Author: Barun Sengupta,
Publication: BJP Today
Date: September 16-30,
2000
Venting anger against
the scribes - more often than not, in the most violent and abusive ways-
is nothing new in this country. West Bengal is no exception in this regard
and inspite of taking pride for an above-average political maturity, it
has a long record of misconduct with the media. In my early days as a journalist,
I experienced one such worst incident. At that time, CPM was deadly opposed
to Anandabazar Patrika. The party chieftains were calling for a mass boycott
of Patrika and at different places, the selling of the newspaper was forcefully
being restricted. The final eruption occurred in Jadavpur on an early morning,
when the delivery van of Anandabazar Patrika was attacked and set to fire
by the CPM activists. Among the several staffs locked inside the ill-fated
van, one succumbed to death. The whole state was shell-shocked at the viciousness
of the attack. Even staunch supporters of CPM had to hide their faces at
that incident.
In 1953, it was the police
who did it all against the journalists. In an attack on the agitators protesting
against the hike in tram fares, even the journalists were not spared. 18
newsmen got injured, two of them serious and six others were roughed up
in police headquarters. The then minister-in-charge of the police department,
himself had to rush to the Lalbazar police headquarters and apologise to
the journalists. Arrangements were made for the treatment of the injured
ones. Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, the then Chief Minister, personally spoke
to the management of the Patrika and Yugantar and tendered his apology.
A retired judge of Calcutta High Court S.K.Ghosh was appointed to inquire
into the incident. The entire journalist community in Calcutta raised its
voice against the police brutality. Even the employees of the daily "Janasevak",
the mouth-piece of Congress in West Bengal, whose editor was none else
than Atulya Ghosh, participated in the rally.
In 1969 I was working
in Anandabazar Patrika, when our office came under a severe attack by the
red-eyed marxists. It was during the United Front regime and Ajoy Mukherjee
was the CM. Subodh Banerjee, whose SUCI was a member of the government,
came to our office and condemned such violence. Noted CPI leader Somnath
Lahiri strongly criticised this attack in a U F rally, which was also attended
by Harekrishna Konar and Jyoti Basu. What an irony!
The upsurge of the Naxalite
movement in Bengal further added to the plight of journalists. Rakhal Naha,
the Howrah correspondent of Anandabazar Patrika, was brutally murdered
by the bloodthirsty ultra lefts. However, I had always had an opinion,
that, the Naxalites never wanted to target the entire journalist community.
Otherwise, I would never have been spared, inspite of writing against them
for so many times.
However in my entire
life as a journalist, one incident will always stand as a nightmare. Jyoti
Basu was the deputy chief minister at that time One day we got a tip that
Jyoti Basu would be having a private meeting with the noted industrialist
B. M. Birla. But we knew neither the time nor the venue. So the moment
his car came out of the Assembly, we decided to follow him. However, after
a certain point, his car managed to shake us off. Next morning an angry
Jyoti Basu lambasted the reporters and said that he could have easily asked
the local hoodlums to teach the journalists who had followed him a lesson.
Even a left- minded scribe like Bhawani Chowdhary of the Statesman, was
dumb-struck by the audacity of Jyoti Basu.
The first major confrontation
between the journalists and the administration after the left front came
into power happened in 1981. Police had just mounted a major operation
against the refugees from East Bengal, who were trying to settle down in
Marichjhanpi, near Calcutta. While returning from there after covering
the event, journalists were arrested. The state government justified this
arrest by saying that Marichjhanpi being situated in the reserve forest
area, these journalists had entered a prohibited area without proper permission.
Even in 1990, the press
had to suffer the wrath of the ruling marxists, while covering the Calcutta
civic polls. The reports and photographs of open movements of arms and
massive rigging during the election, were the reasons of such an anger.
On 7 January 1993, Ms
Mamta Banerjee was virtually grabbed and thrown out of Writers Building,
when she went to meet the CM along wit h a deaf and dumb girl who had been
tortured. Several reporters were there and were beaten up. The very night
the press corner of Writers Building was demolished.
The most organised and
venomous attack on newspapers was during the emergency and there was a
regular effort to disrupt publication and circulation of newspapers. Indira
Gandhi and her henchmen left no stone unturned to make the lives of newspersons
miserable.
In West Bengal , it was
the tenure of Sidharth Shankar Ray, a man who could stand no criticism
from the media when the emergency was imposed. Many journalists were detained
under the MISA act. Anandabazar Patrika had to suffer the most and I too
was arrested and taken to Presidency jail from where I was shifted to Alipur
jail and was offered immediate release if I would promise to write in favour
of the Congress government. On my refusal they shifted me to Purulia jail
and then to Bankura jail.
Currently the CPM is
facing a decline in its mass base which is visible in the recent electoral
results. Today, television has exposed the booth-jamming, false-voting
and many other electoral malpractices which confirm what the print media
has been writing for the last few decades. The fear of getting exposed
in front of a television camera has created a genuine panic among the party
and the outcome is attack on TV crews and the expected silence of the police.
During the Congress regime, CPM leaders were always vocal against any attack
on the journalists which is missing now. Rather some politicians are fueling
the outrage.
In the days to come,
the anti-left wave is going to gather momentum in West Bengal. Hence, the
media will be taking a much stronger tone of criticism against the left
government. But, that will definitely expose it to a more violent and turbulent
treatment in the days to come.
(Barun Sengupta, the
founder and the editor of Bartaman, the virbrant Bengali daily)
