Just when we thought the silly season was over... we
have the CPM tripping over themselves once again and indulging in their
favourite pastime...."foot in the mouth" disease...its become quite
an epidemic...as if subhas chakravorty's antics werent quite enough, and budhha
babus gaffes about "them and us" in nandigram were causing a flutter,
we had the unedible sight of biman bose getting all hot and flustered over
taslima nasreen as the fallout of sheer vandalism on the streets of kolkata
tuesday 21st November...its become so that almost every week we have something
turbulent happening in the Bengal of the comrades.
So we had Biman bose literally telling taslima on the telly that she had overstayed her welcome in kolkata (after the lady had been ensconced in that "secular" city for over 13 years in exile)...promptly she was bundled off overnight to Jaipur without so much as a courtesy call to the Rajasthan government to inform them of her coming..It was a preposterous situation. Here was the CPM with brute majority in the state election of 2007, yet they were running scared of a lunatic fringe of fanatic hardliners who wanted Taslima out of India and therefore staged the most disgraceful road show not seen in leftist bengal for the last 30 years. even in the aftermath of Indira Gandhis assassination in 1984 when the rest of India burned, kolkata was an oasis of peace..in fact the goings on of the last eleven months in kolkata and bengal have no precedence. Instead of containing the violence and telling the maulvis and other religious leaders of a particular community where they cud get off, the CPM led State government promptly kowtowed in the most abject manner to rampant goondaism..Now Budhha babu maybe the CM, but Biman bose's word is law. There wasn’t any sound bytes from the CM to calm the situation and a very rattled administration promptly took the easy way out by shunting taslima out even to the extent of refusing to take her back at the request of the Rajasthan government.....the immediately we had so called leaders of all hue declaring Taslima was unwelcome anywhere in India...The Mili council in Jaipur another fringe unit piped up to make such a statement on the telly..abject surrender by the state was having its repercussions. elsewhere too. there were counter repercussions as well. secular common sense was affronted...what was the state government thinking. pandering to the lunatic fringe in this manner would open up a Pandora's box..the intelligentsia were up in arms...for a gud cause this once.. after all Taslima is one of their own..from far off shores Lord Meghnad Desai squarely slammed the Central government for this slight to Taslima..Taslima was a guest of India and should be protected at all costs...the Rajasthan BJP led government of Vaundhara Raje didnt allow Taslima to stay in Jaipur for more than a few hours and dispatched her post haste to Delhi, albeit to their state guest house...overnight Tslima had become a fugitive on the run in the country of her exile and everybody was quick to pass the buck.
It took the sane advice of the Prime minister to bring back sanity. the words were clear. Taslima would be provided protection at all cost and no hardliner would be allowed to dictate terms to the government. Buddha Babu, silent so far, was quick to see his cue and promptly invited the thoroughly traumatised Taslima back to kolkata. Now news has it that the saffron BJP for long on the receiving from the red comrades for their "communal" leanings are rubbing their hands in utter glee at this godsend opportunity to rub some "secular"red faces in the mud...in the process a decent lady of creative pursuit will get kicked around like a political football for some more time... .a Faustian farce...????
I think not...i think the taslima episode was deliberately allowed to drift so that it added one more nail in the coffin of a beleaguered CM - Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. Singur, Nandigram, Rizwanur Rehman and now Taslima..The tragedy of Buddha Babu is that he is at cross purposes with powerful elements within his own party, where the battle lines are clearly drawn. someone is constantly plotting his downfall...the image of comrade increasingly seen as a confused lot speaking at cross purposes is a deliberately cultivated visage in order that Buddha babu comes across as an immature politician and administrator ..somebody within the CPM wants Budhha babu out..that someone who would be and would have been CM if not for Buddha Babu..who is he..??? It is for you to come to your own conclusions....
The case of Rizwanur Rehman gets more curious by the day...and of course it was media hyped...so instead of following the Todi trail to its logical conclusion (and that includes Priyanka Todi), we were treated to a daily barrage of media led effrontery at state interference by the occupants of Lal Bazaar.. Star Anando led the pack of media hounds baying for blood of senior police officials...the barrage of "garbage" spewed by Star Anando and its media house was personal and abusive as if it was an open and shut case... the Police were the culprits who led and abetted Rizwanur to suicide...in particular the then DC HQ Gyanwant Singh...overnight the media discovered all manner of creatures (read discredited politicians) crawling out of the woodwork badmouthing Gyanwant Singh. stories were planted in the media about Gyanwant being a "bogus police officer".... people were led to believe Gyanwant Singh was the actual culprit in separating the couple. The media simultaneously went to town over the Rehmans, so Rizwanur brother Rukbanur became a star overnight, preening in front of the lights and giving soundbytes like a trained politician...Rizwanurs mother Kishwar Jahan was also dragged in and paraded in front of the spotlights...but you could see the pain in the mothers eyes... you could see her discomfiture..no-one told her, shoot out that spotlight before you go blind...kolkattans were up in arms, driven by media reports of police atrocities...there were peace marches and candle light vigils..people read what they were fed by the media...all the while Rukbanur soaked it in.. all in the name of justice for his brother...The Police were mercilessly pilloried by one and all...but ask those of Rizwanurs friends, those who were in the know and they will tell you a different story...they will tell you that the police did "no wrong", that the police weren’t to blame...in fact no-one was to blame...so is there a story here that we are missing out...and worse still... the one person who held the key to this whole mystery was keeping very very quiet...Priyanka Todi the prime witness to all that happened in the Rehman household and the conversations with her father would not open up...she was severely traumatised they said...tho she also corroborated very briefly that the police did no wrong...rubbish said the sociology experts and human rights activists .. she is only mouthing what her father wants her to say. She is the prime witness in the house of the prime accused they said...so how could Priyanka speak independently. Ashok Todis proximity to the then Commissioner iof Police Prasun Mukherjee was well known... Gyanwant Singh did his bidding they implied...Even though several high ranking police officers were named as having criminally pressurised priyanka and Rizwanur it was Gyanwant Singh who was shown over and over again.. Also, it was convenient to target Gyanwant Singh...after all he was the most visible face of the Police force, plus he was an "outsider", not a bhadralok bengali...it was pre puja and the masses wanted their Ravan; to burn as a sign of Good over evil. the media gave them Gyanwant Singh on a platter and the truth was seemingly lost in the din of the media frenzied cacophony and receding drum beats of Durga puja.
So when the Telegraph (also an abp publication) "expose" was published quoting extensively from the CBI findings, i found myself nodding in agreement...and it wasn’t because the news suited my partcular line of thinking..suddenly all the pieces fell in place...why Priyanka had not opened her mouth thus far, why she had come to the defence of her family..why Rizwanur's close friends has said in private conversations that the police were not to blame...the culprits were elsewhere all the while, even unashamedly parading in front of the camera, whereas the media had conveniently led all kolkatans up the garden path in the name of investigative journalism..the police were not the real culprits.. What Ashok Todi said made sense, never mind if he was the prime accused. He was desperate to get his daughter back, he admits as much. He admits he did go to Gyanwant Singh, but on getting no succour from this upright police officer, he turned elsewhere.. thats when he received a call from "pappu" - a close "family friend" of the Rehmans, who offered to help Todi in exchange for monetary consideration...The Todis have been consistently saying that money of 11lakhs indeed did change hands...now the mists lifted vis a vis the last days of Rizwanur...we were informed thru the uncle Saeedur how Rukbanur turned on his younger brother to force Rizwanur to divorce Priyanka as the Todi's wanted...the police think that possibly Rukbanur dipped his hands in the lucre offered by the Todis...now the CBI is privy to this information too.. we were informed thru the telegraph expose just how the whole thing was orchestrated from beginning to end by "pappu" and the rehman family...but in the process of the wanton and irresponsible mudslinging by Star Anando an honest police officer and a gentleman's name was sullied...Thankfully as a result of the Telegraph expose that mud would not stick...But now, instead of letting sanity return and allowing the world to see the conclusion of the CBI - so called human rights activists are up in arms again...Gyanwant Singh has to be the fall guy they insist.. so once more its the merry go round...who is orchestrating this...i suspect Gyanwant Singh has many enemies within the Police force, who are inimical to him, because of the recognition he has got for his work from none other than the CM, Budhha babu, for whom Singh remains a favorite police officer for his impeccable honesty and good work hitherto. so they wont let Singh rest in peace...
Ironical that an Honest Police Officer and an equally honest Chief Minister, who wishes to do well for his state and its peoples overall development, both clean and decent human beings, should find themselves on the receiving end from their own.. the enemy for both is within not unlike the trojan horse..it tells you volumes about the social fabric of modern day society, the unholy role played by an unscrupulous media and the times we live in..
So we had Biman bose literally telling taslima on the telly that she had overstayed her welcome in kolkata (after the lady had been ensconced in that "secular" city for over 13 years in exile)...promptly she was bundled off overnight to Jaipur without so much as a courtesy call to the Rajasthan government to inform them of her coming..It was a preposterous situation. Here was the CPM with brute majority in the state election of 2007, yet they were running scared of a lunatic fringe of fanatic hardliners who wanted Taslima out of India and therefore staged the most disgraceful road show not seen in leftist bengal for the last 30 years. even in the aftermath of Indira Gandhis assassination in 1984 when the rest of India burned, kolkata was an oasis of peace..in fact the goings on of the last eleven months in kolkata and bengal have no precedence. Instead of containing the violence and telling the maulvis and other religious leaders of a particular community where they cud get off, the CPM led State government promptly kowtowed in the most abject manner to rampant goondaism..Now Budhha babu maybe the CM, but Biman bose's word is law. There wasn’t any sound bytes from the CM to calm the situation and a very rattled administration promptly took the easy way out by shunting taslima out even to the extent of refusing to take her back at the request of the Rajasthan government.....the immediately we had so called leaders of all hue declaring Taslima was unwelcome anywhere in India...The Mili council in Jaipur another fringe unit piped up to make such a statement on the telly..abject surrender by the state was having its repercussions. elsewhere too. there were counter repercussions as well. secular common sense was affronted...what was the state government thinking. pandering to the lunatic fringe in this manner would open up a Pandora's box..the intelligentsia were up in arms...for a gud cause this once.. after all Taslima is one of their own..from far off shores Lord Meghnad Desai squarely slammed the Central government for this slight to Taslima..Taslima was a guest of India and should be protected at all costs...the Rajasthan BJP led government of Vaundhara Raje didnt allow Taslima to stay in Jaipur for more than a few hours and dispatched her post haste to Delhi, albeit to their state guest house...overnight Tslima had become a fugitive on the run in the country of her exile and everybody was quick to pass the buck.
It took the sane advice of the Prime minister to bring back sanity. the words were clear. Taslima would be provided protection at all cost and no hardliner would be allowed to dictate terms to the government. Buddha Babu, silent so far, was quick to see his cue and promptly invited the thoroughly traumatised Taslima back to kolkata. Now news has it that the saffron BJP for long on the receiving from the red comrades for their "communal" leanings are rubbing their hands in utter glee at this godsend opportunity to rub some "secular"red faces in the mud...in the process a decent lady of creative pursuit will get kicked around like a political football for some more time... .a Faustian farce...????
I think not...i think the taslima episode was deliberately allowed to drift so that it added one more nail in the coffin of a beleaguered CM - Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. Singur, Nandigram, Rizwanur Rehman and now Taslima..The tragedy of Buddha Babu is that he is at cross purposes with powerful elements within his own party, where the battle lines are clearly drawn. someone is constantly plotting his downfall...the image of comrade increasingly seen as a confused lot speaking at cross purposes is a deliberately cultivated visage in order that Buddha babu comes across as an immature politician and administrator ..somebody within the CPM wants Budhha babu out..that someone who would be and would have been CM if not for Buddha Babu..who is he..??? It is for you to come to your own conclusions....
The case of Rizwanur Rehman gets more curious by the day...and of course it was media hyped...so instead of following the Todi trail to its logical conclusion (and that includes Priyanka Todi), we were treated to a daily barrage of media led effrontery at state interference by the occupants of Lal Bazaar.. Star Anando led the pack of media hounds baying for blood of senior police officials...the barrage of "garbage" spewed by Star Anando and its media house was personal and abusive as if it was an open and shut case... the Police were the culprits who led and abetted Rizwanur to suicide...in particular the then DC HQ Gyanwant Singh...overnight the media discovered all manner of creatures (read discredited politicians) crawling out of the woodwork badmouthing Gyanwant Singh. stories were planted in the media about Gyanwant being a "bogus police officer".... people were led to believe Gyanwant Singh was the actual culprit in separating the couple. The media simultaneously went to town over the Rehmans, so Rizwanur brother Rukbanur became a star overnight, preening in front of the lights and giving soundbytes like a trained politician...Rizwanurs mother Kishwar Jahan was also dragged in and paraded in front of the spotlights...but you could see the pain in the mothers eyes... you could see her discomfiture..no-one told her, shoot out that spotlight before you go blind...kolkattans were up in arms, driven by media reports of police atrocities...there were peace marches and candle light vigils..people read what they were fed by the media...all the while Rukbanur soaked it in.. all in the name of justice for his brother...The Police were mercilessly pilloried by one and all...but ask those of Rizwanurs friends, those who were in the know and they will tell you a different story...they will tell you that the police did "no wrong", that the police weren’t to blame...in fact no-one was to blame...so is there a story here that we are missing out...and worse still... the one person who held the key to this whole mystery was keeping very very quiet...Priyanka Todi the prime witness to all that happened in the Rehman household and the conversations with her father would not open up...she was severely traumatised they said...tho she also corroborated very briefly that the police did no wrong...rubbish said the sociology experts and human rights activists .. she is only mouthing what her father wants her to say. She is the prime witness in the house of the prime accused they said...so how could Priyanka speak independently. Ashok Todis proximity to the then Commissioner iof Police Prasun Mukherjee was well known... Gyanwant Singh did his bidding they implied...Even though several high ranking police officers were named as having criminally pressurised priyanka and Rizwanur it was Gyanwant Singh who was shown over and over again.. Also, it was convenient to target Gyanwant Singh...after all he was the most visible face of the Police force, plus he was an "outsider", not a bhadralok bengali...it was pre puja and the masses wanted their Ravan; to burn as a sign of Good over evil. the media gave them Gyanwant Singh on a platter and the truth was seemingly lost in the din of the media frenzied cacophony and receding drum beats of Durga puja.
So when the Telegraph (also an abp publication) "expose" was published quoting extensively from the CBI findings, i found myself nodding in agreement...and it wasn’t because the news suited my partcular line of thinking..suddenly all the pieces fell in place...why Priyanka had not opened her mouth thus far, why she had come to the defence of her family..why Rizwanur's close friends has said in private conversations that the police were not to blame...the culprits were elsewhere all the while, even unashamedly parading in front of the camera, whereas the media had conveniently led all kolkatans up the garden path in the name of investigative journalism..the police were not the real culprits.. What Ashok Todi said made sense, never mind if he was the prime accused. He was desperate to get his daughter back, he admits as much. He admits he did go to Gyanwant Singh, but on getting no succour from this upright police officer, he turned elsewhere.. thats when he received a call from "pappu" - a close "family friend" of the Rehmans, who offered to help Todi in exchange for monetary consideration...The Todis have been consistently saying that money of 11lakhs indeed did change hands...now the mists lifted vis a vis the last days of Rizwanur...we were informed thru the uncle Saeedur how Rukbanur turned on his younger brother to force Rizwanur to divorce Priyanka as the Todi's wanted...the police think that possibly Rukbanur dipped his hands in the lucre offered by the Todis...now the CBI is privy to this information too.. we were informed thru the telegraph expose just how the whole thing was orchestrated from beginning to end by "pappu" and the rehman family...but in the process of the wanton and irresponsible mudslinging by Star Anando an honest police officer and a gentleman's name was sullied...Thankfully as a result of the Telegraph expose that mud would not stick...But now, instead of letting sanity return and allowing the world to see the conclusion of the CBI - so called human rights activists are up in arms again...Gyanwant Singh has to be the fall guy they insist.. so once more its the merry go round...who is orchestrating this...i suspect Gyanwant Singh has many enemies within the Police force, who are inimical to him, because of the recognition he has got for his work from none other than the CM, Budhha babu, for whom Singh remains a favorite police officer for his impeccable honesty and good work hitherto. so they wont let Singh rest in peace...
Ironical that an Honest Police Officer and an equally honest Chief Minister, who wishes to do well for his state and its peoples overall development, both clean and decent human beings, should find themselves on the receiving end from their own.. the enemy for both is within not unlike the trojan horse..it tells you volumes about the social fabric of modern day society, the unholy role played by an unscrupulous media and the times we live in..
An
update..8th December
Very
early in the piece, some weeks after the news of Rizwanur Rehmans tragic death
i had remarked to my friends on orkut that part II of the rizwanur saga would
be the character assasination of his widow, the young priyanka todi by the
media hounds..
Lo
and behold..saturday 8th december our favorite “dirt digger” channel star
anando went to town over priyanka’s reported interview to the
telegraph..terming the breaking of her silence as “ulat puraan”. so our
favorite chanel with your favorite anchor suman de were at their pratonisingly
sniggering, smirking best, trying to decipher what and why priyanka had said
what she had said…and they had lined up an impressive cast.. a former CP of
kolkata police, an actress, a human rights activist, a lawyer and of course the
star of their show, the preening rukbanur rehman, who has assumed a larger than
life image and sundry members of his family.
You
must understand that the Rehman family has gone thru ” a lot” in these past few
months. months of alleged abuse and intense pressure from the occupiers of lal
bazaar, the todis and friends and so called “well wishers”… ordinarily in this
kind of a situation of murder/suicide ? the immediately affected family is too
shaken and nonplussed by the succeeding turn of events…the unending media
spotlight, which can unnerve anyone… after all the rehmans are a typical middle
class family living in a congested area of kolkatta struggling to cope with the
humdrum of ordinary life..therefore the unfolding events of the last few months
were more than overwhelming in ordinary corcumstances, specially for an elder
brother of the victim, whose demanour would of necessity be sombre, reserved
and a little unsure of just what to believe and whom to believe..just a lil
tentative… not so rukbanur rehman
The more i see rukbanur on the telly the more it strikes me how very “smooth” he is…in fact too “smooth”…supremely self assured and camera ready, he seems very well equipped to articulate his replies to any question put to him.. well rehearsed and quick with his answers..there’s nothing wrong in being articulate.. trouble is that rukbanur’s answers are too pat and too quick, without any measured pause for a considering a point of view.. and the smug smiling visage of rukbanur rehman beaming at us (coutesy star anando) does not fit in at all with the normal image of an grieving elder brother and family. it almost seems as if someone is coaching them on what to say…or better still they are the prime actors in a pre planned staged drama on national television. yesterday when star anando was taking soundbytes from riz’s mother kishwar jahan, you could see very clearly one of the uncles prompting her in each reply…this whole case has the smell of being orchestrated by extraneous forces, the media of course being the prime suspects… earlier we were told by rukbanur that he didnt “know” pappu, but yesterday he admits on the telly to pappu’s “unwanted” and “prolonged” interference. remember priyanka says pappu is like a god father to the rehmans. Another fact “admitted” by rukbanur in front of the cameras, was his complete unwillingness to swear by his uncles and deny that they were in receipt of lucre from the todis…hang on folks… there will be many more flip flops before this story ends…
There was an interesting moment on the show when Star Anando’s pin up anchor boy suman de tried to harange Bharati mutshudi, an eminent kolkata human rights lawyer who was on the star anando panel that evening, over the dichotomy of priyanka’s two communications, prior and post rizwan’s murder/suicide.. inspite of Ms. Mutshudi pointing out that priyanka todi’s two statements were made under vastly different circumstances, suman de would have none of it. star anando had got their “bunny” atwixt the headlights and werent about to let go..for her pains Ms. Mutshudi was banished from the show after just two questions ..obviously her views weren’t comfortable enough for star anando and its anchor..the sniggering and depreciative comments went on..rukbanur had a smug resigned smile on his face…listening to him an ordinary viewer who didnt know the context, couldnt be faulted for thinking that Rukbanur was a seasoned politician , not a grieving elder brother…
And now to Sujato Bhadro…i have a deep and abiding suspicion about human rights activists…specially those who have a fetish for appearing on the telly for just any cause…
But
Sujato Bhadro is not amongst these hangers on, so my friends assure me…he is a
decent sort who wouldnt like to be seen backing the wrong guy… so id like to
ask him just what he is doing in rukbanurs corner…he was a late entrant in this
case..agreeing to legally help rizwanur on the 19th september. two days before
Riz died…all the facts in his possession are what rizwanur supplied him…who in
turn was being tutored by rukbanur and pappu as priyanka would have us
believe..but to accuse Priyanka of abetment to suicide just because she didnt
contact her husband in the seven days of her forced separation, is ungentle
manly and hitting below the belt..in that one action Sujato Bhadro tore up his
calling card as an impartial and “real” human rights proponent… As for
Rukbanur…im not sure who is manipulating whom.. whether its Rukbanur
manipulating star anando or vice versa…but all in all both are doing a damn
good job in keeping the public fooled…. star already has a reputation for
sensationalism…it adds the cherry to the cake thats called TRP… But in order
that civil common sense should prevail and kolkattans learn a semblance of
truth we should wait for the CBI findings…
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