Im not by any stretch of
imagination a CPM Party man...i dont vote for that blessed party... in fact i
think its one of the most regressive and dogmatic political entities...i also
think that Somnath Chatterjee is a national disgrace as speaker of the lok
sabha...but i value the truth and much as i abhor the policies of the CPM, i
will stand up for truth and justice every time...
So when Budhhadeb babu asked the press whether the goons of the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirod Committee were supposedly peaceful when they harassed and chased away those villagers of Nandigram who were CPM supporters and maintained this status quo for 11 months, not allowing the administration entry into nandigram - i found myself nodding in agreement. you simply cannot have the cake and eat it too... for that is exactly the way the "arrogant" regional media want it. on the one hand we blame the state for the police firings of 14march (perhaps rightly so) and on the other hand when the state does not involve the police in the return of these displaced villagers on 14th november (probably from fear of a political backlash) the so called intelligentsia of bengal are up in arms...I have never heard anywhere in the annals of peoples movement that a simple return to occupy what was theirs to be coined as "recapture" (strange usage of the word)...recapture of what.???? displaced people reclaiming and reoccupying their homes ????
As for the goons of the Trinamul backed BUPC, lets not close our eyes and pretend their ranks were not infiltrated by the maoists. (who else would teach the villagers to dig up roads and build trenches for guerrilla warfare. who else would teach them the drill of using guns. CNN IBN and ND TV has live video evidence of this) I find it incredulous that even after seeing visual footage we have people like dramatist manish mitra go up on DD Bangla yesterday and question the veracity of none other than the home minister of the country, Shivraj Patil who made a statement in the lok sabha to this effect... Perhaps Star Anando anchor suman dey thinks its "cute" to openly ridicule the CM of west bengal and ask for evidence of maoist presence in nandigram... i wonder at the editorial restraint of the TV Channel. People like suman de and manish mitra are typical of a species who only see (and say) what they wish to see and disregard something which stares us in the face. suman dey can perhaps be partially forgiven for he is perhaps following the channel political line.
For what is staring us in the face should disturb us greatly as a civil society and as a nation. Right from the early seventies and the rise of naxalism in bengal, it was considered a fringe movement and no one thought it possible that it could ever be successful in involving the masses in a violent armed uprising. The naxal movement was forcibly suppressed and the comrades came to power in bengal, but extreme leftist ideology never really died down. it started again in turbulent districs of Andhra Pradesh in the early ninetes and today maoists cut a swathe in 150 districts from Maharashta, AP, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and bihar. today they represent the biggest internal threat ever and the central government is aware of this. But Nandigram represents a watershed which history will judge many years down the line. Nandigram serves as the crucible of an experiment fundamental to the extreme left cause... that of participation of the masses in an armed uprising. the incidence of nandigram and the events leading upto november 14th served the purposes of the maoists exactly...a small but significant step was taken in nandigram by the maoists...an experiment was proved to be successful...above party bickering THIS is what should be bothering us...for the violence happened even after the government backed down from the SEZ development plan...the maoists succeeded in their plan while civil society was busy apportioning blame on the state...how many times have we seen in punjab and kashmir that insurgency succeeds when they have they support of the local populace...but we indians have learnt nothing and we observe nothing because we are obsessed in only seeing the small picture....
And it has become fashionable for civil society to blame the state...where were the famed intelligentsia of bengal when poor people were driven from their homes for 11months...what was their language of protest..why was their silence so deafening...why is it that their eloquence found voice only after the incidence of november 14th...why werent there cries of "Dhikaar" of the aparna sens and ghoses (Gautam, Rituporno and shankho) prior to november 2007. what are we as a society tryng to say...that state repression is real repression and all other manifestation of repression is romantic and cute...is it cute when family ties have been torn asunder like it has been in nandigram.. NDTV's monideepa bannerjee's report on nandigram precisely on this issue is an eyeopener...the mother was chased away by the son Gaurango who is a BUPC supporter (forcedly so as earlier he too was a CPM man)and lived in a camp for 11months...her crime...she was a CPM supporter. today she has returned to nandigram but doesent live with her son...the mistrust between mother and son is palpable and deep. who is responsible for this... It is time that we as a society read the signs emanating out of nandigram and take corrective action...or has apathy so overtaken us that we have become blasé to tragedy... if we fail to read the larger picture now then we as a nation , both state and society must squarely be held responsible for events that will eventually overcome us.
And what of the role of the intelligentsia in bengal..is it only to march in protest and abuse the so called state repression..or is it to provide that quality of leadership that is clearly lacking from the political class..when the need of the hour was crying out for some common sense and calm to prevail in the troubled environment brought about by irresponsible politicians, these so called buddhijeevis could have used their popularity to spread the message of peace sans any political alignment..i’m really troubled by the collective lack of rational thought of the creative people of art in bengal... it would seem that their desire to be seen as pin up poster boys of pseudo secularism a la that professional rabble rouser Medha Patkar overcame their rational thought. only thespian Soumitra Chatterjee had the sense to steer clear of politics and do what was right..
And it is fashionable for the media too to be anti left...we have a movement presently continuing in another part of the country where far more people have lost their lives, more blood has been shed, but does the media report this with the same fervour.. does it make frontpage news...for it is as much if not more of a war zone than nandigram.. i speak of Salwa Judum in chhatisgarh...that is also a war being fought against the maoists by the state...but the media is only concerned about Godhra and nandigram...and why is that ???? is it because these places are near urban centres...is this what is called investigative journalism.. is this the kind of crap the media houses wish to feed us with.. no wonder in the vacuum created by the lack of real news content media houses wish to inundate us with their obsession with sex as an alternative to real news.
So when Budhhadeb babu asked the press whether the goons of the Bhumi Uchhed Pratirod Committee were supposedly peaceful when they harassed and chased away those villagers of Nandigram who were CPM supporters and maintained this status quo for 11 months, not allowing the administration entry into nandigram - i found myself nodding in agreement. you simply cannot have the cake and eat it too... for that is exactly the way the "arrogant" regional media want it. on the one hand we blame the state for the police firings of 14march (perhaps rightly so) and on the other hand when the state does not involve the police in the return of these displaced villagers on 14th november (probably from fear of a political backlash) the so called intelligentsia of bengal are up in arms...I have never heard anywhere in the annals of peoples movement that a simple return to occupy what was theirs to be coined as "recapture" (strange usage of the word)...recapture of what.???? displaced people reclaiming and reoccupying their homes ????
As for the goons of the Trinamul backed BUPC, lets not close our eyes and pretend their ranks were not infiltrated by the maoists. (who else would teach the villagers to dig up roads and build trenches for guerrilla warfare. who else would teach them the drill of using guns. CNN IBN and ND TV has live video evidence of this) I find it incredulous that even after seeing visual footage we have people like dramatist manish mitra go up on DD Bangla yesterday and question the veracity of none other than the home minister of the country, Shivraj Patil who made a statement in the lok sabha to this effect... Perhaps Star Anando anchor suman dey thinks its "cute" to openly ridicule the CM of west bengal and ask for evidence of maoist presence in nandigram... i wonder at the editorial restraint of the TV Channel. People like suman de and manish mitra are typical of a species who only see (and say) what they wish to see and disregard something which stares us in the face. suman dey can perhaps be partially forgiven for he is perhaps following the channel political line.
For what is staring us in the face should disturb us greatly as a civil society and as a nation. Right from the early seventies and the rise of naxalism in bengal, it was considered a fringe movement and no one thought it possible that it could ever be successful in involving the masses in a violent armed uprising. The naxal movement was forcibly suppressed and the comrades came to power in bengal, but extreme leftist ideology never really died down. it started again in turbulent districs of Andhra Pradesh in the early ninetes and today maoists cut a swathe in 150 districts from Maharashta, AP, Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and bihar. today they represent the biggest internal threat ever and the central government is aware of this. But Nandigram represents a watershed which history will judge many years down the line. Nandigram serves as the crucible of an experiment fundamental to the extreme left cause... that of participation of the masses in an armed uprising. the incidence of nandigram and the events leading upto november 14th served the purposes of the maoists exactly...a small but significant step was taken in nandigram by the maoists...an experiment was proved to be successful...above party bickering THIS is what should be bothering us...for the violence happened even after the government backed down from the SEZ development plan...the maoists succeeded in their plan while civil society was busy apportioning blame on the state...how many times have we seen in punjab and kashmir that insurgency succeeds when they have they support of the local populace...but we indians have learnt nothing and we observe nothing because we are obsessed in only seeing the small picture....
And it has become fashionable for civil society to blame the state...where were the famed intelligentsia of bengal when poor people were driven from their homes for 11months...what was their language of protest..why was their silence so deafening...why is it that their eloquence found voice only after the incidence of november 14th...why werent there cries of "Dhikaar" of the aparna sens and ghoses (Gautam, Rituporno and shankho) prior to november 2007. what are we as a society tryng to say...that state repression is real repression and all other manifestation of repression is romantic and cute...is it cute when family ties have been torn asunder like it has been in nandigram.. NDTV's monideepa bannerjee's report on nandigram precisely on this issue is an eyeopener...the mother was chased away by the son Gaurango who is a BUPC supporter (forcedly so as earlier he too was a CPM man)and lived in a camp for 11months...her crime...she was a CPM supporter. today she has returned to nandigram but doesent live with her son...the mistrust between mother and son is palpable and deep. who is responsible for this... It is time that we as a society read the signs emanating out of nandigram and take corrective action...or has apathy so overtaken us that we have become blasé to tragedy... if we fail to read the larger picture now then we as a nation , both state and society must squarely be held responsible for events that will eventually overcome us.
And what of the role of the intelligentsia in bengal..is it only to march in protest and abuse the so called state repression..or is it to provide that quality of leadership that is clearly lacking from the political class..when the need of the hour was crying out for some common sense and calm to prevail in the troubled environment brought about by irresponsible politicians, these so called buddhijeevis could have used their popularity to spread the message of peace sans any political alignment..i’m really troubled by the collective lack of rational thought of the creative people of art in bengal... it would seem that their desire to be seen as pin up poster boys of pseudo secularism a la that professional rabble rouser Medha Patkar overcame their rational thought. only thespian Soumitra Chatterjee had the sense to steer clear of politics and do what was right..
And it is fashionable for the media too to be anti left...we have a movement presently continuing in another part of the country where far more people have lost their lives, more blood has been shed, but does the media report this with the same fervour.. does it make frontpage news...for it is as much if not more of a war zone than nandigram.. i speak of Salwa Judum in chhatisgarh...that is also a war being fought against the maoists by the state...but the media is only concerned about Godhra and nandigram...and why is that ???? is it because these places are near urban centres...is this what is called investigative journalism.. is this the kind of crap the media houses wish to feed us with.. no wonder in the vacuum created by the lack of real news content media houses wish to inundate us with their obsession with sex as an alternative to real news.
1 comment:
First, let me both thank and congratulate you on your own blog.
and then, - suffice it to say that i am glad there is a second voice speaking what i see as sense. please keep going!
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