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.

Better to Reign in Hell!

  Better to Reign in Hell!

                                Nidhu Bhusan Das

                       “Better to reign in Hell, than to serve in Heaven”

                                                                       -John Milton

                                                           Paradise Lost, Bk 1(Line-263)

        Is it better to be the master of Hell and be in Hell? Maybe, may not be. It depends on attitude, the way we look at life. Milton composed the epic to ‘Justify the ways of God to men’. We need not be religious to understand the significance of the quote above if we read it with what the Satan tells his fellow fallen angels that precedes it  in lines 159-162:’To do aught(anything) good never will be our task,/But ever to do ill our sole delight,/As being the contrary to his will/Who we resist…’ Besides, we can read the secular meaning of the word in the phrase’ all hell broke’ which means chaos/confusion and the opposite of it being ‘heaven’ or a place or state of happiness. Today ‘happiness index’ is taken into account when it comes to justify the growth in the economy of a country. True, GDP growth isn’t necessarily an indicator of happiness and standard living of all in a country.

     It isn’t contradicted that India has a strong shadow or parallel economy. The existence of such an economy doesn’t speak of a society where law has an absolute and effective sway. The menace needs be fought and removed to ensure a real welfare state. None, possibly, disagrees on this point. Opinion may vary on how to blot it out. No reforms have, so far, been able to do away with the problem. Against this background, the present Government of India has embarked on a demonetization drive. Certain economists like Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen termed this drive as ‘autocratic’. Most of the opposition parties and leaders are up in arms against it and all hell broke in the winter session of the Parliament all through on the issue of demonetization. When economists of the ilk and stature of Amartya Sen decries the drive, I dare not, and I should not contradict. What puzzles people with lack of financial literacy like me is that none so far, not even our law makers, has told us what could be the viable alternative to fight the menace in the economy.

Is it prevarication, especially on the part of our parliamentarians? I was glued to the TV the time Dr. Manmohan Singh spoke in the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) on the issue. He has the credit of ushering in the era of economic reforms way back in 1991with commendable courage and astuteness as the Finance Minister of the Narasimha Rao Government and bringing the economy back to track from the brink of collapse. Even then a part of the opposition vehemently opposed the structural reforms without rhyme and reason. They could not offer any alternative proposal to salvage the economy from dire straits. Dr. Manmohan Singh had been two-time Prime Minister from May 2004 to May 2014 before the present incumbent Narendra Modi took office. I expected Dr. Singh would come up with an alternative which the present Government would not have been able to eschew. I thought Dr. Singh would speak of an alternative because he knows the pain corruption inflicted on him during his tenure as Prime Minister which was sallied by scams involving some of his colleagues in the Council of Ministers. Scams strengthen shadow economy and the climate of parallel economy inspires scams and kickbacks. None should know it better than Dr. Singh in the Indian context with a vast experience as advisor in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, Chief Economic Advisor, Reserve Bank Governor and Planning Commission Head.

     Should we live in a hell where shadow economy should be allowed to reign or should we be rescued to the shores of a sound economy for social justice? Till date ‘social justice’ is elusive to the Indian mass and politics only exhibits ‘lip service’ to this coinage of a noble idea.

http://wwwnidhu.blogspot.com

Two Novels: A Discourse on the Pains of Partition

          Two Novels: A Discourse

          on the Pains of Partition

                                        Nidhu Bhusan Das

      ‘Dui Nagar’ and ‘Keertinasha’ are a discourse on the pains and trauma of the partition of Bengal in 1947.The exodus of Hindus from East Bengal, rechristened East Pakistan, now Bangladesh, and that of Muslims from West Bengal, now Bangla is the theme of both the novels by Tanvir Mokammel, a renowned film maker and poet of Bangladesh who has recently entered into the realm of novel writing. We know Tanvir has the knack and a profound sense of duty to document the events and movements in the chequered history of Bengal. He is set to return from page to celluloid with his upcoming docu-film ‘Seemantarekha’ with the same theme.

      ‘Keertinasha’ reflects Tanvir’s egalitarian approach to the subject while it is evidently elitist in ‘Dui Nagar’.’Keertinasha’ is the tale of cementing/reinforcing  friendship between two neighbouring Hindu and Muslim families against the imminent materialization of the hitherto amorphous Pakistan, till today called an Acronym by intellectuals like Pakistan born Canadian Tareq Fatah.

      ‘Dui Nagar’ begins with a qoute from ‘A TALE OF TWO CITIES’, a fictionalized account of the Frech Revolution based,inter alia, on Dickens’ reading of Carlyle’s ‘French Revolution’.The lengthy first sentence of the novel, which the present novelist partially excerpts (“It was the best of times,it was the worst of times…”), set the tone of the victorian novel.Dickens drew his inspiration not only from Carlyle’s work but also drew on Wilkie Collins’ ‘The Frozen Deep’ the theme of which is love- two eligible persons being in love  simultaneously,with a lovely girl.Dickens’ novel,turns out to be a love story in the background of the French Revolution,and the novelist consciously foregrounded the story of love.No such foregrounding of love is intended and found in ‘Dui Nagar’.

        In the English novel,the yarn is spun with Dr. Manette being the link between the history and the love story.If  Lucie Manette is innocence-incarnate,the research scholar Jayati from Kolkata is experience-incarnate in ‘Dui Nagar’.Two  suitors seek her hand,she reciprocates the love of Charles Darnay who has declassed himself detesting the brutality of his father and uncle  and their estate.She couldn’t reciprocate sydney Carton’s love ,but she had profound compassion and love for him,and he  ultimately,for the sake of Lucie, saved the life of Darnay,choosing to be beheaded under the Guillotine.

      Unlike ‘A TALE OF TWO CITIES’ , ‘Dui Nagar’ is a docu-novel.The former is not a story of exodus of refugees across the international border of two neighbouring countries  as the latter is.In the ‘Tale’ we find love transcends cruelty.Jayati is in Dhaka  in connection with her research on ‘Partition and Trauma of Women’. Which women? Those house wives who had to leave  their dear hearth and home for an uncertain future which awaited the families of refugees?Perhaps,it is not within the capacity of Jayati to delve into the essence of the trauma,she being esconced in a well-to-do family and having premarrital sexual experience twice with two boy friends,the thirst remaining undiminished. Only the love making with Professor Raihan could satisfy her and she asks her man of choice on the eve of departure:” Coming to Kolkata,sure?” Raihan replies, suggestively:”Go I must.”Jayati travelled but didn’t go for survey or field work in Bangladesh.Maybe, her thesis will be enriched with open source data ,and  discussions in the drawing rooms and over tea and dinner in the elite circuit.A  freedom fighter and married,Professor Raihan is in the Shahbag Movement which is yet to spread across the country effectively enough to counter the fundamentalists,its avowed goal.It apprears to be elite inspired and remains elite-centric.The freedom fighter has evolved into a different man,being coaxed by Jayati. He could have been a Shohrab ( ‘Keertinasha’) had the author not abandoned the railroad from Kolkata to Bongaon for the road journey between Dhaka and Barishal via Faridpur to enhance the desire of his heroine. Raihan has been deprived of his finer feeling and emotion reflected in his quest for a boyhood friend Aboni who is settled in Bongaon across the border.Jayati accompanies him in his successful quest,but friendship is not overcast by lust.Afterall,character is characterization,poor Raihan!

       Apart from this, the research of the author himself into the phenomenon of post-partition exodus which has gone into the making of his debut novel is praiseworthy. His thought is felt and his erudition lends objectivity to his story, rather than being a burden.The novelist could have,perhaps, reasonably done away with the idea of  inserting a puerile  research scholar in the story, or bring one who is not sensual but sensitive to be  a character really contributing to the story.Has the author not lost the train and derailed Raihan?

      Tanvir has done the job quite well,and with courage, in his second novel ‘Keertinasha’.

     ‘Keertinasha’ presents the effort of two families-one Hindu, one Muslim – to continue as neighbours in amity. The two families lived at a village of Bikrampur which bore the brunt of the destructive potential of the mighty Padma. If the Padma devoured the fertile soil and edifices of Bikrampur, partition of Bengal deprived it of its rich cultural heritage and intellectual pride and proclivity. One may read into the text the Saudade of the poet-novelist - had there been no partition!

       Two patriarchs of the neighbouring families- the Hindu school teacher and the Muslim peasant- sheltered under the village banyan from rain on their way back home one night decided to ceremonially befriend their sons of the same age. The teacher mooted the proposal and the peasant agreed to it. The ceremony was held accordingly, and Sohrab and Suhas were knotted in friendship.Though this was not a novelty (the novelist said such ceremony was in vogue),the backdrop agaist which it was held was significant,a desperate attempt to remain in amity given the communal overtone of the Two Nations Theory which gradually found acceptance in Bengal. The two friends remained together till the ultimate migration of the family of the Hindu friend Suhas to India.

        The novel doesn’t have any heroine like in ‘Dui Nagar’.Sohrab,the protagonist, in his melancholy  on the bank of the Padma to bid adieu to the family,resolves to save Bikrampur from the future havoc to be wreaked by the aggressive river.Let’s echo the  loud thought of Sohrab articulated by the novelist:” Suhas is gone.He(Sohrab) has to fight alone against the  aggression,must protect and preserve the glorious heritage of Bikrampur of his forefathers.Will he be able to do it? Sohrab feels a bit lonely standing on the bank of Keertinasha Padma in the late evening of the month of Shravon.Yes,it would have been better if Suhas stayed back.”The absence of a heroine doesn’t create any impression that the tale lacks love.The love for Bikrampur, the pining for the friend and the sense of his heritage together help the protagonist  to be resolute.For the novelist ,the aggressive Padma symbolizes destructive politics which the Divide and Rule Ploicy of the British engendered driving a wedge between the two communities that lived in amity for centuries.

Dui Nagar

Keertinasha

Author: Tanvir Mokammel

Publisher

Creative Dhaka Publications

12,Outer Circular Road

Razarbagh,Dhaka-1217

creativedhakaltd@gmail.com

www.creativedhakalimited.com