isolate themselves from the democratic process,they may invite their possible doom.The campaigns for Gorkhaland since 1980s has caused great harm to the international reputation of the hills as an education hub, best quality tea producer and tourist destination.The ecology of the hills also declined severely during the period. Sanity should rule,not stirred emotion, for the revival of the economy and sustainable development of the area.

Questionable Intellectuality

Questionable Intellectuality

Nidhu Bhusan Das

       Honesty is and should remain the hallmark of real and profound intellectuality such as that of Einstein,Romain Rolland, Rabindranath Tagore, APJ Abdul Kalam,et al.Sadly,this is often found absent in the ‘marketed intellectual products’ of present-day India.What is evident is that such products look like being ordered and tailor-made to serve,not the society,but the vested and political interests to the detriment of the society.

It appears, a segment of the intelligentsia finds it comfortable and rewarding to toe the line of the power that be or likes to believe it is progressive to play a tune that doesn’t have the foundation to stand the test of sound logic.

     One may tend to think the hallmark of such intellectuality is Hypocrisy.Such intellectuality generates commercial products which need be marketed with meticulous and extensive ad campaigns.One of the tools of marketing such products is traditional mass media outlet like newspapers.It is perceptible that some such outlets promote some people to facilitate their ways of doing business.

      

    Besides,such intellectuals or pseudo-intellectuals are an anachronism in a society Tagore dreamt of in his poem “Where the Mind is Without Fear”.They, evidently, do not possess the “clear stream of reason” and comfortably live in a world broken up into fragments by “narrow domestic walls”.They are prejudiced,lack the power of profound observation and the capacity to collect data and analyse them scientifically to arrive at a logical conclusion that is original.Rather, they parrot the existing socio-political jargons within the existing framework,restructure the existing materials to repeat the same conclusion clad in jugglery of words and expressions.Their performance fits into the idiom “back to square”. Their words do not “come out from the depth of truth”.They do not strive towards “perfection”, being under the belief that they are sages and people tend to swallow any and everything they preach.They are not blessed with a free mind.

    Einstein believed to know the dates of battles, and which army killed how many of the enemies are not important but why one kills the other or what is the cause of the battle is important and need be explored.He called this “idea”.The intellectuals under discussion lack what Einstein called “idea” in response to a query from his teacher in the history class at his Munich school.

   These intellectuals identify the political divide in India as represented by secularists and fundamentalists.As fundamentalists they identify the Hindu fundamentalists only forgetting the existence of Islamic fundamentalists of which there is global wariness.This they do to conveniently come to a summary judgement of the situation.They also ignore the dangerous existence of communal-secularists mired in corruptions,and their electoral politics of minority appeasement which has not done any good for the socio-economic uplift of the minority( Sachar Committee Report). This politics has paved the way for the emergence of whom they call Hindu fundamentalists.They hold the wrong notion  that appeasement of the minority is an integral part of secularism which is possibly an Indian version of the concept for electoral benefit.

     They are not vocal about the cause of the emergence of identity politics and reticent about the failure of the polity to implement the Gandhian principle of bringing the 'harijans’ on par doing away with the curse of casteism for decades from Independence.

      

    Many of  those who emerged as saviours of the ‘low caste’ Indians in the wake of Mandal agitation are now in the peculiar secular grouping.The intellectuals do not find the corruption charges against some important leaders of caste politics plausible, perhaps, because they think corruption is an unimportant issue for those who are involved in electoral politics of secularism.They are reluctant to work on how some such saviours have amassed huge wealth to thicken and expand the 'creamy layer’ over the 'harijans’ and other backward castes(OBC).

   The failure of our democracy is, unfortunately,clear and a stark reality when universal education and level playing ground for  at least 70 per cent of the Indians are a dream even after about seven decades of Independence.The intellectuals choose to steer clear of such failures in their tailor-made effort to defend the Indian version of secularism which is in keeping with neither Gandhian philosophy nor democracy in letter and spirit.Gandhi held the opinion that political freedom is meaningless without economic freedom and opportunity for all.Summary judgement and tailor-made analysis of the Indian polity and politics by the apparently pliant intellectuals are really baffling.

I would like to present the poem of Tagore hereinbelow for the intellectuals to revisit.

Where the Mind is Without Fear

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.”

Turbulence in Darjeeling

Turbulence in Darjeeling and 

Opacity of Opposition

                        Nidhu Bhusan Das

Politics in India has been reduced to being wily. Shrewdness has replaced wisdom; presence of a void in the absence of content has become the hallmark of our politics and political discourse. The debate on the present violence in Darjeeling hills highlights the hollowness of our politics in which verbosity seeks to hide its poverty in well-meaning thought and wider perspective. The present state of politics in this respect calls to mind the fable of the wolf and the lamb on the bank of a mountain spring. The little lamb drinks water downstream and the wolf drinks upstream. The wolf is bent on feeding on the flesh of the tender lamb, and, therefore, alleges that the lamb has muddied the water. The meekly lamb points out that he being downstream cannot muddy the water upstream. The wolf says the father, the grand father or the great grand father has muddied the water and he must pay for the ‘crime’. With this fallacious argument he kills and feeds on the lamb. Our opposition appears to have assumed the role of the wolf. The opposition awards advantage to those votaries of violence who have gone berserk in the hills.

Darjeeling Burning.Courtesy: Business Times

The focal point of the mainstream opposition in the state, including those whose passivity and abject lack of sense of duty as the ruling coalition once gifted heyday for anti-people forces in the hills, is the ‘Hills Smile’ statement of the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

How can one deny that during her governance a relative calm has prevailed in the hills till the recent civic polls? Development projects were     taken and following the return of peace hill economy looked up with tourism back to growth path? How can it be ignored that when the GTA elections are round the corner and special audit of the GTA accounts have been announced and undertaken, Bimal Gurung, the GTA Chairman and GJM supremo has given the call for the revival of the ‘Gorkhaland’ agitation? The ‘Gorkhaland Demand’ is as fruitful for the contenders of absolute power, perhaps for absolute gratification, like the proverbial goose that laid golden eggs.

The opposition does not denounce the systematic violence being perpetrated in the hills. They are rather busy finding faults of the government. Even those who swear by Gandhi who called off the Non-cooperation Movement after the violence in Chauri-Chaura have failed to condemn the reckless violence. The state leadership of BJP has miserably failed to fathom the gravity of the situation created by their ally in the hills which is likely to seriously affect their organizational growth and expansion of support base in the state.

The GJM swears that the people of the hills are behind the relaunching and continuation of the movement. Does the opposition subscribe to the view? Who are the arbiters- the people or the leaders, who are set to gain- the people or the leaders, who are to lose – the people or the leaders, who will bear the brunt- the people or the leaders? Interestingly all the local parties in the hills have come together while the mainstream politics is divided. It only paves the way for the parochial and ambitious local forces to thrive that subordinate national interest to local vested and emerging interests.

Kolkata's Intellectuals in Willful Slumber

Courtesy: Facebook

Nidhu Bhusan Das

Intelligentsia in West Bengal,proud of being ahead of that of the rest of the world,are in rest for now.Rest they need have after relentless exercise of the brains for rejuvenation to react to larger issues to evolve.Let the space now be taken by commonest of the commoners to protest against the trivial issues or non-issues like that of the death sentence of Indian national Kulbhushan Jadav in Pakistan.The intervention of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case  is not at all significant and worth noticing,probably because a legal luminary like the one who along with other intellectuals of global impact takes to the street of Kolkata to eat beef for the people to see to reassert their progressive credentials in the climate of 'Intolerance’ has not been assigned the task of representing India in the UN judicial forum.

Instead a handful hijab clad Muslim women came out.in the open, placards in hand and slogans on lips against the insolence of Pakistan and Islamabad’s proxy war against India by way of promoting cross border terrorism.Such things are not important because Kolkata's intellectuals do not think so.After all we tend to bask in the glory showered on us when it was said “What Bengal thinks today,the rest of India thinks tomorrow…”

The women staged protest at Ramlila Maidan,Kolkata chanting slogans like “Down with Pakistan”.

International Karate Coach M.A. Ali who organized the demonstration said : “Pakistan promotes terrorism.We cannot and will not keep mum.” Let the intellectuals be in strategic and studied slumber when the commoners take the space.After all,the intelligentsia cannot and should not mingle with,below their dignity, the brainless flock who are thought to be there only to be shepherded,not be shepherded.

Aoa,a street urchin who participated in the slogan chanting, unnoticed might have thought: “The glittering gentle folks may have developed obesity and need karate lessons to repeat their street antics and walkathons in a jolly mood to be photographed and videographed for media coverage.”

All hail our merry-go-round cerebral celebrities and glitterati.

Pak-China Axis vis-a-vis ICJ Order 

Nidhu Bhusan Das

 It is difficult to tame insolence,more so if it is propped by one with institutional capacity to exercise distinct unbridled Power to protect and promote the interest of the insolent to trample and rampage the values that civilized society cherishes.So,it is not to be construed as cynical and pessimistic if some tend to harbour doubt that the stay ordered by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the execution of Mr.Kulbhushan Jadav,an Indian national,may not be honoured as Pakistan in no uncertain terms dares the ICJ on the issue of jurisdiction soon after the pronouncement of judicial arm of the UN the Charter of which arms the Big Five in the Security Council with the Veto Power which is overriding.Depending on precedents Pakistan may flout the verdict as did the USA.
Islamabad can reasonably count on the unflinching support of its time-tested friend and benefactor China for any malevolent action against Mr. Jadav and for that matter against India.Islamabad may ignore the ICJ if they get assurance and ,thus, encouragement from Beijing. Beijing has the record of supporting Pakistan's Genocide in East Pakistan when it was declared Independent on 26 March 1971,and Soviet Union supported the War of Independence of Bangladesh.Once China dubbed the Foreign Policy of now defunct Soviet Union as Social Imperialism and now Moscow is close to Beijing.One can well judge what constitutes imperialistic design considering China’s sure footed strides towards fulfilling its desire for expansion of the sphere of influence on land and sea ignoring the interests and rights of the countries in the vicinity. Pakistan may carry out the execution of the death sentence awarded to hapless Kulbhushan by the Military Court which appears to be nothing but a Kangaroo Court. Such desperate and dangerous possibility can be averted only if good sense prevails in the omnipotent military authorities of Pakistan and monolithic power structure in Beijing.

Intolerance: Pedantic Debate & Folk Wisdom

            Intolerance: Pedantic

           Debate & Folk Wisdom

                                        Nidhu Bhusan Das

A debate, rather a one - way interpretation of Hinduism as a pejorative for communal majoritism is on in India today. In this respect it is pertinent to refer to how our Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi looked at Hinduism. The Mahatma said: “I am a Hindu because it is Hinduism which makes the world worth living. I am a Hindu hence I love not only human beings, but all living beings.” Was Gandhi communal? Did he not ardent followers like Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, the renowned “Sheemanta Gandhi?” Was our late President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam communal or fundamentalist? What about Swami Vivekananda or Shri Arabinda,the scholar par excellence who responded to the call of spiritualism after the end of the Alipur Bomb Case?

We the common people are perplexed in the whirlwind of such debate and interpretation. It is, perhaps, difficult for common Indians to comprehend where they really stand in the polity depending on what is being dished out by way of the discussion and reactions of our enlightened few vis - a – vis the folk wisdom or the ignorance of the illiterate folks. For them all these deliberations are confusing. Folk wisdom or the ignorance of the folks is reflected in the electoral results or performances of recent years. If it is so, the wisdom being presented these days appears to be pedantic and elitist shorn of the understanding of the folk mind. I don’t know if it smacks of ostentatious and arrogant show of learning. Even the prepoll surveys conducted by professional organizations in collaboration with media entities are unable to feel the pulse of the electorate these days.

Why this happens is the moot point, and the entities might have started introspection.

When everything is judged within the framework of existing models and data base, and is just a mechanical and academic or pseudo-academic exercise, ground reality and truth may not be explored and grasped. Human behaviour being dynamic and evolving, it is difficult, depending on data analysis and sample surveys only, to predict with optimum accuracy how in a particular situation the mass will behave and decide. So, it is really a Herculean task to play the guardian of public mind any more in the evolving mass society. What had been found true for decades after independence is found not to be true in the present demographic profile of India. Those who belonged to the era of the Freedom Struggle or were born immediately after or within a few decades from Independence might have taken into account or were carried by the emotion and glow of the great struggle. They formed the majority in the electorate and dominated as opinion leaders. They imbibed the values propagated by Mahatma Gandhi and pragmatism of Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru. The majority in the electorate today is formed of people who are millennials.They live in the moment and judge by what they see now and what they think may create opportunities for them and generations-next. In India now, the debate between secularism and majoritism does not hold water for them – they seem to be concerned with the campaign for development. True, when the state has the development agenda and the party in power can project itself as the earnest pursuer of the philosophy of development and is capable of drawing up viable development plans and of implementing those wins the verdict of this neo-majority. The debate on Secularism versus Communalism does not inspire this majority as they do not tend to think it important because development in a diverse society that India is cannot be selective which is bound to be truncated that precludes limited development to hinder  national  gain in every sphere of life. A handful of rich people in a predominantly poor neighbourhood do not mean the prosperity of the area as a whole.

It is baffling why a democracy be defined with the addendum of secularism. Do our parliamentary Democracy and Republican Constitution not enough to provide for equality irrespective of caste, creed and religion? If not so, should we not be held responsible for being unable to inculcate the essential democratic values in our citizenry over the decades?

P.S. A Bengali poet has recently been sued for allegedly hurting the religious sentiment of a community in his poem posted on the Facebook. A lot of discussion is going on regarding the filing of a complaint with Siliguri police by an individual. The discussants term this action as an instance of intolerance at least at the societal, if not at the national level. The tone sounds virulent. Are they equally virulent against terrorism which is the fallout of religious fundamentalism? Have they shown their willingness to deliberate on the two states of Islam – “State of Islam” and “Islamic State”. A state leadership set a bounty on the head of Salman Rushdie when his “Satanic Verses” was released and the celebrated author had to go and remain underground for many years. The complaint with the police by an individual may not be as serious as it appears from the hue and cry compared to the fatwa against Mr. Rushdie.

Beware of Killers

          Beware of Killers, and Remember

Prevention Is Better Than Cure

Who are you, who am I? We are assets of our family to be lost soon to greed. We are assets to killers who, as agents of others, kill for money. Both the agent, who is remote controlled, and the boss who remains behind the transparent screen, are guided by Greed. The agent forgets the oath (known as the Hippocratic Oath for physicians) taken before embarking on the ‘Noble Profession’ to have compassion, to "First do no harm" (Latin: Primum non nocere) and also to “utterly reject harm and mischief” (Latin: noxamvero et maleficium propulsabo).

They, in a ceremony take, just to forget the next moment, the following oath:

“I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant:

I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.

I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures which are required, avoiding those twin traps of over treatment and therapeutic nihilism.

I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.

CM Mamata Banerjee with the top representatives
of private hospitals and nursing homes of  WB.
Courtesy: Hindustan Times

I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

I will respect the privacy of my patients, for their problems are not disclosed to me that the world may know. Most especially must I tread with care in matters of life and death. Above all, I must not play at God.

I will remember that I do not treat a fever chart, a cancerous growth, but a sick human being, whose illness may affect the person's family and economic stability. My responsibility includes these related problems, if I am to care adequately for the sick.

I will prevent disease whenever I can but I will always look for a path to a cure for all diseases.

I will remember that I remain a member of society, with special obligations to all my fellow human beings, sound of mind and body as well as the infirm.

If I do not violate this oath, may I enjoy life and art, respected while I live and remembered with affection thereafter. May I always act so as to preserve the finest traditions of my calling and may I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.”

(Written in 1964 by Louis Lasagna, Academic Dean of the School of Medicine at Tufts University).

    What we see around today in West Bengal is the violation of the covenant. We have disease means we are assets for the violators of the covenant. The family of the sick becomes the easy prey to the greed of the vultures among the medical practitioners. They spend, in many cases, all they have and then lose their assets to the greed of those they believed were their messiahs. The losers are helpless people, unable to seek and find justice in the court of law because they don’t have the capacity to fight protracted battles.

    Antonio could be protected from the greed and cruelty of Shylock because a Portia was there to argue his case in the court of the Venetian Duke (The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare). Should we expect Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be able to protect the sick in future from the vultures with stringent legislation and the judiciary can go for suo motto action against the culprits? What happens is not the fallout of negligence, but of sheer greed.

   The Chief Minister on 22 February in a meeting at the Town Hall, Kolkata, with the top representatives of dozens of private hospitals and nursing homes of the state, echoed the popular grievances and hauled them up for overcharging patients and shoddy service. 

“Is the kidney racket still going on in your hospital?” lashed out chief minister Mamata Banerjee leaving the representative of one of the prominent private hospitals of Kolkata fumbling for answers. “I will not allow any kidney racket, or baby racket, to run in Bengal,” she remarked while speaking to authorities of Medica Superspeciality Hospital. (Incidentally, CID had investigated a case of alleged kidney racket against the hospital. The case is subjudice.)

“I was speaking with someone from Bangladesh. They told me that they are thinking of not sending patients to your hospital. You charge exorbitantly high,” Mamata Banerjee told Rana Dasgupta, the CEO of Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals. The official tried to answer her queries but faced a torrent of allegations from the chief minister.