Teachers Attack Journalists

Teachers Assault Journalists

                                                   Nidhu Bhusan Das

How come, a teacher can resort to hooliganism? To understand it, come to Siliguri, in West Bengal, where teachers are not only politicized but also prefer to be with the ruling party. The latest incident of such hooliganism took place on 8 January 2014 when the hooligans assaulted and injured media persons in front of the office of the district inspector of schools at Siliguri. The hooligans were none other than the higher secondary teachers belonging to the ruling Trinamul Congress. 

The teachers went to submit a deputation to the inspector and got involved in altercation and scuffle. The photo journalists were clicking pictures of the scuffle. This, reportedly, added fuel to the fire and a section of the deputationists   in no time pounced upon two photo journalists Pulak Karmakar and Pranab kushari.

 F IR was lodged with Siliguri Police immediately after the incident but no action was taken against the alleged attackers till the report was filed on 9 January 2014.

Freedom of the Press

Power of the Media and Mamata

Nidhu Bhusan Das: Our Supreme Court in a judgment stated the Doctrine of Waiver cannot be allowed in India because people of the country, by and large, are not as educated as the US citizens, and, therefore, cannot understand the significance of waiving a fundamental right enshrined in Part lll of our Constitution. If we take this to be the ground reality even to-day, the media, when assumes the role of only a critic, is, no doubt, in advantage against leaders in power, who may be seen as sitting ducks. A section of the media in West Bengal to-day appears to be vehement critic of the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee who had been the darling of such media outlets immediately before the Assembly polls last May and soon after she walked in the Writers’ Buildings. Eloquence of the media is its advantage like the eloquence of the party in opposition in our democracy. It is a disadvantage for the party in power. One should, perhaps, practise reticence when on the saddle. Studied silence is better than stray comment on every issue. Mamata could have parried questions and avoided comment on issues like Park Street incident, killing of a CPM leader in Bardhaman and latest ‘Cartoon Controversy’. In Park Street Rape Case and Bardhaman killing case the persons alleged to be involved were brought to book. Her police arrested also the persons alleged to have assaulted the Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra of Jadavpur University. Professor Mahapatra was arrested on the strength of an FIR filed against him for forwarding a ‘Cartoon’ involving Mamata, Railway Minister Mukul Roy and former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi to users of Facebook, obviously criticizing the recent replacement of Trivedi by Roy. We have the right to criticize, to satirize. But to what extent? This is the moot point. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines cartoon as ‘an amusing drawing in a newspaper or magazine, esp one about politics or current events.’ Wikipedia defines it as ‘a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art.’ The free online encyclopedia says,’ While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended to satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works. An artist who creates cartoons is called a cartoonist.’ From such identifications of a cartoon we understand it is a drawing or painting, not a picture collage as is seen in the satiric representation forwarded by Prof. Mahapatra. The way Mamata is shown with Mukul may be taken to have overtones which may be thought to be demeaning for any person. During the Park Street Rape debate it was stressed that even a sex worker has the right against being raped. True. It is also true that everyone has the right against being defamed. The picture collage appears to be a direct attack on the Chief Minister. Court will decide on the case filed against Prof. Mahapatra. Debate may go on as to the reasonableness of filing of the FIR against Prof. Mahapatra and his subsequent arrest. Meanwhile, we may look within and decide what is the import of Article 19(1) (a) of the Constitution from which the freedom the media flows in our country. Media in this regard is on the same footing as an individual citizen is. Media is not privileged as against a citizen in respect of the freedom of speech and expression in the Article. Media will play the watchdog, raise and facilitate debates on issues but we may ask how a person who turned darling from being a spoiler of Singur project and remained so till the other day is now being projected as one who has only negative traits by a section of the media that owes a reasonable and convincing answer to the question to retain and develop credibility.

Hunger

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Media and Mamata

Nidhu Bhusan Das: Media, it appears, are sharply polarized in West Bengal on the eve of Mamta Government’s completion of one year in office. While two leading Bengali morningers and a couple of 24X 7 Bengali TV news channels are in crusade against the government, certain other media outlets are all for the government. Once, not long ago, a darling of the media, Mamata has, of late, surely lost ground with a section of the media in the state. Meanwhile, three media men have been sent to the Rajya sabha (upper house) of the Indian Parliament by Mamata’s party. None of them belongs to the crusading camp. Media is expected to play the watchdog in democracy. It is to reflect the pluralism, help form educated public opinion in and for a vibrant democracy. It is a fact that different media outlets represent and become mouthpieces of different interest groups and segments of the society, in any democracy. In West Bengal also it is so. Some newspapers, for instance, are openly in favor of market economy and find the remedy for all economic woes in industrialization even on fertile farm lands. They showed their reluctance in reporting police action against agitating farmers in Singur where farm land was acquired for Tata Nano automobile factory, forcibly evicting the farmers. Many were against acquiring fertile land for industry. However, media played a role in creating the climate for change in the state informing the people about the crusade of Mamata against the rule of the Left Front. Mamata Government has, perhaps, begun to show its flaws. Lack of reticence is its greatest flaw till date. Selection of newspapers for the public libraries has not augured well for the government. Whatever be the explanation of the government, the perception in the public mind does not go with it. In fact, it is not wise for a government to create an impression that it is against free flow of information. People do not take it kindly. The stepping down of Dinesh Trivedi as railway minister for Mamata Confidant Mukul Roy did not send out the right message to the people. Till the assembly polls, an overwhelming majority of people might have reservations against a section of her party men but they had unflinching faith in the honesty of purpose of Mamata and her personal integrity. The way the Chief Minister handled the situation following the Amri Hospital fire added a lot to her goodwill. Her statement on the Park Street rape case was unwarranted and it neutralized the impact of good work of the police under her. It appears Mamata is overworked and over burdened. The swelling of her party with people from erstwhile ruling party has led to squabbles and internecine fights. Many new entrants do not have good image. Mamata has to decide if her party should shelter the tainted political elements from the immediate past ruling party. If a firm decision to oust such people is not taken and executed without delay, the party stands to lose in terms of goodwill and popular support. Meanwhile, members of the intelligentsia who were with her in the wake of the Singur-Nandigram episodes have begun to be disillusioned following certain hasty decisions which appear to go redundant. Sycophancy appears to be at work in the party and the government. If it really exists, it should be rooted out in no time.

A Paean to Rahul Dravid

Nidhu Bhusan Das :

He is unlike others in the game – the unique Rahul Dravid, silent, determined, and a man with sense of proportion. He has all the rare qualities of head and heart. He has shown the world where to end a journey although he might have in the realms of thought reverberation of the Whitmanian refrain: ‘I have miles to go before I sleep.’
Rahul bade adieu to cricket while in form after 16 years in international turf, as did the soccer wizard Pele. At 39, Rahul is a wise man. He is driven by the call of heart and mind, not by commercial calculations though he has a degree in commerce from St. Joseph’s College of Commerce, Bangalore. In his valedictory statement he says: ‘… it wasn’t a difficult decision for me (to retire) because I just knew in my heart that the time was right, and I was very happy and comfortable in what I had achieved and what I had done.’ It is a sincere outpouring of a man who has admirers but not slogan chanting fans demanding of the cricket administration the space for their hero to perpetuate his career. He had no drummers to drum up his achievements. He stepped down as Captain of India on his own when he found that the job of the skipper was costly for him as a batsman.
He ends the statement thus: ‘My approach to cricket has been reasonably simple: it was about upholding the spirit of the game. I hope I have done some of that. I have failed at times, but I have never stopped trying. It is why I leave with sadness but also with pride.’ This is where lies the humility of a man who could walk out of the game with the head held high. He has the reason to be proud. However, he has never had the air of vanity. He has all the qualities of a gentleman, and the best of them may be his being self-effacing even after scoring a double century or steering the team to victory out of a possible debacle. So, when he would be on the crease or on the outfield he had the ‘reassuring presence’ for India. Anil Kumble, another gentleman cricketer of the past .called Dravid one of Karnataka’s ‘finest cricketing sons’ while BCCI president N. Srinivasan dubbed him as an ‘irreplaceable’ cricketer. This is a great tribute to Dravid who has been popular as ‘The Wall of Indian cricket’.
The second highest scorer in the history of Test Cricket, Dravid could be the last of India’s classical Test batsman. He successfully straddled the old school in the new age.
In sports statistics plays a role in determining success of a player. But it is not all. Only statistics cannot assess the greatness of Pele, Mohammad Ali Clay, Bjorn Borg et al. Sportsmanship is also very important.Dravid displayed that both on-field and off-field. He represents the southern sense of humility and personality that makes a great hero, erect, determined, and contented sans vanity. An innate sense of style and self-confidence go hand in hand to make his personality.

Change is a Fact in West Bengal

Nidhu Bhusan Das :

That a significant and irreversible political change has occurred in West Bengal through the assembly polls of 2011 is a settled fact. The effect of the change is likely to be far reaching despite the fact that the ruling party shows certain tendencies typical of the three-and-a half-decade rule of the Marxists holding the umbrella of a Left Front. These disturbing tendencies will continue because of the moral degradation encouraged and accelerated during the Marxist dispensation for perpetuation of power. The new rulers have the toughest challenge ahead to reverse the process and bring back the moral strength and usher in an era of moral regeneration.
The statement that the change is irreversible is based on the facts of history. The French Revolution of the eighteenth century was followed by the infamous ‘Reign of Terror’ which caused disillusionment among many sympathizers but that could not take France back to the period that preceded and created the objective condition for the revolution to come about. Harold Bloom in his essay ‘Prometheus Rising’ written for a preface to his book ‘The Visionary Company’ observes:’in the semi-apocalyptic dawn of the French Revolution, it really did seem that a renovated universe was possible – that life could never again be what it had been. It is not very easy now for any of us to summon up the fervor of that moment, through whatever leap of historical imagination. We have no real analogue to it as a universal psychic shock that at first promised liberation from everything bad in the past. The Russian Revolution, even if it were not now almost as historically remote from us as the French, would not be the adequate analogue, for it took place in a world already suffering through a war. He French Revolution was, in its day, a new kind of ideological revolution – hence the terror it aroused in its opponents, and the hope in its sympathizers.’
Monarchy did not return to French despite the disillusionment that followed the Reign of Terror. The fruit of the Russian Revolution staled and yielded place to capitalism, an anathema to socialism which the revolution promised. Another country of socialist revolution China has opted for market economy.
Red rule of Stalinist hue that left skeletons of dissenters buried is unlikely to be reinstated in the state even if the present government fails to deliver and reverse the process of silencing dissent and allow terror-for-democracy to continue. Mamata Banerjee, who played the catalyst for change is faced with a Hobson’s choice- she has to toe the line of Congress, the senior partner in the ruling UPA at the centre in it’s economic policy which often goes counter to her views, or to have her own way of economic regeneration of the state with innovative measures difficult to find out and implement where degraded morality engendered corruptions of every kind and enlightened thinking appears to be a rarity.
The hangover of the monolithic rule of the Marxists is likely to continue for a considerable time given the fact that the bureaucracy and the political establishments, by and large, shorn of positive thinking and new ideas, tend to be regressive and talkative. Distortion of fact and lies appear to be their stock-in –trade. In such a desert it is not easy to lay out a meadow. Only a strong will and honest purpose coupled with an appropriate plan to rejuvenate the economy creating suitable infrastructure can help. The assiduous endeavour to implement the central schemes like the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) can help a lot to ameliorate the sufferings of the people in rural Bengal. The law and order situation is to be improved a lot to help people live in peace in rural areas where terror-for democracy is said to be more in place than in the urban centres. Skeletons were found in rural Bengal, not in urban West Bengal where media focus deters such methods of political subjugation. Mamata can win the battle against corruptions and overcome odds if she is able cobble up a dedicated and honest team of elected representatives and, side by side, a team of honest party workers and leaders at every level to watch and monitor the implementation of welfare and development projects. The momentous moment came when the people scripted for her a landslide victory in the assembly elections. Now it is her turn to deliver. She can inspire hope in the people if she keeps at bay sycophants, corrupt party men and cease to make comment when it is avoidable and advisable.