Author: Kanchan Gupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 18, 2007
Bengalis have this fascination for bhadralok
Marxists, which is really a contradiction in terms but has stood the CPI(M)
in good stead in West Bengal. As Deputy Chief Minister in the fumbling, bumbling
United Front Governments, Mr Jyoti Basu presided over the lumpenisation of
West Bengal politics and began the process of destroying West Bengal's industrial
infrastructure, which in the 1960s was not to be scoffed at. He made gherao
into an instrument of state policy and lawlessness the hallmark of Marxist
politics. When harried industrialists petitioned the Chief Justice of Calcutta
High Court and the judge sought an explanation, Mr Basu deployed thousands
of his party's hoodlum brigade to gherao the court. The Chief Justice saw
merit in the dictum that discretion is the better part of valour.
As Chief Minister after the Left Front came
to power in 1977, Mr Basu vigorously pursued his reckless agenda, denuding
West Bengal of whatever little remained of its once thriving industry, while
making it a point to holiday in London every year, ostensibly to seduce investors.
From the Marichjhanpi massacre to the Bantala gangrape, his tenure as Chief
Minister was one long saga of atrocities committed by either Marxist goons
or the police, which he had swiftly converted into an extension counter of
the CPI(M). Yet, people were easily persuaded to vote for him and the CPI(M)-led
Left Front, election after election, because whatever his faults, he was a
"bhadralok".
Never mind the fact that behind the spotless
dhuti-panjabi façade lurked an evil man with a malevolent mind, a modern
day Mephistopheles who derived perverse pleasure from West Bengal's impoverishment.
His successor, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, was seen and feted as a "bhadralok"
twice over. His lineage was impeccable - graduate of Presidency College, nephew
of Sukanto Bhattacharjee whose darkly haunting poetry is replete with metaphors
of human bondage and struggle against hunger and poverty, translator of Russian
poet Vladimir Vladimirovich Mayakovsky, poet and playwright of sorts at one
with Kolkata's intellectuals for whom Nandan is their second home, high on
Marxist dialectics and suitably preachy. Bengalis could not have asked for
more. What added to his appeal is Mr Bhattacharjee's 'reformist' zeal. He
borrowed Nike's slogan and came up with his (in retrospect, rather corny)
one-liner: "Do it now." Buddhijeebis, who have amazing power to
influence opinion in West Bengal, overnight became 'Buddhajeebis' and wore
their new identity on their sleeves. Mr Basu would let his mask slip once
in a while and indulge in crudity; Mr Bhattacharjee, who claims to be a fan
of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, would never do that.
But all this must now belong to the past.
Mr Bhattacharjee's bhadralok image has taken a severe beating and today he
stands exposed as a charlatan who doesn't deserve the office he holds. For
all his pretensions of being a man of culture and integrity, he is no less
Mephistophelean than Mr Basu. If imitation is the best form of flattery, Mr
Bhattacharjee has proved himself an accomplished flatterer by aping his party
general secretary, Mr Prakash Karat, in justifying murder, rape and pillage
by Marxist criminals. There is not even the faintest hint of regret that Nandigram
should have become the leitmotif of the CPI(M)'s unrestrained thuggery. There
is no belated acceptance of moral responsibility, leave alone assertion of
authority, even at this stage when his friends have begun spitting at him.
The Pioneer was not exaggerating when it suggested to its readers that for
a lesson in fascism, they should read Mr Bhattacharjee's shocking comments
at a Press conference where he praised his party's black shirts and poured
scorn and ridicule on the hapless victims of their crimes. Among the victims,
it needs to be noted, are a Muslim woman and her two teenaged daughters who
were gangraped by the Marxist marauders. The two girls are missing; for all
we know, they may have been killed or are being held captive to satiate the
animal desires of those about whom Mr Karat and Mr Bhattacharjee speak so
admiringly.
Compare this with the CPI(M)'s clamorous and
vile protest against the alleged custodial killing of a wanted criminal and
his moll in Gujarat. Recall also how 24x7 television channels, notably those
headquartered in Delhi, went berserk, trying to pin the guilt of that alleged
crime on Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Contrast the timid, almost
cowardly, media response to Mr Bhattacharjee's appalling comments and Mr Karat's
chilling defence of the Marxist killers and rapists who have let loose a reign
of terror and whose victims are largely Muslims, to the epithets and worse
hurled by our newspapers and 24x7 channels at Mr Modi who has at no stage
justified the 2002 violence in Gujarat or the alleged custodial killing of
a mafia don and his moll. Is it because there is an 'ideological' affinity
between the fascists of AK Gopalan Bhawan and mediapersons? Or is it because
Mr Modi is a soft target and, unlike Mr Karat or Mr Bhattacharjee, whose storm
troopers have been intimidating journalists and threatening dire consequences
if they report the truth, will not retaliate? Or are there 'linkages' that
influence our media, more so 24x7 channels, to black out Marxist crimes and
invent scurrilous stories to demean others? If our media bravehearts wish
to shame and shun Mr Modi, it's their choice. But must they so shamelessly
admire those who prescribe "Dum Dum dawai" - thuggery of the sort
witnessed in Nandigram - as Ms Brinda Karat did at a rally in Kolkata? And
support Mr Sitaram Yechury who has the temerity to insist that Nandigram can't
be discussed in Parliament because law and order is a State subject?
Mr Bhattacharjee has no doubt sold his soul
to the likes of Indonesia's Salem Group and, closer home, Ambuja Cement and
'industrialists' who were no more than small time Burrabazar traders till
the CPI(M) came to power and facilitated their rags-to-riches journey. Mr
Karat genuflects at Stalin's altar and listens to the Internationale to relax,
so we shouldn't expect him to be touched by the plight of those maimed, killed
and raped by his cadre. But what about mediapersons who tirelessly preach
moral and ethical rectitude to others from their high perch in 'national'
newspapers and 'national' news channels? By not admonishing those responsible
for the ghastly events in Nandigram, they have legitimised the indefensible
and paved the path for similar crimes elsewhere.
