palashbiswas

Yes, Netaji, Fajlul Huq and CR Das Could Change the History of this Sub Continent

Sun, 14 Jan 2007 19:06:11 +0100

Yes, Netaji, CR Das and Fazlul Huq Could Have Changed The History of This Subcontinent

Palash Biswas

( Pl Publish and send a copy. Contact: Palash Biswas, c/o Mrs arati roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur,Kolkata-700101, India. Phone: 91-33-25659551)

I must say thanks to News From Bangladesh to continue the debate with web casting the rejoinder by Mohammad Abdullah, USA. I respect the free and sovereign Bangladesh. I know that the Bangladesh media and intellegentia play a historical role to sustain nationality Bengali. I also believe it is Bangladesh which represents Bangla Nationality , not the Bengalies in India. But we share a common history, culture, heritage, language, folk. We have different geopolitics, different versions of history, culture and language, different citizenship and different religion. But all these things may not wipe out the current which united us in destiny. I don`t represent India as I am an Indian. I believe that Abdulla Bhai also do not represent Bangladesh in the same way. In a globanised world how you may restrict informations and opinions, perhaps he knows better!

I have not supported Sunil Pal`s claim. I never faced such a case. I wanted some feedback and forwarded his letter to general readership as I forwarded the article by Mohmmad Abdullah.

I am not talking on behalf of Mr pal. Let him answer. I am writing my personal opinions and feelings as well.

Yes, I agree with Abdullah Bhai that Netaji, CR Das and Fazlul Huq could have written a different history of this subcontinent. I am glad that he recognises these leaders at least and they are lucky enough to be spared of abuses. It is not because of Gandhi and Nehru, please go through the minutes, it was against the interests of ruling classes in Bengal, had Netaji or Fazlul Huq played key role in this sub continent. It was Netaji who as a mayor made Jogendra Nath Mandal a councillor in Kolkata Corporation. Azad Hind Fauj considered Hindustani as national language which is common in Hindus and Muslims. Muslims and Women got proper representation in Azad Hind Fauz. In the same way Krishak Praja Party fought to defend the rights of tillers Hidus as well as Muslims. The Hindu tillers were mostly dalits ie Namoshudra, Pod and rajbansh, etc.The most of the Zamindars were Caste Hindu, but Fzlul saheb compromised with them. The dalit Hindus not only supported fazlul Huq and Najibulallah , they also ensured the entry of Dr ambedkar in the Constitution Assembly of India, electing them fro bengal while he was defeated by Congress in Maharashtra, his home state. Hence , with the betrayal to this dalit base, Muslim league emerged. Huq sahib lost the opportunity to be a national leader as he betrayed the underclasses. Caste Hindu leadership in Bengal revenged well as the Hindus of the Dalit base in East Bengal were evicted and scttered all over India. It hampered the national dalit movement in India.

I would rather like to know the role of the third party apart form caste Hindu leadership and Muslim league in partition. Would anyone enlighten me?

Abdullah Bahi says there is no minorty persecution in Bangladesh. What about the medi reports in Bangladesh? How do you negate the white paper published by Shahriyar Kabir and the literature including Lajja and ethenic cleansing?

What do you say about enemy property law with different name?

Abdullah Bhai seems to have no respect for India or Indians. Is Bangladesh an isolated land from the rest of the world? He abuses our national leaders. Evaluations is alright whatever it is, but no one should be allowed to call names. I hope Bangladesh media also publishes what we write. Do the Bangladesh writers, journalists and intellectuals not write across the border. I am proud of Bangladeshi Novels, short stories and poems. I am proud of Meer Musharraf Hussain, Akhataruzzaman Ilius, Shamsur Rahman, Rahat Khan, Selina Hossain, Humaun Azad, Kabir Choudhari, Nirmalendu Gun, Jahanara Imam, Shahriar Kabir and other writers and journalist of Bangladesh.

My citizenship of India does not come in between my existence as a Bengali. Abdul Bhai is dividing the Bangla nationality once again while he says `stupid' Indians may not inherit nationality Bangla. As a learned man he is not able to distinguish citizenship and nationality based on language and culture. It is sad. He seems to have lost the vision to tolerate hard facts.

Yes, we have not a free media like you and it is also true that we stupid Indians have no forum like News from Bangladesh. It does not mean that Indians are not allowed in Bangladesh media. I thank all Bangladeshis who read me and try to interact including Abdullah Bahi.

He sounds as an angry young man and what he says, he does not mean at all. Or he does not understand what he says. He is not ready to read or listen to other stories, other versions. Is it democratic?

Nevertheless this dialogue and debate are necessary to know and evaluate our truth. At least, I don`t know the complete truth as all documentations are guided by some or other interests everywhere. I want to know the truth and hence I don`t suppress any information. I forward every bit of it to the readership general. It may sound very rough but rough most is our partitioned destiny. It is bitter, cruel and stunning but I believe we must know all the facts and every version of truth to get the ultimate truth which is denied systematically hitherto.
Yes, Abdullah Bhai! I used to ask my father and I ask even today the refugee leaders in India why they left their home in East Bengal. Why they left their Bangla Nationality, culture, land and property, it surprises me also. I agree that East Bengal did not face the massacres as both parts of Punjab faced. Partition victims from Punjab were rehabilated immediately on war footing. They were paid compensation. They have got representation in the polity , so a Punjabi refugee Dr manmohan singh Heads the government of India. Lalkrishna Adwani became deputy primeminister. While the refugees from East Bengal are considered as Bangladeshi nationals and an eviction drive is on against all of them in India.

I realise that the exodus began due to a minority psyche created by caste Hindu leadership of Bengal who did not want to provide any space to under classes including majority Muslims of Bengal. Undivided Bengal would have been ruled by Dalit Muslim combination, thus, they partitioned India. Gandhi, Jinnah, Nehru and Suharawardi and the British Empire, but we underplay the role played by Caste Hindu leadership who are no less responsible for partition as well as refugee persecution in India.
The refugee influx from East Bengal began with the minority psyche created by caste Hindu polity and politics and still continues and will be continued for infinite time. We know the minority psyche in India as Muslims have to support the Ruling party or front enmasse to sustain themselves without any gain .
We know well the use of minority card. I have witnessed this during riots in different states and places in India as a professional journalist and I always wrote against this.
I wrote my Meerut experience in a novel to expose the geography and history and industry of riots in may long story UNKA Mission in Hindi. The story was published only in a little mag with limited circulation. I wrote several short stories based on my experiences during riots in North India. I have a Short Story collection with my name ANDE SENTE LOG in Hindi. I wrote my novel Amerika se Savdhan in Hindi which has been published widely in Hindi.
I am trying my best to write in Bangla but I have no space as I oppose their interests. Not only this, I am professionally damaged when I shifted in Bengal. I am not going to elaborate this. I always expose the caste Hindu scientific system.
I wrote the novel in Bengali TAHADER MISSION and it is Pending in Bangla Academy for years. No publisher is ready to publish it.

Yes, our State language in India is Hindi. We were driven out of Bengal. Simply for practical reasons we had to learn in Hindi to communicate with local populations. We learnt different languages in different places. Hence we have no right as a Bengali on our own mother tongue and culture rooted in east Bengal, is it? We know different languages but we should not be deprived of our mother tongue. And we are deprived. Refugees have no chance to be educated in mothre language out of Bengal. Bengal government is quite apathetic. Really, Cast Hindu leadership of Bengal is engaged only to sustain their Power limited in Bengal. So, no body was interseted while India was waiting a Bengali Red Star in its sky. Prime Minister Jyoti Basu as PM could help us, though the communists are well known betrayers.

The refugees had to leave East Bengal whatever may be the case. I am sure it is not beacause Noakhali Riots or Direct action in Kolkata in 1946 as Abdullah Bhai says correctly that Hindu minorities are still living in Bangladesh and the Hindu population there seems to be no less than ten millions. It does not mean all Bengali refugees are criminals and communal. It does not mean the `self styled refugees' have no right to launch a movement to defend civil and human rights.
I am afraid while Abdullah Bhai refers to refugee movement he means the Sngh Parivar sponsered anti Bangladesh movement based in Kolkata. I am afraid that he is quite unaware of ongoing refugee movement elsewhere in India which has nothing against Bangladesh and Pakistan. Simply we fight for our life and employment, our biotic sustenance as Indian citizens. The crime seems to be that even after full six decades we did not forget our language , culture and history. So we are identified as bangladeshi. While we talk as with our idenetity rooted in Bangla, Abdula Bahi says we have no right.
I don`t think that Bangladesh thinks in the same way as Abdullah Bahi thinks.
I understand his wounds. But I myself am wounded. We were imposed upon an unwanted civil war and Bangla nationality itself is victimised all over this subcontinent as Bagdad, Palestine, Kabul, Darfur have been victimised . I called for unity in resistance against corporate, feudal imperialism and Cast Hindu or Fundamental ruling classes. I do never mean a Greater Bangladesh or merger of Bangladesh in India. It is not possible. It is not ethical. But divided in different geopolitics we satnd united as Bangla Nationality. My late father, `the terrorist self styled' refugee and peasant leader, an ex communist believed this lifelong.
At least, in this matter I inherit my father`s opinion.

Muslims suffer in India as we the Hindu refugees suffer. Muslims and refugees have no opportunity. I don`t mean Jyoti Basu or Buddhadev, Mrinal sen or Sunil gangopadhyaya. I mean the dalit refugees scattered all over India.

As Abdullah Bahi says , it is not true that all Indians are that stupid. The Caste Hindus know well how to defend their interests. Only we, the refugees, the under classes and Muslims in general are stupefied to sustain them in power. Eighty percent of Muslims in West Bengal depend on agro sector and they vote en masse as the left Front rule continues for over thirty years. And the indiscriminate land acquisition is targeted against Muslims all over the state. Nandigram is the tip of an iceberg.

Bengali Refugees had to leave their home as leaders like Fazlul Huq, Mujib and Maulana Bhasani could not stop them to be entrapped in caste Hindu trap.
Religion is quite irrelevent today. I am not against any religion. Post modernism and globanisation turminated religion, culture, language and ideology en masse. It is well expressed well in Iraq while the Muslim brotherhood has become irrelevent. It has become irrelevent in Palestine, too.
Well, religion has become a trump card in power game in South Asia. It has become topmost instrument in India where Sangh Parivar dictates terms. It is the same case in Bangladesh as the secular and self styled democratic Awami leage alligns with Khilafat.

As far as faith is concerned, the Hindus are not that conservative as they happened to be. Hinduism is not regularized . Neither it is disciplined in any way. Without praying or worshipping, being an anarchist or atheist no one cease to be a Hindu. Caste Hindu Bengalies are so pragmatic in Bengal as they choose their in-laws among the brilliance of under calsses sabotaging any possible resistance. Thus, they drove out the supporters of Fazlul Huq, Najibullah, Mujib, Bhasani , Jogendra Nath Mandal and Ambedkar, not only from East Bengal but out to different landscapes and humanscapes wiping them out of the history and geography of United Bengal.

We claim the roots, not the land.

Inter caste marriages and marrying daughters to Muslim suitable boys are taboos no more. It is said that the Hindus were afraid of marrying daughters to Muslims. Beef eating is also quite in vogue among the higher income groups. Thus, it is not the religion, which divided the United India. It is and only it is the Politics. Muslims ruled India at least for seven hundred years but the society was never divided. Divide and rule policy was adopted since Sannyasi Vidroh aganist East India Company. The Babus wrote history and literature accordingly.
I am not a student of Jadunath Sarkar nor I am limited to the study of RC Majumdar. Rather I follow the line of Irfan Habib, Romila Thapar, Lal Bahadur Verma, Sumit Sarkar, Tanika sarkar, Shekhar Pathak and Ram Chandra Guha. I realize that administration and land management, post and road links are run in line with Sher Sah. Akbar, the great and Sher shah are relevent even today. I know that Aurangzeb was not as communal as he is portrayed.

Abdullah Bahi not only the Muslim Rule, the Ancient History happens to be mutiliated by Myth, Religion and Manusmriti and sacred books.

We have to investigate all these things. I appreciate your aggresive analysis.
Hope that you would respond soon. I still hold back some more vital points.

I am forwarding your rejoinder to readership general and I expect others to contribute in the debate in case it is allowed to go on.

Pl Visit:http://www.bangladesh-web.com/news/view.php?hidDate=2007-01-13&hidType=OPT&hidRecord=0000000000000000146174

And read

ISSN 1563-9304 | Poush -335 1413 BS, Sunday | January 14, 2007
Click here to print this article in News from Bangldesh
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Rejoinder to Biswas-Pal

Thursday January 11 2007 14:16:21 PM BDT

Mohammad Abdullah, USA

Mr. Palash Chandra Biswas has responded to my note at NFB. He came up with some answers with opposite diameter as previously presumed by me. Assuming that standard I had to use harsh and tough language against such communal elements. A similar response also has been received from Mr. Sunil Kumar Pal in my mailbox. Since I do not prefer to respond personally to any of these two communal fellows, thus, I am sending this rejoinder for both of them to NFB.

I (hereafter MA) am responding to their (hereafter PCB first, and then followed by SKP) word-to-word or section-to-section in this rejoinder. I trust they are diametrically opposite as what these two fellows are presenting in the Bangladeshi forum.

PCB: I am not irritated to read our respected friend Mohammad Abdullah`s reaction on my article, `A Phone Call and A Letter From London' webcasted by News From Bangladesh. Rather I am ashamed of myself that our friend compares me with a personality like Bapu.

MA: I know nothing about the stranger Bapu. However, I do know about Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, a well known communally motivated king making leader of the stupid people of India. This mediocre fellow became Bapu to many stupid Indians. He is never Bapu to me or any Bangladeshi.

PCB: My friends as well as foes know well my stand on Gandhism and Sangh Pariwar. Whatever may be my opinion , the man who was not a general nor a head of the state or enjoyed any position in the establishment, is respected by the people worldwide. I may not have any wildest dream to dare experimenting with truth. I am sending this article to readership general as I sent the letter written by Sunil Pal. I hope, we would know many more facts to understand the destiny we bear.

MA: M. K. Gandhi is revered in India so much ONLY that fanatic Indian had killed him. Being a non-political king-maker he lost the life making stupid remarks throughout the life. When understood his mistakes it was too late for him to overcome them. An average to below average person became the heart winner of the Hindus of India. Since he was shot dead, he became a GREAT HERO.

PCB: I was stunned to hear and read Mr sunil Pal`s experience as I know nothing about this. We Bengali refugees have no such experience outside Bengal. I am not biased. Niether I supported Mr Pal`s claim. Mr Abdullah is right that I am a poor writer and have not as much as wealth as he possesses. I did not call Mr Pal. He called me. I am a keen student of history and I just posted the matter to wider readership to get feedback to understand the relevent facts. I am thankful that despite condemning me in a very rough manner, Abdullah Bhai gives some facts which I never knew. It is other part of the story which is never highlighted in India.

MA: Either PCB or SKP is a self styled REFUGEE. Essentially it is by choice and not by intrinsic manner that happened. For example, today I may be refugee in a foreign land if I do choose not to return to Bangladesh. Further if I claim that Bangladesh has driven me out in a foreign land then obviously I become a self styled refugee in that foreign land. It is a surprise that being a student of history one does not consider two sides of the coin. Is PCB only a reader of Jadu Nath Sarkar? In general, the communal fellows are single-sided readers and propagators. They do not like to hear about the other side of the coin with the pre-determined mind. I did not condemn PCB but became obvious per self confession. This is a deep analytical result.

PCB: I am against minority persecution in Bangladesh as well as in India and anywhere in this world. I also condemn the role of caste Hindu leadership of Bengal who wanted to dislodge Muslims and dalits from power and they supported the partition, not the Muslim dominated East Bengal. What Shyama Prasad did, I don`t support. I understand the role of Jinnah and the role played by Gandhi. I am speaking about the role of the third party, the victims, the Hindu as well as Muslim underclasses.

MA: No one persecuted the minorities in Bangladesh. If Bangladesh persecuted the minorities then today Bangladesh would have been cleaned from the minorities. Constitutionally they are secured and preserved with many of them in the Government organizations at the high chairs.

How many minorities in West Bengal are in the high chairs? Could these minorities go outside India with an Indian Passport? Could these minorities receive education from all institutions in West Bengal? Several minorities of Bangladesh have come to the Western Hemisphere with Bangladesh Passport. They had received higher education both at home and abroad. In West Bengal being at least 28% (as of today) of the West Bengal population how many Muslims could get education and leave India for abroad, Mr. PCB? If PCB realized who preferred the partition then why BANGLADESH is blamed for persecution? The Hindus of Eastern part of Bengal chose to leave for India before and after 1947. No one force them to leave their soil. Simply these Hindus did not want to live with their majority Muslim counterparts.

Often Jana Sangha and later Hindu Maha Sava propagated that they do not want to live under the Muslim majority environment as the presumed democratic platform will be adopted to run the administration. If PCB understood the role of Jinnah or Gandhi then only Gandhi would not become BAPU for him. Invariably Jinnah would be Quaid-e-Azam too. Similarly Shyma Prasad Mookerjee would have been recorded in a criminal book who advocated the migration of the Hindus from Eastern Bengal since 1944.

I wonder how this traitor became a cabinet member of Sher-eBangla A. K. Fazlul Huq? Of course Huq was a so-called friend of Ashutosh Mookerjee and considered his son a benevolent chap. Because of this attitude Huq was pushed to the drain by the Muslims as well. He never got upper hand in providing leadership of the sub-continent which he should have deserved in the first place. Thus, the Muslim League crown was snatched by Jinnah.

PCB: I welcome other opinions and facts however harsh may be. I am not contradicting Mr Pal or Mr Abdullah. Both of them describe the facts in accordance with their viewpoint. I am not communal and if I visit shonadanga, I would ensure that there communal harmony may sustain. I may play a role of a truth finder.

MA: Bengal as a whole could have been a much developed country by now. But the communal Hindus aided in creating partition of the land by sending Jinnah to Pakistan. Sly Jinnah ate the cream of the yogurt. Look at his life long career in law practices. He never lost any case while Gandhi or Nehru gave up practicing profession because they were failure. In the table the card of Jinnah became sole transparent for partition which Nehru and Gandhi approved in the first place. Shortly thereafter Gandhi realized his mistake and urged for proper share of Pakistan when Nehru unilaterally stopped the payment. Communal Gandhi was always a communal.

Not only this, he was a hater of the Bengali-speaking people. For example, he forced to step down Subhash Bose from the Congress President position in 1938. Gandhi launched unhygienic propaganda against this non-communal leader as Subhash Bose was liked by the Bengali speaking Muslims and Hindus alike. Had this leader been alive today we would have probably seen partition of Bengal though the Muslims voted for Pakistan in 1946. Voting for Pakistan was a BARGAIN for the Muslims if the Hindus did not want to live with the neighboring Muslims.

Another perspective of the game may be viewed as: had Chittaranjan Das been alive then also there would have been no partition. Partition was accelerated by Nehru, Gandhi, Shyma Prasad, Rajendra Prasad, Ballavbhai Patel and many other communal leaders from the chunk of the diehard Hindus.

Gandhi cleverly worked with the Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru Rabindranath Tagore to get his title fixed up as MAHATMA circa 1930. Further Gandhi acquired approval of HINDI as the STATE LANGUAGE in post independence of India from the same communal Poet Laureate Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru circa 1934. Find out how much communal both Mahatma and Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru were? Weren’t (or aren’t) they known globally?

PCB: The people victimised could not tell their story. First person version of the partition story is still absent in Bengali and Indian History and Literature. It is not documented at all. Every bit of documentation is sponsered by the ruling classes in the subcontinent which do not reflect the suffreing of the masses.

MA: Invariably the observation of PCB is naïve and may be true. However, just see how civil engineer Tathagata Roy has put together lately. Communal sponsors present this kind of history ad did Jadu Nath Sarkar when he viewed the Moghol era. But Sarkar forgot that Moghols were not live as the foreigners and did not loot India. Rather they got mixed up with the Hindu Rajput blood which Aurangazeb carried and his descendents carried thereafter. The bottom line is that the Moghols or the Pathans or the Tughlaks became pure Indian within a generation or two. They never advocated looting as the British did. Did any Hindu understand this feature of the Muslim out comers?

Yet Bankim Chandra Chatterjee coined communally Anadamotth which Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru appreciated as the foundation of Bengali Literature. What a definition of literature from a Laureate? Sarat Chandra Chatterjee wrote: Baangalee chheleyra Musholmaan (not Musolmaan) chheleder sathey football khelchhey.

What is the definition of Bangalee chheley and Musholmaan chheley while the foot ball game was going on in Hooghly? Were the Musholmaan chheleyra foreigners while speaking the same language as their opponents? What kind of plot of the story is this coined by Sarat Chatterjee? Is it a LITERATURE or communal motivation to discredit the converted Muslims? Remember, I am a converted Muslim.

PCB: As far as the language of the gentlman from USA equipped with far better English is concerned , I don`t mind. He abuses everyone. So what if he calls my late father a terrorist and an Indian Agent paid for anti Bangladeshi activities. The man who had been arrested for his participation in Bhasha Andolan, the mother of Bengali Nationality movement, against Pakistani regime, is termed as anti bangladesh. I have not to comment.

MA: I fail to comprehend as how a Bhasha Andolon participant becomes loyalist to another country? What Bhasha we are talking about? Isn’t Indian State Language is HINDI while the State Language of Bangladesh is Bengali? Why the father of PCB had allegiance to another country and language? If such a father was involved with the Bengali Nationality movement then he should have remained Bangladeshi. Isn’t it a simple logic? The way the REFUGEE MOVEMNET was coined and described the interpretation goes as obvious TERRORIST for such a person.

PCB: As far as I am concerned , I never criticise aesthetic sense and opinions of any person.

MA: Invariably a generous concept that deserves appreciation.

PCB: Let me clear , My late father had a heart always bleeding for the land he had to leave due to the tragedy which is well described by our friend while he portrayed the other dimentions of the story. Well, Muslims as well as Hindus, most of them did not want partition were victimised by the ruling classes. He never disrespected either Pakistan or Bangladesh. Well, he never accepted the political border imposed upon divided Bangla Nationality. His lifelong struggle may sound meaningless to a non resident Bangladeshior NRI, but he supported his lot the underclasses deprived of civil and human rights. He led peasants` revolt. Hence, Abdullah bhai sees him as a terrorist. He may rewrite the history , welcom.

MA: No, Mr. PCB I did not see him as a terrorist only because of his involvement with the peasants. Invariably you mentioned about the REFUGEE MOVEMENT as well. Also you stated about his crossing the border illegally and then getting arrested. Again leaving Eastern Bengal was by the choice and not by any other reason for the Hindus. Simply these Hindus did not want to live together with the majority Muslim neighbors despite living for over seven centuries since 1204 A.D. The father of PCB adopted suspicious policy to justify patriotism which is the last resort of a scoundrel.

PCB: I want to inform, as a peasant leader, despite his commitment to the refugees he could not hate Muslims. He worked among the riot victims in Assam as earlier as in 1960 as a communist leader. The party was against any communist leader from outside to visit Assam. As PC Joshi , The General secretary of Communist party of India disowned Telengana as well as dhimri Block movements , he was disillusioned. After his Assam visit, he was ousted from the party. He visited the Muslim Victims in the riots of Meerut, Bijnore and Gonda and he also opposed sangh parivar and its fascist politics. Though Atal Bihari as a Jansangh President in 1969 assured him to raise the issues related to Bengali refugees from party forum. On atalji`s initiative, he joined Jansangh in 1969 and was invited in Mumbai National Convention where he was not allowed to speak for refugees. He immediately left the party and thereon, opposed Sangh Pariwar .

MA: It is crystal clear as who joins the Jana Sangh Party. Atal Bihar Vajpayee is a known communal for decades. The father of PCB seems to be a victim of the diehard communal leaders of modern India. It is not a surprise but a usual practice among the rivals within a party as long as visibility is concerned for any topic during the convention.

PCB: For me, I respect the freedom and sovereignity of Bangladesh> I respect the committed intellegentia and media in bangldesh. I respect Bangla and Indian nationalities. I assume that I have the heritage rooted in this dual nationality. I also have respect for Pakistan and other free nations worldwide. I only emphasise that the global imperialism has made us sick and we suffer fro Demntia.

MA: It seems like benevolent comprehension for PCB. The bottom line for PCB is that he is a part of the stupid Indian nationality which has a bastardized language as the State Language which was advocated by the Poet Laureate Bishwa-Kobi-Raj-Guru since early 1930s. However, Bangladesh has a language that is well established by the Bangladeshis at UNO since October 1973 when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman first delivered speech in Bengali language as Bangladesh became the member of UNO that day. Remember, India has still problem in digesting events either in Pakistan or in Bangladesh. Get the VISA APPLICATION FORM of India and see how much extraneous information is required (not necessary) for a citizen of Pakistan and a citizen of Bangladesh to visit India. Compare this form with the counterpart form of Bangladesh.

Further compare the same form with the counterpart form of Pakistan. See how three forms look side by side containing the questions and items required for a visitor. Invariably this is not the case for other nationals to visit India. Yet India is the largest democratic country in the world having either half or more than half of the provinces or territories always remaining under the Presidential Rule. This is nothing but Hindu hypocrisy.

PCB: Let the informations flow independently. We may disagree and even oppose. The readers are adult enough to judge the facts. We have not to dictate.

MA: PCB is right if democracy prevails.

PCB: I only object that Abdullah Bhai is trying to tell editors not to publish anything which he thinks is against Bangladesh. I know, the editors in Bangladesh are better from those in any part of the world who know their job very well and may not be dictated.

MA: Invariably the underlying comprehension is true. However, if I do see any communally motivated architecture in the Bangladeshi forum then invariably I’ll pull out the counter stick to control the situation for the global readers. Eventually I intend to insist to remove such communally motivated scoundrels from the civilized arena.

PCB: I am not like some Indian and Bangladeshi writers who have commercialised anti Islam opinions and sensul sex activities.

MA: Could PCB describe his motivation as how and why he arrived in this forum? What is the actual agenda of PCB in this forum? What items PCB is bringing to this forum? Is anything new for the readers from Bangladesh or around the globe? To note, I just tolerated first several postings of PCB. When he brought Sunil Kumar Pal in the scenario only then I had to come to the playground to encounter these communal elements in this forum.

PCB: Abdullah Bhai should recognise secular and democratic forces active in this subcontinent.

MA: I am much better with Mr. Abdullah. It is very difficult for me to comprehend as how Hindu India is a secular country with a puppet Muslim named President and a pro-Hindu Sarderjee Prime Minister. This show is nothing but hypocrisy as Indira Gandhi coined such a philosophy. She used Vice President Hidayetullah as a pawn to get reduced or subsidized rate petroleum or gasoline from the Muslim Arab Sheikhs dominated Middle-East. It is a matter of utter surprises that Indira Gandhi as Prime Minister and Hidayetullah as the Vice President visited together using the same aircraft the Arab capitals to secure the flow of the liquid fuel for India. Use of Muslim puppets in India is not new in this way. I can provide several examples of this kind. Is this type of hypocrisy resulting from diehard secular and democratic forces in India?

PCB: I am in favour of constant dialogue among differnt people of this subcontinent as they have no role in the artificial tention and wargame of ruling classes. In a new world, this subcontinent has to be united , I firmly believe. I am grateful that at least a section of Bangladeshi media including NFB and The Independent provides me the opportunity to address Bangladeshi audiance. I am used to write for little mags and I don`t write for entertainment. Nieth

Comments

Marxist Halucination

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 19:40:48 +0100

Marxist Halucination
Palash Biswas

( Pl Publish the matter with latest update and send a copy. contact: Palash C Biswas, Gostokanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110. India. Phone: 91-33-25659551).

MACBETH

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.

A bell rings

I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell.

( From Macbeth by william Shakespear)

My father Pulin Kumar Biswas never believed communists after Telengana and Dhiri Block betrayal. During seventies, while I was engaged in students` movement and later in Uttarakhand sangharsha Vahini, he would never listen any reference to ideology. Rather he sounded like George Bernard Shaw who said, `"The Apple Cart exposes the unreality of both democracy and royalty as our idealists conceive them." In fact, The Apple Cart is a treatise on the impossibility of any kind of government. Democracy, autocracy, and monarchy are all making the best of a bad situation, and none of them is doing very well. Shaw is no anarchist; he simply wants us to recognize, as King Magnus does, the invisible shackles that trip government and turn it into a farce. Shaw wrote in the `Preface to Apple Cart’, Besides, the conflict is not really between royalty and democracy.
It is between both and plutocracy, which, having destroyed the
royal power by frank force under democratic pretexts, has bought
and swallowed democracy. Money talks: money prints: money
broadcasts: money reigns; and kings and labor leaders alike have to
register its decrees, and even, by a staggering paradox, to finance
its enterprises and guarantee its profits. Democracy is no longer
bought: it is bilked. Ministers who are Socialists to the backbone
are as helpless in the grip of Breakages Limited as its acknowledged
henchmen: from the moment when they attain to what is with
unintentional irony called power (meaning the drudgery of carrying
on for the plutocrats) they no longer dare even to talk of
nationalizing any industry, however socially vital, that has a
farthing of profit for plutocracy still left in it, or that can be
made to yield a farthing for it by subsidies.’

Ideology sounds always good. It was good enough in Soviet Union and in the entire communist world. What happened , it is history.

I was just born and I have simply no memory of Dhimri Block uprising in Himalayan terai. but I had enough opportunity to witness the trail and victimisation. In late sixties the communists in terai played the role of landbrokers in the same way as buddha is doing it in West Bengal on full scale. In our Bengali Refugee areas the communist villages were Netaji Nagar, Vijay Nagar, Pipulia, Chandipur, etc. Most of the communist peasants in these villages lost their land and leaders had their hand.
When Bengali refugees settled in MP, Maharashtra, Andhra and Orrissa were planning to launch Marichjhapi agitaion, my father Pulin Kumar Biswas went to Mana Camp and tried to convince the refugees that it will be a folly to depend on the communist leaders in West Bengal. Jyoti Basu had visited Vilai and ram chatterjee went to mana to mobilise the agitation. Since my father has a very good relations with ND Tiwari and KC pant, the rfugee leaders did not believe him . He was the president of all India Bengali Refugee committe. He was mishandled and was saved by police. My father came back to Nainital and no refugee joined this Matrichjhapi movement under his influence ie UP, Bihar and Assam. What happened is Marichjhapi genocide by the Jyoti Basu government. I also protested the movement purely on ecological ground as I believed that sundar Van must be protected and Marichjhapi won`t solve the refugee problem.
My father was very sad that no refugee movement could be mobilised in bengal and he held left responsible for this.

My father died in 2001. I still have faith in communist ideologybut I see the picture of ideological betrayal very clear. Sumit Sarkar and Tanika Sarkar always supported CPI-M and they are out to lodge their protest on indiscriminate land garbbing. Mahashweta Devi, arundhati Roy, Aparna Sen, Meeratul Naher, Ratan Basu Majumdar and the entire Bengal intellegentia is known for its left ideology. Even Medha Patekar launched so many movements with left countrywide. Now everyone is against left. Why? so everyone turns to be Naxalite!

On friday, Aparna sen and Shaoli Mitra led a demonstration by intellectuals. Participants were:Arpita Ghosh, Sunand Sanyal, Kaushik Chattopadhyaya, Pratul chakrabarti,Chaitali Dutt, Tarun Nashkar, Gauri Bandopadhyay, Anadi Basu, Kaushik Ghosh, Meeratun naher, Kakoli Majumdar, Kalyan sengupta, Ratan Basu Majumdar, Debbrata Panda, Apurba Biswas, Prashant Sikdar, Kartik saha, Siddikullah Chaudhari, ashok Samanta, tapan roychoudhari, ajanta Ghosh, Swaraj Sengupta and many more.

Buddhadev and CPI-M leaders were alleging that Jamaje Ulema Hind is misleading peasant with Naxalites. Leftists accused of communalism against Jamate Ul Hind. The party and governement could not speak to naxalites but the chief minister talked to Jamat leaders with other prominent Muslim leaders to convince tyhe Muslim Vote Bank.

Thus, capitalist development, globalisation, industrilisation, party, Marxist ideology, vote bank, popular progressive image, altogether caught Buddhadev in a situation of Macbeth`s Halucination and this is Marxist Halucination.Buddha simply ignores Left, right, Centre.

The Left and its allies may have fought for stopping use of agricultural land for Special Economic Zones (SEZ) but in West Bengal, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee says it's impossible to conform to the Centre's stipulation. JSW Steel, which signed an MoU with the Bengal government, would need around 4,800 acres for the 10-million tonne steel plant. According to the government, not more than 100 acres of farmland could be acquired. However, the JSW deal was an exception and in fact the proposed industrial projects would eat up a substantial portion of agricultural land in the state. Even the fertile tracts will have to be sacrificed.

The Left Front wants use of multicrop land for SEZ restricted at 10 per cent, but Bhattacharjee says departures are bound to happen in Bengal."I think it is not possible to apply in our state because 62 per cent is agricultural land and at least 70 to 80 per cent is fertile land. But we'll compensate by improving the productivity of land we have," says Bhattacharjee.

Singur is a case in point. While dated government records show barely 10 per cent of the acquired 997-acre plot yielded more than one crop a year, villagers claim exactly the opposite.

After months of debate, government officials admit productivity of land had improved since records were last updated, and the 10 per cent figure wasn't correct.

After Singur and Nandigram, partners of the CPM have distanced themselves from Bhattacharjee. And with departures happening from hallowed political beliefs of the Left Front, building a consensus amongst allies wouldn't be easy.

Bhattacharya did not commit 'big blunder', says Yechuri. Here you are! The JNU based 21st century leadership which have no grassroots like Sunderaiya, Namboodaripad, Pramod Dasgupta, Jyoti Basu, surjeet, have chosen to support the erring chief minister and are quite in a hurry to annihilate the party support base. Yechuri replied: 'What she has given is being inquired into by the government and till now 350 acres of what she claims as part of the acquired land is outside of this land. The affidavits that have been filed do not fall under the purview of the acquired land... 350 acres is entirely from outside.'

Yechuri also insisted in an interview to Karan Thapar on CNN-IBN that the West Bengal government used force to take over land from farmers in Singur village for a Tata car project.

Fervently and repeatedly and at times angrily, the Rajya Sabha MP said Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya had not admitted to committing a 'big blunder' in Nandigram where violence sparked by angry farmers led to four deaths.'There is no blunder ... I am sorry. Don't quote to me what appears in the press. I know what he said,' Yechuri said.

Pointed out reports where Bhattacharya is quoted as saying that the Nandigram violence happened 'because of our mistake ... it was a big blunder', Yechuri snapped: 'It was not said to journalists. They all picked it up from god knows where.'

Instead, Yechuri said: 'The Haldia Development Authority issued some instruction which was not its mandate. That instruction is the cause for a lot of confusion. 'Please go by his - written statement which is available on the web and where he says it was - the - Development Authority which has no authority on this issue.'

On Singur, where land acquisition by the government led to a prolonged hunger strike by Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, the CPI-M MP said the party had actually brought to the fore the question of compensation paid to farmers 'to the national agenda'.'The compensation we are giving in Singur is the best and the most exemplary. And now everybody will have to follow suit.'

The state government says that 954 acres of the required 997 in Singur has been voluntarily surrendered. But Mamata Banerjee claims the owners of 464 acres, 46 percent of the total, have filed affidavits in court asserting they have refused to sell their land and refused to accept compensation.

Yechuri replied: 'What she has given is being inquired into by the government and till now 350 acres of what she claims as part of the acquired land is outside of this land. The affidavits that have been filed do not fall under the purview of the acquired land... 350 acres is entirely from outside.'

Asked to comment on charges that violence was used against farmers and people in Singur, he said: 'I contest very, very strongly that all of this happened through brute force. When Mamata Banerjee and Medha Patkar were there on dharna, you had people queuing up to collect compensation cheques. Why? Why are they accepting this package?'

Another village braces for land fight

NARESH JANA writes in Telegraph, Kolkata

Mahishadal, Jan. 11: A procession of 500 villagers threaded its way yesterday along National Highway-41 in East Midnapore’s Mahishadal to express solidarity with the Nandigram farmers in their agitation against acquisition of land.

The villagers have their own reason to rally against acquisition of farmland for industry. A special economic zone and biotechnology park, scheduled to come up in Haldia, spills over to Mahishadal, about 120 km from Calcutta.

The Haldia Development Authority has identified 13 mouzas measuring 24 sq km for acquisition.

“The farmers in Nandigram have showed us how to build up a movement against land acquisition. We will prevent land acquisition in Mahishadal, too,” said 24-year-old Uttam Shau, a farmer who owns four bighas in Dakshin Kashimnagar, and one of those leading the procession at Garughata.

Haldia Development Authority chairman and Tamluk MP Lakshman Seth, however, said the quantum of land to be acquired and the land map were yet to be drawn up. “We have only identified the mouzas.”

A notification similar to the one which led to the flare-up in Nandigram was sent by the Haldia Development Authority to the block development office in Mahishadal on December 28 last year.

“We came to know about the land acquisition preparations on September 13 last year when the block development officer was in the process of drawing up a list of the mouzas. We immediately set up a committee to build up a movement,” said Tapan Maity, the local committee secretary of the SUCI in Mahishadal and convener of the Jami Banchao Bastu Banchao Committee.

Maity said the committee was set up with active participation of the local SUCI, Trinamul Congress and even the CPI. Both the pradhans of Itamogra-I and Itamogra-II gram panchayats belong to the CPI and the party is a dominant force at the panchayat level.

“People have voted me to power for seven consecutive terms. If I don’t participate in the movement, it will be a betrayal on my part,” said Sudhanshu Sekhar Barik, pradhan of Itamogra-II.

The CPI panchayat samity member of Mahishadal, Nirmal Kumar Das, is one of the assistant secretaries of the committee.

Medha to Nandigram: Don’t drop guard against ‘Yuddhadeb’

Express News Service

Kolkata, January 12: After a bitter struggle with the police for the past two days Medha Patkar finally reached Nandigram on Friday afternoon. Along with environmentalist Swami Agnivesh and some other leaders, the social activist addressed a meeting of farmers, protesting against the state governments proposed land acquisition drive for a SEZ project in the area. Patkar warned the villagers in Nandigram that there was no reason to slacken the vigil against the government machinery’s move to acquire land, for the attack will come in a different form.

Dubbing Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee as “Yuddhadeb,” Patkar said Nandigram has shown the rest of the country how to resist the government’s “ill-conceived steps”. She said though the government has retracted for the time being, it is definitely not the end of the struggle for the villagers. She also exhorted the women of Nandigram to mount a vigil since the attack will now come “in a different form” — the lure of money. When the monetary bait comes, families, she warned, may split down the middle.

The women, thus, will have to guard against such moves, she said. Patkar said the 80,000 families of Nandigram were enough to ward off any future attack, provided the people remained united as they are at present.

Telling the locals that there is no need to take up arms, she said the human cordon would be enough to thwart the government’s land acquisition efforts.

The anti-Narmada dam agitation leader said her demonstration in West Bengal is an eye opener. Though she has till date organised several movements in Maharashtra, the Marxist government’s response to her agitation against land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram was totally unexpected, she added.

Meanwhile, a close associate of Patkar said there was no reply from CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose, against whom she had served a defamation notice. The spokesman for National Alliance for People Movement said Patkar would return to Nagpur temporarily but would be back soon.

Nandigram students rise against principal

ibnlive.com
Posted Saturday , January 13, 2007 at 16:47

NANDIGRAM CONCERNS: Farmers have been resisting land acquisitions for setting up an SEZ.

New Delhi: The unrest in Nandigram in West Bengal took a different turn when students and their parents of a school locked up the Headmaster for closing the school without any notice and allowing the Communist Party of India (CPI) to hold a meeting in the school premises.When students arrived at the Benoy Bandhupur Kandu Parash primary school, they found it shut and saw that CPI West Bengal state secretary Manju Majumdar was holding a meeting there with around 200 people.After the meeting, the students and their parents locked the Headmaster Bidesh Patra in his room.

Majumdar told PTI that the CPI had asked the headmaster for permission to hold the meeting and thought it unfortunate that the headmaster had not issued any notice to the students or their guardians that the school would be closed.

Nandigram had witnessed a seesaw battle on early Sunday morning between CPM supporters and protesting farmers, who were resisting land acquisitions for setting up an SEZ for the Salim group of Indonesia.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Public Statement

AI Index: ASA 20/004/2007
(Public)
News Service No: 006

11 January 2007

India: Deaths in West Bengal during protest against
new industrial project

As protests by farming communities fearing
displacement from their land as a result of a new
industrial project continue to lead to violence in
West Bengal (Eastern India), Amnesty International is
concerned at reports that state officials may be
responsible for, or complicit in, human rights abuses
including torture and the death or injury of
protestors following the use of excessive and
unnecessary force.

At least seven people were reported killed and at
least 20 others injured since 7 January in continuing
violence in Nandigram, Eastern Midnapore district,
West Bengal where farmers are protesting an initiative
by the Bengal state government to acquire land for a
new industrial project. Among those killed was a
14-year-old boy.

Violent clashes in Nandigram reportedly involved
members of the local Krishjami Raksha Committee (Save
Farmland Committee) and persons linked to the
Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which leads
West Bengal’s Left Front government and is seeking to
accelerate the development of industrial projects in
the state.

Human rights organisations allege that the farmers
were attacked by armed men affiliated to the CPI-M
acting in complicity with the police. The reports say
the attackers fired at the farmers and branded some of
them with hot iron rods as “punishment” for protesting
against the industrial project. There have been
reports of farmers carrying out attacks on local CPI-M
offices in the area, forcing them to flee elsewhere.

In this context, Amnesty International urges the
Government of West Bengal to:

order an impartial and independent inquiry into the
Nandigram violence, promptly make the findings public
and prosecute those accused of violence;

ensure that all state officials, including police
personnel, who are suspected of being responsible for
human rights violations, including excessive use of
force, torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment are prosecuted;

release those detained without any specific criminal
charges at Nandigram and ensure that activists and
other individuals engaged in peaceful protests should
be able to do so without fear of violence, harassment
or false accusation of involvement in criminal
activities.

Amnesty International believes that full consultations
about the human rights impact of economic decisions
with those to be affected are vital means through
which human rights are safeguarded in the context of
development. In this respect, the organisation calls
on the Government of West Bengal to:

announce and implement a consistent policy of full
consultation with local populations before any
development which could affect their livelihood can
take place and

ensure that, where populations are resettled, there is
just, adequate and culturally-sensitiv e
rehabilitation, resettlement and reparation for those
affected.

Background
Since 3 January 2007, Nandigram has witnessed protests
by local farmers after they came to know about a
notification issued by authorities at the neighbouring
Haldia port identifying their lands as sites to be
acquired for the new chemical production project. This
notification has since been withdrawn by the West
Bengal government which has stated it would “exercise
caution” while going ahead with the project.

The project reportedly requires at least 4,000
hectares of land for setting up a Special Economic
Zone (SEZ) which would be jointly developed as a
chemical hub by the state-owned Industrial Development
Corporation and the Indonesia-based Salem group of
companies. Another SEZ promoted by the same group is
also reportedly planned in the Haldia area.

The protests at Nandigram followed unrest in Singur
(West Bengal) in December 2006, when opposition
parties and a number of farmers threatened with
displacement by a state government move to acquire
farm land for a Tata Motors’ automobile manufacturing
project prompted demonstrations. The West Bengal state
government plans to set up at least six other major
industrial projects, including SEZs, in the state,
necessitating the acquiring of at least 10,000
hectares of land.

In a bid to boost national economic growth, India has
been promoting SEZs across the country. The policy of
acquiring land for such industrial projects has
sparked protests from local communities fearing land
displacement and threats to their sustainable
livelihood.

~~
Joe Athialy
Campaigns and Communication Coordinator
Amnesty International India

Consent for 960 acres in Singur, a telegraph story:
- Govt publishes details of landowners who have no objection to Tata Motors project, Mamata cries foul
Calcutta, Jan. 12: The government today published a detailed list of plots totalling 960.13 acres that were acquired for Tata Motors with the consent of landowners in Singur, but Mamata Banerjee branded it a lie. The list trashes Trinamul Congress’s claim that 464 acres out of the 997.11 acres required for the Tata project was forcibly acquired. The government issued a release today saying that the details on Singur were available on its official site www.wbgov.com.

The 372-page list contains the names of over 15,000 people in five Singur mouzas — Bajemelia, Beraberi, Khasherbheri, Singherbheri and Gopalnagar — who consented to the acquisition, their plot areas and khatian (holding) numbers.

Land minister Abdur Rezzak Mollah said: “We have published a detailed list of those who have given consent to the Tata project. So, Trinamul’s claims that 464 acres were forcibly acquired are untenable.”

“The information on the website is false and we shall come out with our own list detailing the names of farmers whose land was forcibly acquired for the project,” a Trinamul leader quoted Mamata as saying tonight.

Trinamul MP Mukul Roy said the party has already submitted to the governor documents that show 464 acres had been taken away without owners’ consent.

The government, however, had said earlier that the list contained names of many whose land had not been acquired at all as they were outside the area earmarked for the small-car plant.

Officials in the commerce and industries department said tonight that the website would speak for itself about the government’s assertion on consent from a majority of the farmers.

“Let Trinamul come out with its list, people will understand which one is correct,” an official added.

Becharam Manna, the convener of the Save Farmland Committee, said he has begun mobilising people for a fresh round of protests. “We are least bothered about the government’s claims. The people here know what is what. We shall meet tomorrow to chart the course of our action,” he said.

My game is red , a DNA analysis by Sayandeb Chowdhury :
Thursday, January 11, 2007 23:59 IST

The only inspiration for the opposition in Bengal is CPI(M)’s flawed past

The game of realpolitik involves a hidden streak of the unsaid and the unuttered, which does not show up on camera in two-second bites. But certain historical junctures bring to the surface those fault lines and ironies. The Singur and Nandigram issues have all the makings of a conflict that can force open those fault lines in Bengal.

There is no certainty that anytime soon, Mamata Banerjee’s madness, like that of King George the Fifth, will surrender to the voices of reason. It is similarly unlikely that CPI(M) will let the Tatas run away from the state like their brethren did in the sixties and seventies. Big capital, frightened by the spectre of communism, had then sought shelter in Mumbai and elsewhere.

But old cultures die hard; in Bengal politics, often they don’t. So in a display of supreme irony, now the Leftists are the flag-bearers of capital and Mamata is the obstructer-in-chief, eyeing the vast rural base of the CPI(M).

The style and maybe the substance have transmuted. But the culture hasn’t. Mamata’s show of public defiance and disruption, owes its genealogy to the CPI(M), whose cadres were well tutored in disruptive and dissident tactics. Mamata has only taken over from where the CPM left off.

But how and when did the CPM vacate that space in the first place? Why did it leave the hallowed, if somewhat hollowed communist chimera and embrace what, by any accounts, is pure capitalism? Was it externally driven — the collapse of the Soviet Union, the changing economic landscape in China or Vietnam — or did it have an internal, purely domestic impetus? No doubt the old communist dreams of those countries had helped the CPI(M) dangle the carrot of a great future to its followers. Bengal had seen its industries vanish and the impoverished population bought into the CPI(M)’s grand project.

Part of the Party’s political base was in the industrial wastelands where people were left jobless due to the flight of capital. The other part were the farmers who joined the CPI(M) in the hope of transforming their lives; after the Green revolution had bypassed them.

To keep its rural and mofussil base intact, the CPM had to show itself to be anti-metropolitan, which meant attacking computerisation and taking English out of primary education. The result? Bengal’s present crumbled under the weight of a future that would never come. The CPI(M) stood by paternalistically, guarding a generation that grew up totally unsure of itself and its place in the world.

But, the world was changing outside and with it, India was experiencing convulsions, too. As other states began prospering once reforms were instituted, there were those in the CPI(M) who realised that the myth of a prosperous agrarian Bengal would be unsustainable for long. To make sure the state grew out of stagnancy, it had to change tracks and embrace speedy industrialisation. Which meant a change in its party culture — the strikes, the bandhs and the violence that had become hallmarks of the CPM’s style of functioning.

Also, by the mid-nineties, the Left parties’ vote share started dwindling from a healthy 40 per cent that it had enjoyed in the 80s. In fact, at any time during the nineties, a united opposition could have dislodged the CPI(M). Some party leaders quickly saw the writing on the wall. They realised that globalisation was raising expectations even among its own faithful. Younger Bengalis did not see merit in the party’s anti-technology stance. There was a real danger that the party would become irrelevant. The future was already here; there was no time to lose.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was quick on the uptake and saw that the future of his party was not in peddling empty aphorisms to the hoi polloi. It was in making peace and working alongside the middle class. Braving the objections of his colleagues, especially at the centre, he has forged on, wooing capital from within and outside the country. The middle-class shifted to him in droves.

The danger is that he may have left his traditional bases open to others like Mamata, who has spotted the chinks in the party’s armour. Not only has she studied the CPM’s political language carefully, she has gauged —perhaps correctly — that there are still sections in the rural hinterland who may not be in thrall of rapid industrialisation. Like Banquo’s ghost, the CPI(M)’s old dreams refuse to fade away.

Now, the poor have found solace with Mamata and her ilk. Mamata on her part has occupied the anti-industry ground and she is finding support and traction. Both sides have exchanged garbs. Meanwhile, Bengal’s future glory seems to be in permanent limbo.

Shukla Sen writes:
Singur: The Emperors Have No Clothes
January 12, 2007
How much more will The Hindu defend the Marxist Government of West Bengal? For over a month, the campaign to paint the Marxist Government white has breached all decent limits of "fearless, unbiased" reporting. Not content with the 22 pages it has everyday, The Hindu also wants to use the tiny "Letters to the Editor" column to propagate or rather thrust its views upon readers. Similar to the cry of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that since all the available land is under cultivation they are forced to encroach upon agricultural land for industrialization, The Hindu seems to say that since all the available space is either filled with news or advertisements (or even Rs 13-per-Sq-cm obituaries), it has no option but to forcibly intrude into the only available space on the paper, the "Letters to the Editor" columns.
Look at this piece that was published two days ago.
The report that six persons died in clashes in Nandigram, West Bengal, following rumours of land acquisition for a Special Economic Zone, is disturbing.
"Rumors"? What rumors? When you turn two pages you find where Mr. Bhattacharjee admitted that the Haldia Development Authority did issue a notice to acquire land and the said authority is headed by a CPI(M) MP. Why publish letters that are factually incorrect?
Incidentally, all the letters are from people who are more that 2000 kms from West Bengal. What a representative collection of letters!
As if that was not enough, yesterday's edition carries another letter toeing the line of The Hindu and coming from a non-West Bengal location.
The death of six persons in clashes instigated by some organisations in Nandigram is unfortunate. The fact that these organisations played up rumours of land acquisition saying the West Bengal Government had issued eviction notices, when the reality is that it has not even completed the identification of lands, shows their vested interest.
The other letter in the column too supports the Marxists. Readers often look towards the letters to learn the dissenting or the alternative points of view. In the first place, the reporting on the Singur issue has been very one-sided. Ms. Medha Patkar and Ms. Arundhati Roy, who usually get lavish space, are now given single-column insignificant coverage. By publishing letters that just mimic the articles, The Hindu is forcing regular readers like me to look for alternative sources of news.
The fine line between your beliefs and the truth is always sacrosanct. In this editorial, where they term Mamata Banerjee's fast as "high-wire theatrics" and "meaningless" , has breached that line. The editorial, which also commends Mr. Bhattacharjee' s handling of the issue, give us an FAQ on Singur.
What are the key facts about Singur? The State Government went about acquiring the land sought by Tata Motors not by dispossessing the people on the highly fragmented land, but by seeking their consent through offering compensation that was significantly higher than the market price.
The moot issue is not the price but the consent of the landowners and rehabilitation and that has been consciously eclipsed.
The biggest lie that Chief Minister Bhattacharjee has been repeatedly telling is that the lands have been acquired with the consent of the landowners. But the "Final Report on Singur", available on the website of the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation, reveals a different story.
Consent under section 11(2) is a means of involvement of the citizen in determination of award. However, non-submission of consent in writing in terms of Section 11(2) does not prevent the Collector from declaring the award and acquiring the land. For those landowners who do not submit consent in writing under Section 11 (2), the Collector shall proceed under Section 11(1) and declare the award and such awardees will not receive the additional 10%.
Hence, irrespective of the landowner's consent, the lands have been acquired by the West Bengal Government. The consents that were obtained before the calculation of award are called "Pre-Award Consents," which is quite logi

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Marxist Halucination

Sat, 13 Jan 2007 19:09:55 +0100