Nidhu Bhusan Das
West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharyya has the recent refrain: Either leftism or death. Noble declamation. They swear by leftism but never again pays lip service to Marxism after the fall of the socialist regimes in East Europe and dismantling of the Soviet Union in the wake of Perestroika and Glasnost laid out by Mikhail Gorbachev.The Left Front led by CPI (M) rules the eastern Indian state since 1977.During their long rule the proletariat has not emerged as a distinct class with ability to govern. Instead, a red bourgeoisie has come into being, and a coalition between the left rulers and the capitalists is quite evident. This is, no doubt, a compromise.
Lenin, by way of discussing compromises in class struggle with the bourgeoisie, emphasized that they can be and, in the case of the opportunists, are a means of preserving and protecting the capitalist system, in the final analysis representing acts of treachery against the revolutionary proletariat. Way back in 1984, Alexander Titarenko, Head of the Chair of Ethics and the History of Philosophy at Moscow State University, in his essay ‘Lenin on the Relationship Between Politics and Morality’ wrote: ‘Principles and ideals cannot be changed at will, proceeding from considerations of success here and now.They are not subject to fashion like shoes or clothes. Principles and ideals form the humanist core of the communist world outlook, and it is precisely on their basis that man cognizes changes of reality and, at the same time, witnesses their further mutual enrichment and development.’ Lenin demanded that a Marxist politician should have high moral qualities such as depth of convictions, integrity, a keen conscience, a sense of class justice and loyalty to communist moral ideals.
The ruling Marxists in West Bengal appear to be miles away from the communist moral ideals. They have surrendered the ideals at the altar of electoral politics and forces of market economy which has phenomenal expansion across the globe under the process of globalization in the unipolar world. The forcible eviction of peasants from their land acquired for Tata Motors at Singur, the atrocities on the people of Nandigram who were unwilling to part with their fertile land for the chemical hub of the Salim Group of Indonesia demonstrate the abject surrender of the communist moral ideals.
A basic postulate of Marxism is that the superstructure of the society reflects the nature and interest of the class which dominates the basic structure i.e., the economy. Law represents the superstructure. The left government has invoked the law made by the British colonial rulers in 1894 to acquire land at Singur, and that too not in public interest but in the interest of a corporate house. The bonhomie of the Bengal Marxists with the corporate entities at home and abroad smacks of aberration.
HARMAD
Nidhu Bhusan Das
What’s Harmad, mom?
Don’t know? What our beloved Boss believes should not be used to refer to the armed cadres and hired goons of his party.
Why he believes so?
He is conscious more about the dress than thought and substance.
What’s the substance of his thought?
He calls the main opposition party uneducated by innuendo but won’t brook any reference to his party using armed cadres and hired goons to control areas and silence opposition.
Is it?
Haven’t you seen the armed people with slippers and in police uniform in operation along with police at Nandigram against the innocent villagers who were against land acquisition for chemical hub, and people with staves and bombs in the procession led by a senior colleague of the Boss?
Yes, in the TV?
What would you call them?
Criminals, outlaws!
Hush! Don’t be loud, my son. They may be around.
So what!
They will make our life a hell as they said they would and did in Nandigram.
Cowards die many times before their death, mom.
But they are powered by the state, you know.
They swear by democracy, mom.
This is only lip service to the government by the people, for the people and of the people.
What is, then, actually true.
Theirs is the government by terrorized and misinformed people, for the party and of the party.
So the Boss said, ‘we are 235 to their 30.’?
Exactly, if Britain and the USA are democracies.
What’s Harmad, mom?
Don’t know? What our beloved Boss believes should not be used to refer to the armed cadres and hired goons of his party.
Why he believes so?
He is conscious more about the dress than thought and substance.
What’s the substance of his thought?
He calls the main opposition party uneducated by innuendo but won’t brook any reference to his party using armed cadres and hired goons to control areas and silence opposition.
Is it?
Haven’t you seen the armed people with slippers and in police uniform in operation along with police at Nandigram against the innocent villagers who were against land acquisition for chemical hub, and people with staves and bombs in the procession led by a senior colleague of the Boss?
Yes, in the TV?
What would you call them?
Criminals, outlaws!
Hush! Don’t be loud, my son. They may be around.
So what!
They will make our life a hell as they said they would and did in Nandigram.
Cowards die many times before their death, mom.
But they are powered by the state, you know.
They swear by democracy, mom.
This is only lip service to the government by the people, for the people and of the people.
What is, then, actually true.
Theirs is the government by terrorized and misinformed people, for the party and of the party.
So the Boss said, ‘we are 235 to their 30.’?
Exactly, if Britain and the USA are democracies.
I'm A Marxist
Nidhu Bhusan Das
I’m a Marxist.
Is it?
Very much.
Where’s your beard?
Is it necessary to have a beard to be a Marxist?
Marx’s bearded. I’ve seen his photo.
Karat, Yechuri, Bhattacharyya, Bose, Konar et al are not bearded, yet Marxists.
You see, they have scored good marks, and you know to-day marks are marx as pictures are pix.So, they are Marxists.
What do you mean?
Karat and Yechuri are JNU alumni, Bhattacharyya’s alma mater is Presidency College, Kolkata.Besides, and he’s two times Chief Minister and long serving state Home Minister. Bhattacharyya, Bose and Konar are superb in letting out streams of invectives against the opposition. Have you heard them speak?
Yes, they declaim and gesture like protagonists in an Elizabethan Revenge Play and win the claps of the neo-proletariats. This is their score.
Who are neo-proletariats?
Oh! You don’t know? Well, they are red capitalists, their henchmen.Anti-Marxists or reactionaries call the henchmen lumpen proletariat. They play a glorious role in keeping the Marxists in power. They are sharp shooters, can make and use bombs. They are an important feature of a ruling Marxist procession and meeting. They are expert in impersonating, booth jamming and rigging polls. They can keep the voters indoors, spare the people of the trouble of coming to the polling booths. All the votes of such people go in favour of Marxists candidates. At least the opposition has such allegations.
The opposition is reactionary.
So, the Chief Minister Bhattacharyya and Chairman Bose call the lady at the head of the opposition a liar and the oppositoion led by her indisciplined and trouble-monger.
Is it true the lady was once mortally wounded by a Marxist street fighter? His name’s Alam?
It’s correct and also right in all senses. Let me clarify. She was in the right against the left led by the Marxists and it was right for the left to try to annihilate her. Also, in the Marxist dispensation Marxists street fighters are allowed the right to do so. In such cases, the constitutional right to life is suspended. No case is filed for such attack.
Well, I am enlightened. Now what will the Marxists do to face the Assembly polls in
2011? Do they believe a change is on the card, as the lady in the opposition claims?
Marxists believe only in Marxism, nothing short of it. Marxism thrives only when the party is in power. So, they will try to retain power. Marxists could be Machiavellians to accept that the end determines the means.
You’re a Marxist because you understand the Marxists.
You’re correct. I know the Marxists around me and their modus operendi.I don’t know what is there in the Das Capital and the Communist Manifesto.That doesn’t matter.
I’m a Marxist.
Is it?
Very much.
Where’s your beard?
Is it necessary to have a beard to be a Marxist?
Marx’s bearded. I’ve seen his photo.
Karat, Yechuri, Bhattacharyya, Bose, Konar et al are not bearded, yet Marxists.
You see, they have scored good marks, and you know to-day marks are marx as pictures are pix.So, they are Marxists.
What do you mean?
Karat and Yechuri are JNU alumni, Bhattacharyya’s alma mater is Presidency College, Kolkata.Besides, and he’s two times Chief Minister and long serving state Home Minister. Bhattacharyya, Bose and Konar are superb in letting out streams of invectives against the opposition. Have you heard them speak?
Yes, they declaim and gesture like protagonists in an Elizabethan Revenge Play and win the claps of the neo-proletariats. This is their score.
Who are neo-proletariats?
Oh! You don’t know? Well, they are red capitalists, their henchmen.Anti-Marxists or reactionaries call the henchmen lumpen proletariat. They play a glorious role in keeping the Marxists in power. They are sharp shooters, can make and use bombs. They are an important feature of a ruling Marxist procession and meeting. They are expert in impersonating, booth jamming and rigging polls. They can keep the voters indoors, spare the people of the trouble of coming to the polling booths. All the votes of such people go in favour of Marxists candidates. At least the opposition has such allegations.
The opposition is reactionary.
So, the Chief Minister Bhattacharyya and Chairman Bose call the lady at the head of the opposition a liar and the oppositoion led by her indisciplined and trouble-monger.
Is it true the lady was once mortally wounded by a Marxist street fighter? His name’s Alam?
It’s correct and also right in all senses. Let me clarify. She was in the right against the left led by the Marxists and it was right for the left to try to annihilate her. Also, in the Marxist dispensation Marxists street fighters are allowed the right to do so. In such cases, the constitutional right to life is suspended. No case is filed for such attack.
Well, I am enlightened. Now what will the Marxists do to face the Assembly polls in
2011? Do they believe a change is on the card, as the lady in the opposition claims?
Marxists believe only in Marxism, nothing short of it. Marxism thrives only when the party is in power. So, they will try to retain power. Marxists could be Machiavellians to accept that the end determines the means.
You’re a Marxist because you understand the Marxists.
You’re correct. I know the Marxists around me and their modus operendi.I don’t know what is there in the Das Capital and the Communist Manifesto.That doesn’t matter.
Choreographed Violence
Nidhu Bhusan Das
Witness the dance of violence in West Bengal. You will find it reasonable to believe it is meticulously choreographed. Since the Lokshabha polls the spate of violence continues unabated. No let up appears to be in sight. Bloodshed has been routine. Governance is virtually absent. Constitutional machinery has been rendered ineffective. Government is in place sans governance. An alarming situation prevails. Right to life has ceased to exist. We have an elaborate arrangement for democratic rule in the absence tolerance. The discourse of violence and invectives has replaced debate, dialogue and discussion. Terror looms large ahead of the Assembly polls.
The reason is obvious. We have democracy on the lip and disregard for the demos i.e., the people and their free will. We are afraid of the free and fair expression of people’s will at the hustings. So, we intimidate people, terrorize them with a view to preventing them from the expression of their free will. Yet we boast of our democracy. It is ironical, and we are not ashamed. Coercion and terror cannot be in use to the degeneration of democracy if the ruling party acts in earnest to prevent such misadventure. In fact, the ruling party is often found to use such methods to cling to power where informed and educated public opinion is sought to be relegated to insignificance and the government seeks to be the guardian of the public mind.
Our Chief Minister seems to be more loyal to the party than to the Constitution he was sworn- in to protect. He is in the habit of hurling invectives at the leader of the main opposition, the party which has thrown the toughest challenge in about three decades and a half of their rule during which the economy, education and healthcare and work culture have nosedived. Those accused in murder cases are at large, and the police cannot trace them if they belong to the ruling Marxist party. The Chief Minister is vociferous when he digs at the opposition blames it for all evils, and is tight-lipped even when his cabinet colleague is seen leading a procession of party men armed with bombs and staves.
This being the scenario, the ruler may wield power but loses authority. This is a precarious situation in the state. The rule of law is at stake when the ruler loses authority and the dictum of the Constitution that all are equal in the eye of law is not followed.
Witness the dance of violence in West Bengal. You will find it reasonable to believe it is meticulously choreographed. Since the Lokshabha polls the spate of violence continues unabated. No let up appears to be in sight. Bloodshed has been routine. Governance is virtually absent. Constitutional machinery has been rendered ineffective. Government is in place sans governance. An alarming situation prevails. Right to life has ceased to exist. We have an elaborate arrangement for democratic rule in the absence tolerance. The discourse of violence and invectives has replaced debate, dialogue and discussion. Terror looms large ahead of the Assembly polls.
The reason is obvious. We have democracy on the lip and disregard for the demos i.e., the people and their free will. We are afraid of the free and fair expression of people’s will at the hustings. So, we intimidate people, terrorize them with a view to preventing them from the expression of their free will. Yet we boast of our democracy. It is ironical, and we are not ashamed. Coercion and terror cannot be in use to the degeneration of democracy if the ruling party acts in earnest to prevent such misadventure. In fact, the ruling party is often found to use such methods to cling to power where informed and educated public opinion is sought to be relegated to insignificance and the government seeks to be the guardian of the public mind.
Our Chief Minister seems to be more loyal to the party than to the Constitution he was sworn- in to protect. He is in the habit of hurling invectives at the leader of the main opposition, the party which has thrown the toughest challenge in about three decades and a half of their rule during which the economy, education and healthcare and work culture have nosedived. Those accused in murder cases are at large, and the police cannot trace them if they belong to the ruling Marxist party. The Chief Minister is vociferous when he digs at the opposition blames it for all evils, and is tight-lipped even when his cabinet colleague is seen leading a procession of party men armed with bombs and staves.
This being the scenario, the ruler may wield power but loses authority. This is a precarious situation in the state. The rule of law is at stake when the ruler loses authority and the dictum of the Constitution that all are equal in the eye of law is not followed.
Serve the People to Earn
Serve the People to Earn
Nidhu Bhusan Das
Our MPs are great .They are born to serve the people, selflessly.They are all for the welfare of the people. They do not take a single step without an eye on the people. They cry hoarse in the Parliament, sometimes create pendamonium, all for the benefit of the people. They are persons of conscience, and educated enough to read the mind of the people. They are good communicators, and masters of code mixing and code switching to win the hearts of the people who are assumed to be wise, able to choose wisely their MPs in general elections. Wise people’s choice must be wise and the chosen ones are, no doubt, wise. So, our MPs are wise, educated and persons of conscience.
MPs are politicians with mass following. They are social engineers, can rally people and mould public opinion in favor of them. They are speech wizards and can sway the people with oratory and also lung power when reason is not enough to argue a point. They are simply brilliant, shining stars in the firmament of Indian democracy, the largest in the world. They are the luminaries, and make us proud.
We wonder how they can go on thinking round the clock for the benefit of the people. It is because of their tireless, ceaseless and selfless endeavour that we have many things to be happy with, like mega cities, shopping malls, 24 X 7 TV news channels studded with their faces, gleaming.
They are our leaders – guides, philosophers and friends. We understand their well being means our welfare. They are our faces, faces of India and these rosy faces masquerade our penury, if any. Some reactionaries, deliberately, try to tarnish our image contending that we have people below the poverty-line. They talk about the slum dwellers, landless peasants, locked out factory workers.
In fact they are idlers, worthless people, and cannot take opportunities provided by our politics. Our politics need muscle power and money power to sustain democracy through elections. We need camps of armed goons, gory clashes to capture territories and retain them to win elections, if media reports are to be believed. The idlers can well be active in the political process and the money power used in it may make them happy. They should learn from the MPs who are always busy and active, and, thus, earn participating in the muscle flexing. In soccer, players of a team earn hefty amount playing against another. We have many parties vying for MP seats and the idlers can work for these parties and earn. Parties need workers and those who work for them can earn, legitimately.
In the current monsoon session of the Parliament, the salary of an MP has been enhanced more than three-fold. Other benefits have also been increased substantially. So what! They deserve more, given their sacrifice for the nation.Lalu Prasad Jadav, the messiah of the poor and the backward is right when he seeks Rs. 80,001 as monthly salary for an MP, which is one rupee above the maximum salary of drawn by a bureaucrat. Why should a bureaucrat earn more than a politician? A politician is a talent while a bureaucrat is fed with books. We may do without bureaucrats but we cannot conceive our democracy sans politicians. So, we should support the pay hike for the MPs, bask in their fortune and say: ‘Hurrah! We have been rewarded. It’s time to celebrate. We are happy when our MPs are benefited because they are ours.’
Nidhu Bhusan Das
Our MPs are great .They are born to serve the people, selflessly.They are all for the welfare of the people. They do not take a single step without an eye on the people. They cry hoarse in the Parliament, sometimes create pendamonium, all for the benefit of the people. They are persons of conscience, and educated enough to read the mind of the people. They are good communicators, and masters of code mixing and code switching to win the hearts of the people who are assumed to be wise, able to choose wisely their MPs in general elections. Wise people’s choice must be wise and the chosen ones are, no doubt, wise. So, our MPs are wise, educated and persons of conscience.
MPs are politicians with mass following. They are social engineers, can rally people and mould public opinion in favor of them. They are speech wizards and can sway the people with oratory and also lung power when reason is not enough to argue a point. They are simply brilliant, shining stars in the firmament of Indian democracy, the largest in the world. They are the luminaries, and make us proud.
We wonder how they can go on thinking round the clock for the benefit of the people. It is because of their tireless, ceaseless and selfless endeavour that we have many things to be happy with, like mega cities, shopping malls, 24 X 7 TV news channels studded with their faces, gleaming.
They are our leaders – guides, philosophers and friends. We understand their well being means our welfare. They are our faces, faces of India and these rosy faces masquerade our penury, if any. Some reactionaries, deliberately, try to tarnish our image contending that we have people below the poverty-line. They talk about the slum dwellers, landless peasants, locked out factory workers.
In fact they are idlers, worthless people, and cannot take opportunities provided by our politics. Our politics need muscle power and money power to sustain democracy through elections. We need camps of armed goons, gory clashes to capture territories and retain them to win elections, if media reports are to be believed. The idlers can well be active in the political process and the money power used in it may make them happy. They should learn from the MPs who are always busy and active, and, thus, earn participating in the muscle flexing. In soccer, players of a team earn hefty amount playing against another. We have many parties vying for MP seats and the idlers can work for these parties and earn. Parties need workers and those who work for them can earn, legitimately.
In the current monsoon session of the Parliament, the salary of an MP has been enhanced more than three-fold. Other benefits have also been increased substantially. So what! They deserve more, given their sacrifice for the nation.Lalu Prasad Jadav, the messiah of the poor and the backward is right when he seeks Rs. 80,001 as monthly salary for an MP, which is one rupee above the maximum salary of drawn by a bureaucrat. Why should a bureaucrat earn more than a politician? A politician is a talent while a bureaucrat is fed with books. We may do without bureaucrats but we cannot conceive our democracy sans politicians. So, we should support the pay hike for the MPs, bask in their fortune and say: ‘Hurrah! We have been rewarded. It’s time to celebrate. We are happy when our MPs are benefited because they are ours.’
Challenges to Print Media
Nidhu Bhusan Das
Advent and use of new technology has been the cause of evolution of mass communication.Orature evolved into literature with the invention of writing. Literature spread and has been increasing in volume with the invention and upgradation of printing technology. What began as DIURNA, a handwritten bulletin in Rome Before Christ, is now the capital-intensive newspaper industry across the globe. Now we live in the age of media convergence following the addition of electronic and satellite technologies. What agitates our mind to-day is if the print media will lose ground to the electronic media. The apprehension has been that TV and internet are likely to spell doom for the print media. The print media has been able to face and fight challenges so far introducing new features like colour photos, news analyses and also going for convergence. All major newspapers to-day have electronic or web versions. Besides, newspaper groups like The Times of India have also launched TV news channels to retain the audience base and also to expand it with an eye on augmented profit.
How long will the newspapers and magazines will be able to hold sway vis-à-vis the overwhelming presence of TV, the gradual transformation of the Internet into a mass medium with more and more people turning netizens and the growing campaign for a paperless digital world, particularly when environmental considerations demand priority and environmentalists cry foul of deforestation.
Emerging ground realities, though a few, suggest all is not well in the print media world. Over the last two decades, two international newsmagazines NEWSWEEK and TIME have lost ground in circulation. NEWSWEEK sold over three million two decades ago and in 2009 the sale came down to 1.9 million. TIME dipped from 4.2 million to 3.3 million during the period. The shrink is attributed to ruthless news cycle, competition from TV, blogs and social media.
Electronic media like TV and Internet have an edge over the print media. They are instant media capable of presenting news as it is breaking and updating the same from time to time. The audio-visual aspect of TV coupled with animation is attractive to the viewers while Internet offers scope for reading on the computer monitor and having printed version. Blogs and social media available on the net have made the digital world more participatory, exciting and interactive. We are not sure how the print media will hold on in the emerging situation.
Advent and use of new technology has been the cause of evolution of mass communication.Orature evolved into literature with the invention of writing. Literature spread and has been increasing in volume with the invention and upgradation of printing technology. What began as DIURNA, a handwritten bulletin in Rome Before Christ, is now the capital-intensive newspaper industry across the globe. Now we live in the age of media convergence following the addition of electronic and satellite technologies. What agitates our mind to-day is if the print media will lose ground to the electronic media. The apprehension has been that TV and internet are likely to spell doom for the print media. The print media has been able to face and fight challenges so far introducing new features like colour photos, news analyses and also going for convergence. All major newspapers to-day have electronic or web versions. Besides, newspaper groups like The Times of India have also launched TV news channels to retain the audience base and also to expand it with an eye on augmented profit.
How long will the newspapers and magazines will be able to hold sway vis-à-vis the overwhelming presence of TV, the gradual transformation of the Internet into a mass medium with more and more people turning netizens and the growing campaign for a paperless digital world, particularly when environmental considerations demand priority and environmentalists cry foul of deforestation.
Emerging ground realities, though a few, suggest all is not well in the print media world. Over the last two decades, two international newsmagazines NEWSWEEK and TIME have lost ground in circulation. NEWSWEEK sold over three million two decades ago and in 2009 the sale came down to 1.9 million. TIME dipped from 4.2 million to 3.3 million during the period. The shrink is attributed to ruthless news cycle, competition from TV, blogs and social media.
Electronic media like TV and Internet have an edge over the print media. They are instant media capable of presenting news as it is breaking and updating the same from time to time. The audio-visual aspect of TV coupled with animation is attractive to the viewers while Internet offers scope for reading on the computer monitor and having printed version. Blogs and social media available on the net have made the digital world more participatory, exciting and interactive. We are not sure how the print media will hold on in the emerging situation.
Change in West Bengal : Diagnosis and Prognosis
Change in West Bengal: Diagnosis and Prognosis
Nidhu Bhusan Das
Is West Bengal poised for a change for the better? Is a socio-economic rejuvenation in the offing? These are the questions agitating every critical and curious mind in the state even as a political change is underway. On the political front, the opposition and those who feel they have been in a claustrophobic situation under a virtual dictatorial regime see a new horizon emerging with hope. Those who believe there has been enough of democracy and a lot of progressive measures benefiting the common people since the regime change in 1977 apprehend bad days are ahead in case the present regime is thrown out in the 2011 Assembly elections.
What has led to the change underway? The trend for change is loud and clear – maybe cataclysmic in the sense that after the resounding victory of the Left Front in the in the Assembly polls in 2006 a sudden reversal set in and the 235 -30 arithmetic started to work the other way round. Ms Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (grassroots congress) resurrected from a moribund state in the wake of the dismal showing (won only 30 seats against 235 of the Left Front) in the Assembly polls. The events of Singur and Nandigram were the immediate cause for the reversal. Mamata won the public trust and emerged redoubtable leading the resistance of the rural folks against atrocious measures of the government.
Now, the Marxists in the state after about three decades and a half are most likely to be voted out in 2011.They romped to power in the eastern Indian state in 1977 riding the Janata wave raised by Jayprakash Narayan against the Emergency of Mrs. Indira Gandhi which brought the first non-congress government at the centre of the largest democracy of the world.Janata experiment soon failed and in the mid-term polls to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Indian parliament) Congress under Mrs. Gandhi returned to power in 1980.Marxists remained secured on the saddle of West Bengal politicizing the bureaucracy, the institutions and even social relations. In the process they monopolized power. What the former Governor of the state Mr. Gopal Krishna Gandhi on 9 November 2007 in a press release from Kolkata Raj Bhavan termed ' territorial assertion' and consequent intimidation in Nandigram of East Midnapore is perceived to be true of the whole of West Bengal. It helped establish the Marxist fiefdom in the state and the results of elections to different bodies including the state Legislative Assembly seemed to be foregone conclusions for a long time till the panchayet polls after Singur - Nandigram episode which catapulted Mamata and her Trinamool Congress to the centre stage of state politics as Ms Banerjee with her rebel and good Samaritan image could knock on the mass psyche and inspire people to fight against the totalitarian-like dispensation of the left under CPI-M.
The lone voice of sustained protest against the ' misrule ' of the Left Front led by the Marxists (CPI-M) has been of Ms Banerjee, their albatross, and is the catalyst for the political change. She came of a humble family of Kolkata and does not have political pedigree like many leaders in South Asia e.g., Aung Sang Suu Kye of Myanmar, Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, late Benajir Bhutto of Pakistan.
She started her political career with Congress (I) in 1970s and soon came to be a firebrand leader with rebel image which the people of Bengal nourish and worship as found in the case of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.Mamata's popularity is unparalleled. She won it through her relentless struggle against injustice coupled with her clean image. Her life style is simple and she speaks the language of the people and her rhetoric consists in the intonation, pitch and nuances that mark her articulation. After a series of ups and downs, Mamata appears to be steps away from the Writers' Buildings, the seat of West Bengal Government. Her parent party, Indian National Congress, reasserts that she is the leader of their opposition alliance going to the polls to unseat the Left Front. Meanwhile, a couple of ministers, including the Industries Minister Nirupam Sen,while speaking at the Assembly sessions, appeared to have sounded valedictory notes, reported leading Kalkata dailies.
Mamata began her legislative career winning against Marxist stalwart Somnath Chatterjee at Jadavpur (Kolkata) Lok Sabha constituency in 1984 and became one of India's youngest parliamentarians ever. She lost her seat in 1989 in an anti -Congress wave. She returned to the parliament in 1991 winning the South Kolkata constituency which she retains till to-day with waxing popularity for selfless service, a rare phenomenon in Indian politics now. She boosted her rebel image resigning ministership more than once and could not remain with the Congress which could not go with her all - out offensive against the left ‘misrule’.
In 1996, Mamata alleged Congress was behaving like a stooge of the CPI-M in West Bengal and broke away from it the next year to form All India Trinamool Congress which quickly emerged as the primary opposition to the long-standing Left Front government in the state. Her party won nine Lok Sabha seats in the next general elections, a spectacular performance. In 1999 she joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and became the Railways Minister. She walked out of NDA in 2001 and allied with Congress for the state Assembly elections amidst speculation that the alliance could unseat the Left Front.However, this move failed to yield result.
She returned to NDA and the cabinet in January 2004. In the general elections the same year her
party could retain only one parliamentary seat which she won. This was a major setback for the party.Trinamool’s bad patch continued when the party in 2005 lost the control of Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the next year its strength in the state Assembly decreased to 30,less than half the seats they had won in 2001.Fortune began to smile upon her after Singur – Nandigram and Trinamool Congress has now the winning streak.
Mamata’s political career graph began to rise again in 2006 when the Left Front Government ignored the fact that an edge of only one percent vote helped them win 235 Assembly seats, and embarked on an aggressive industrialization policy. The programme for massive acquisition of farmland for proposed industrial projects against the will of farmers and the main opposition turned the tables on the Left Front government. Back in October 2005, Mamata protested against the industrialization policy of the government. They vehemently opposed the acquisition of farmland at Howrah and other places including Nandigram for Indonesia-based Salim Group who ,claimed the government, pledged a large investment in West Bengal. The protest continued in Singur where for Tata Nano Car project fertile farmland was acquired forcibly without consent of the owners and share-croppers who were subjected to police atrocities. Renowned social activist of Narmada Movement fame Medha Patkar also supported the agitating farmers and share-croppers of Singur.Mamata went for a prolonged hunger strike against the acquisition bid at Dharmatola, Kolkata.
In the process a coalition of different sections of the people, including the intellectuals emerged against the steam rolling policy of the government. The government failed to win the support of the people for its industrialization progamme because during the long rule of the Left Front traditional industry in the state nosedived, many shutters were downed following the aggressive trade unionism of the left, precisely CITU, the trade union arm of CPI-M.Besides, it was this government which barred the entry of IT in the state for a long time.
Without taking the opposition into confidence and winning popular support the government proceeded with its plan to acquire land in Nandigram for a chemical hub supposed to be set up by the Salim Group and the people of the country saw the atrocities of the police on the people unwilling to part with their agricultural land for a hazardous and ecologically perilous industrial project. On 14 March 2007 the powerful police of the state government shot dead 14 villagers who were against land acquisition for the chemical hub. What the Governor of the state Mr. Gandhi said in anguish on the incident in his immediate reaction in a statement brings out the unnecessary cruelty meted out to the people :’ The news of deaths by police firing in Nandigram this morning has filled me with a sense of horror. The thought in my mind – and all sensitive people now is – ‘Was this spilling of human blood not avoidable? What is the public purpose served by the use of force that we have witnessed today?’ The Nandigram atrocities alienated the left from the intellectuals of the state who came out into the open and marched in Kolkata for peace. Subsequently a large section of them called for political change through ballots. Litterateur of international fame Mahasweta Devi, a number of thepsians,poets,film makers and stars of undisputable merit are now on the side of Mamata.Evidently, the process of change has set in.
Allegations of police excesses and highhandedness in the state against people who dare go against the wishes of the left-in-the-cradle-of-power are many. Chief Minister Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharyya is also the Police Minister of the state. His police once dragged Mamata out of the Writers’ Buildings and prevented her from entering Singur when they were in atrocious action against the villagers, and dragged Medha Patkar out as she was among the helpless villagers under attack.
Thanks to Buddhadev and his party, they paved the way for Mamata’s comeback and alienated personalities like Medha.Their reversed policy scared and enraged the rural mass that formed the solid left base. The left could successfully demonstrate their antipathy to the big landlords as they had done in the erstwhile Soviet Union after the Revolution of 1917 to the kulaks. They won the heart of the rural mass, inter alia, through Barga Operation and regular panchayet (local government) activities. In the process, they demonstrated their blindness to the fact that India and, as such, West Bengal is a class society and the Constitution of the country guarantees rights to all without discrimination. Mikhail Gorbachov, hopefully, realized the unsustainability of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and, therefore, brought in Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika whereby people found the scope for free expression and action.If the political space is monopolized the ultimate results could be disastrous. The mighty Soviet Union melted away,the dictatorships of the proletariat collapsed in east Europe like houses of cards.West Bengal is in India which,after all,is a vibrant democracy that cannot allow dictatorship to survive in any form.
Nidhu Bhusan Das
Is West Bengal poised for a change for the better? Is a socio-economic rejuvenation in the offing? These are the questions agitating every critical and curious mind in the state even as a political change is underway. On the political front, the opposition and those who feel they have been in a claustrophobic situation under a virtual dictatorial regime see a new horizon emerging with hope. Those who believe there has been enough of democracy and a lot of progressive measures benefiting the common people since the regime change in 1977 apprehend bad days are ahead in case the present regime is thrown out in the 2011 Assembly elections.
What has led to the change underway? The trend for change is loud and clear – maybe cataclysmic in the sense that after the resounding victory of the Left Front in the in the Assembly polls in 2006 a sudden reversal set in and the 235 -30 arithmetic started to work the other way round. Ms Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress (grassroots congress) resurrected from a moribund state in the wake of the dismal showing (won only 30 seats against 235 of the Left Front) in the Assembly polls. The events of Singur and Nandigram were the immediate cause for the reversal. Mamata won the public trust and emerged redoubtable leading the resistance of the rural folks against atrocious measures of the government.
Now, the Marxists in the state after about three decades and a half are most likely to be voted out in 2011.They romped to power in the eastern Indian state in 1977 riding the Janata wave raised by Jayprakash Narayan against the Emergency of Mrs. Indira Gandhi which brought the first non-congress government at the centre of the largest democracy of the world.Janata experiment soon failed and in the mid-term polls to the Lok Sabha (the lower house of Indian parliament) Congress under Mrs. Gandhi returned to power in 1980.Marxists remained secured on the saddle of West Bengal politicizing the bureaucracy, the institutions and even social relations. In the process they monopolized power. What the former Governor of the state Mr. Gopal Krishna Gandhi on 9 November 2007 in a press release from Kolkata Raj Bhavan termed ' territorial assertion' and consequent intimidation in Nandigram of East Midnapore is perceived to be true of the whole of West Bengal. It helped establish the Marxist fiefdom in the state and the results of elections to different bodies including the state Legislative Assembly seemed to be foregone conclusions for a long time till the panchayet polls after Singur - Nandigram episode which catapulted Mamata and her Trinamool Congress to the centre stage of state politics as Ms Banerjee with her rebel and good Samaritan image could knock on the mass psyche and inspire people to fight against the totalitarian-like dispensation of the left under CPI-M.
The lone voice of sustained protest against the ' misrule ' of the Left Front led by the Marxists (CPI-M) has been of Ms Banerjee, their albatross, and is the catalyst for the political change. She came of a humble family of Kolkata and does not have political pedigree like many leaders in South Asia e.g., Aung Sang Suu Kye of Myanmar, Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh, late Benajir Bhutto of Pakistan.
She started her political career with Congress (I) in 1970s and soon came to be a firebrand leader with rebel image which the people of Bengal nourish and worship as found in the case of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.Mamata's popularity is unparalleled. She won it through her relentless struggle against injustice coupled with her clean image. Her life style is simple and she speaks the language of the people and her rhetoric consists in the intonation, pitch and nuances that mark her articulation. After a series of ups and downs, Mamata appears to be steps away from the Writers' Buildings, the seat of West Bengal Government. Her parent party, Indian National Congress, reasserts that she is the leader of their opposition alliance going to the polls to unseat the Left Front. Meanwhile, a couple of ministers, including the Industries Minister Nirupam Sen,while speaking at the Assembly sessions, appeared to have sounded valedictory notes, reported leading Kalkata dailies.
Mamata began her legislative career winning against Marxist stalwart Somnath Chatterjee at Jadavpur (Kolkata) Lok Sabha constituency in 1984 and became one of India's youngest parliamentarians ever. She lost her seat in 1989 in an anti -Congress wave. She returned to the parliament in 1991 winning the South Kolkata constituency which she retains till to-day with waxing popularity for selfless service, a rare phenomenon in Indian politics now. She boosted her rebel image resigning ministership more than once and could not remain with the Congress which could not go with her all - out offensive against the left ‘misrule’.
In 1996, Mamata alleged Congress was behaving like a stooge of the CPI-M in West Bengal and broke away from it the next year to form All India Trinamool Congress which quickly emerged as the primary opposition to the long-standing Left Front government in the state. Her party won nine Lok Sabha seats in the next general elections, a spectacular performance. In 1999 she joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and became the Railways Minister. She walked out of NDA in 2001 and allied with Congress for the state Assembly elections amidst speculation that the alliance could unseat the Left Front.However, this move failed to yield result.
She returned to NDA and the cabinet in January 2004. In the general elections the same year her
party could retain only one parliamentary seat which she won. This was a major setback for the party.Trinamool’s bad patch continued when the party in 2005 lost the control of Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the next year its strength in the state Assembly decreased to 30,less than half the seats they had won in 2001.Fortune began to smile upon her after Singur – Nandigram and Trinamool Congress has now the winning streak.
Mamata’s political career graph began to rise again in 2006 when the Left Front Government ignored the fact that an edge of only one percent vote helped them win 235 Assembly seats, and embarked on an aggressive industrialization policy. The programme for massive acquisition of farmland for proposed industrial projects against the will of farmers and the main opposition turned the tables on the Left Front government. Back in October 2005, Mamata protested against the industrialization policy of the government. They vehemently opposed the acquisition of farmland at Howrah and other places including Nandigram for Indonesia-based Salim Group who ,claimed the government, pledged a large investment in West Bengal. The protest continued in Singur where for Tata Nano Car project fertile farmland was acquired forcibly without consent of the owners and share-croppers who were subjected to police atrocities. Renowned social activist of Narmada Movement fame Medha Patkar also supported the agitating farmers and share-croppers of Singur.Mamata went for a prolonged hunger strike against the acquisition bid at Dharmatola, Kolkata.
In the process a coalition of different sections of the people, including the intellectuals emerged against the steam rolling policy of the government. The government failed to win the support of the people for its industrialization progamme because during the long rule of the Left Front traditional industry in the state nosedived, many shutters were downed following the aggressive trade unionism of the left, precisely CITU, the trade union arm of CPI-M.Besides, it was this government which barred the entry of IT in the state for a long time.
Without taking the opposition into confidence and winning popular support the government proceeded with its plan to acquire land in Nandigram for a chemical hub supposed to be set up by the Salim Group and the people of the country saw the atrocities of the police on the people unwilling to part with their agricultural land for a hazardous and ecologically perilous industrial project. On 14 March 2007 the powerful police of the state government shot dead 14 villagers who were against land acquisition for the chemical hub. What the Governor of the state Mr. Gandhi said in anguish on the incident in his immediate reaction in a statement brings out the unnecessary cruelty meted out to the people :’ The news of deaths by police firing in Nandigram this morning has filled me with a sense of horror. The thought in my mind – and all sensitive people now is – ‘Was this spilling of human blood not avoidable? What is the public purpose served by the use of force that we have witnessed today?’ The Nandigram atrocities alienated the left from the intellectuals of the state who came out into the open and marched in Kolkata for peace. Subsequently a large section of them called for political change through ballots. Litterateur of international fame Mahasweta Devi, a number of thepsians,poets,film makers and stars of undisputable merit are now on the side of Mamata.Evidently, the process of change has set in.
Allegations of police excesses and highhandedness in the state against people who dare go against the wishes of the left-in-the-cradle-of-power are many. Chief Minister Mr. Buddhadev Bhattacharyya is also the Police Minister of the state. His police once dragged Mamata out of the Writers’ Buildings and prevented her from entering Singur when they were in atrocious action against the villagers, and dragged Medha Patkar out as she was among the helpless villagers under attack.
Thanks to Buddhadev and his party, they paved the way for Mamata’s comeback and alienated personalities like Medha.Their reversed policy scared and enraged the rural mass that formed the solid left base. The left could successfully demonstrate their antipathy to the big landlords as they had done in the erstwhile Soviet Union after the Revolution of 1917 to the kulaks. They won the heart of the rural mass, inter alia, through Barga Operation and regular panchayet (local government) activities. In the process, they demonstrated their blindness to the fact that India and, as such, West Bengal is a class society and the Constitution of the country guarantees rights to all without discrimination. Mikhail Gorbachov, hopefully, realized the unsustainability of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat and, therefore, brought in Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika whereby people found the scope for free expression and action.If the political space is monopolized the ultimate results could be disastrous. The mighty Soviet Union melted away,the dictatorships of the proletariat collapsed in east Europe like houses of cards.West Bengal is in India which,after all,is a vibrant democracy that cannot allow dictatorship to survive in any form.
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