Author: Subrata Nagchoudhury
& Santanu Banerjee
Publication: The Indian
Express
Date: August 14, 2000
Governments all over
dislike an adversarial press, Governments in panic even begin to beat up
journalists. In West Bengal, the Left Front Government is doing both.
Not only is it using its party apparatus to crudely intimidate reporters,
it has banned all its officials from speaking to the press.
So much so that West
Bengal is perhaps the only state in the country where it's difficult to
recall when was the last time the Chief Minister called a press conference.
In fact, over the last few weeks when rural violence was at its peak in
the state, neither the Chief Secretary nor the Home Secretary once met
the press.
This official silence
in the Secretariat now comes with political terror on the field.
Take these examples from
just last week:
* August 10: At least
12 journalists were assaulted by state government employees and CPM ``activists''
in Writers' Buildings. Their fault: They were interviewing disgruntled
staff of the Information and Cultural Affairs department. The attackers
wanted to know who gave the journalists the right to move in the Secretariat
and talk to employees.
* August 8: The director
of a Bengali news agency was beaten up by CPM supporters when he came to
a police station in Jalpaiguri to find out more about the gunning down
of two school teachers. (Ironically, both these victims were CPM
district functionaries). The photographer, even the driver of his
jeep were beaten up, the windows of his vehicle smashed right in front
of a police station.
* August 9: A correspondent
of The Indian Express was abused by CPM activists and physically prevented
from entering a village close to Chamkaitala where Mamata Banerjee had
called a meeting. Reason: The CPM had issued a fiat asking villagers
not to attend the rally, several residents were said to have been locked
inside their homes.
* August 11: At a rally
of the DYFI -- the CPM's student wing -- at Chamkaitala, speakers attacked
the press so stridently that it ``angered'' loyal party goons to such an
extent that they charged at journalists. Many reporters fled, senior
leaders had to step in to prevent violence.
Don't just blame the
cadre. Right from the top, the CPM leadership, including Chief Minister
Jyoti Basu, has branded the press in Bengal -- especially when it turns
critical -- as instruments of ``bourgeois owners.'' In fact, on the very
day journalists were attacked in Writers' Buildings, the party apparatchik,
in a written statement, outlined the proceedings of the three-day state
committee meeting. This noted, among other things, the ``conspiracy
by the media to malign the image of the CPM-led Left Front government in
Bengal.''
Of late, there has been
a distinct heightening of this anti-media campaign, precipitated, in no
small measure, by the rapidly changing political equations in the state.
Although it's still too early to say that the CPM is on its last leg, what
is clear is that it's facing a political challenge and an anti-incumbency
mood like never before.
Says noted economist
Amlan Dutta who is no friend of the Trinamool Congress: ``The political
rivalry in the state is leading towards a civil strife. In such a
situation, any objective and non-partisan reporting in the media makes
the ruling party angry.''
True, a section of the
vernacular press has gone ballistic in its attack against the CPM.
But much of this taps into the disillusionment of a public getting restive
with a party that has bucked all national trends to remain in power for
23 years. Even ruling Front constituents admit, although never on
record, that the ``attack on the press is an unmistakable sign of an arrogant
CPM panicking under pressure.''
