Author: Sunando Sarkar
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: December 26, 2002
Back in 1972, Sunil Baidya - then
the leader of the CPM's youth brigade in the Gobrapur-Kundipur belt - was
the first person any refugee crossing over from the other side of the border
would look up. He would Organise relief camps, distribute food and clothes
(and political, literature) and it was people like Baidya who built up
a base for the CPM that has stood the test of time.
Cut to the present: Bimal Nath (not
his real name) is the person organising relief camps. But he is not from
the CPM though he, too, was once a Forward Bloc cadre. He now works for
the Bastuhara Sahayata Samiti (a front for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad) and
it is he who has become the only Indian the refugees of today can trust
wholeheartedly.
Like Baidya then, who is now old
and does not find much favour with the party, Nath is setting up relief
camps and arranging for food and clothing for the people trying to set
up home in a foreign land. Like Baidya then, he is now bringing some of
the refugees to Calcutta to attend weekend camps, albeit of the VHP.
But unlike Baidya then, he feels
hounded. His wife has received numerous threats neighbours tell her nothing
is going to happen to her, nothing except that she is going to become a
widow - and Nath now stays away from home, changing shelters from night
to night. He does not reveal his temporary addresses, preferring to evade
a direct answer by saying "edik-odik (here and there)".
Pleading that his name and address
not be published, he says he does not want any publicity for the good work
he is doing. "I would rather live," he explains.
But this round of refugee politics
- always high-yielding in terms of votes because the recent entrants tend
to vote in a block - could also have a fallout for the CPM.
With village after refugee sheltering
village falling prey to the VHP's brand of politics very popular now because
of the emotions that are still raw and are likely to remain that way as
the politics of oppression on the other side of the border does not look
like ending soon the CPM, by turning a blind eye to the problem, may be
yielding valuable political space to parties that are yet to find widespread
acceptance in West Bengal.
Though the VHP claims it is not
focussing on politics - Calcutta VHP leader N.L. Datta Banik would rather
concentrate on the "human tragedy" - the CPM cadre in the Bongaon-Bagdah
belt feel that their party is committing a mistake by refusing to take
note of the unfolding situation. "Upper-level politics (between prime ministers
and chief ministers) may be important and inter-country diplomacy may demand
a partial blindness to the situation, but local sentiments are very crucial
as well," a Bagdah CPM leader admitted.
The VHP, apparently, is concentrating
on these "local sentiments". A video recording of mainly interviews of
the refugees - mostly women - has been made and copies are being made in
Calcutta to show the "real picture in Bangladesh", in the hope that the
video images of the "real picture" would help it just as Godhra worked
for Narendra Modi.