Calcutta Notebook
Shoummo

Poschim Bnoge Rajnoitik Hotya 1977-2010—Ekti Somikkhya or 'Political murders in West Bengal 1977-2010—A Survey' (PBRH henceforth) has been published by CAMP as recently as January 2013. The survey authored by Sujato Bhadra and Purnendu Mondal is a meticulous effort to list all the political murders in the state during the 1977-2010, based on documentary evidence only. The publication lists details like the names of the victims, dates of the incidents, addresses of the victims and political affiliations of the accused. The details have been culled from party publications, newspaper reports and RTI applications. The survey pegs the total number of persons killed during the period 1977 to 2010 at 3,955. Most of the victims are from CPI(M) (2,647 persons) and the details have been re-printed from Ganashakti, the Bangla party publication from Kolkata. PBRH draws the readers' attention to a statement by Dr Manas Bhunya of Congress who once said that during 1977 to 2004, 12,000 Congress party workers have been murdered. The publication acknowledges that being a loose organisation; the Congress party has never published a comprehensive list of party workers who have been killed and the survey documents 80 political murders of Congress supporters and 90 of the TMC.

Browsers of PBRH may be perplexed to find that a majority of those listed as being victims of political violence during Left Front's rule in West Bengal belong to the ruling political formation. However, it must be remembered that the survey is based solely on documentary evidence and these are mainly publications of political parties. The survey does throw nuggets of information at the reader which helps one see the reality behind these bare statistics. For example, 156 SUCI workers were killed (93 killed by CPI(M) supporters) during 1977-2010. It is to be noted that these 156 incidents were not dispersed throughout the state and that a majority of these incidents took place in the two Vidhan Sabha segments in South Bengal where SUCI wields considerable influence. A simple average of 4.7 murders every year for 33 years of SUCI supporters in these two districts of Bengal does evidence a reign of terror. Reading further, Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee (PSBJC), formed in 2008 lost 89 workers till 2010 (52 of these victims were killed by CPI(M) supporters). 89 murders in two years tell the story of harmads having a free run of Jangalmahal under the protection of the state administration and the Joint Armed Forces. A distribution of political murders by districts reveals that a majority of the incidents during 1977-2010 occurred in Midnapore (East and West). Murshidabad is next in the hierarchy of political violence with the total number of murders at 486. The authors point out that there is no evidence of Maoist activity in Murshidabad and although the level of violence has been particularly high, the administration has never cared to declare the district as 'politically disturbed'. The survey concludes that each and every political party in Bengal is armed with country made as well as sophisticated weapons wielded by trained goons and that political violence is distributed more or less evenly across all the districts in the state. In most cases, the role of the police has been reported by the survey to be as that of bystanders. Though not soft on the Maoists, the survey concludes that-the saga of political violence in Bengal did not begin with their coming.

The publication also has a detailed list of CPI(ML) cadres and supporters killed during the period 1971-75. A scrutiny of the list of 483 victims reveals that the bulk of the murders were committed by the police and there were 78 killings in prisons. The list includes the names of 13 people who were killed in Baranagar and Cossipore by the police, the members of Nabajiban Sangha affiliated to CPI(M) and Friends Club affiliated to Congress on 12 and 13 August 1971. The CPI(ML) supporters were encircled and slaughtered and their bodies dumped in the river Ganga. It must be noted that the current political dalliance in the state between CPI(M) and Congress is not a recent phenomenon .It has been tried out earlier in the bloody alleys and bye lanes of Baranagar & Cossipore.

PBRH is best read along with the March 2012 issue of Samarur Byatikrom. This particular issue contains a time line for the years 1977 to 2011. Events of note are carefully documented in brief in the latter publication. For instance, in Marichjhapi (an island in the Sunderbans) Bangla speaking refugees from Dandakaranya were surrounded and besieged by the police. The supply lines to the island were cut and many refugees were hounded, raped, shot and killed. Those trying to escape the siege in boats were attacked and drowned. In the Bijon Setu killings of 1982, 17 members of the Ananda Marg sect were beaten or burnt to death on a fly-over in the heart of Kolkata. The FIR filed with the police contained the names of the local CPI(M)MLA as well as other local CPI(M) leaders. The Suchpur massacre where 11 agricultural labourers were brutally murdered in broad daylight on 27 July 2000 is now a Wikipedia entry. The district sessions judge sentenced 44 CPI(M) men to life imprisonment. The heckling of the Vice Chancellor of the University of Calcutta, Prof Santosh Bhattacharya, during 1984-87 by the administration and CPI(M) supporters is well documented in the 700 page tome, 'Red Hammer over Calcutta University'. The party went to the extent of putting the VC's home under surveillance, a fine treatment meted out to a person who had manned CPI barricades in 1948.

Arek Rakam
A note must be taken of the aforesaid publications before flipping through the pages of the first issue of Arek Rakam. Edited by AM, this is a publication venture of Samaj Charcha Trust. The publication of this fortnightly was earlier announced in August 2012 and the letter was carried on the website of this weekly (http://www.frontierweekly.com/reports/aug-12/28-8-12-Appeal%20-Samaaj%20Charchaa%20Trust.pdf). A special mention must be made about the article by Ekram Ali on the state of primary education in Bengal. The author writes about his experience of visiting a few schools in Birbhum and noticing that many students in class 5 are unable to count from 1 to 100 and are not familiar with the Bangla or the English alphabets. He also noted a high rate of dropout of students when they move from primary schools to secondary schools. The author quotes from a study conducted in 2012 by 'Network of Enterprising Educational Ventures' (NEEV) in 12 schools in Birbhum district that attempted to understand the problem. The survey found that primary schools are commonly known as khichuri schools and the appellation refers to the midday meals served in these schools. On a normal day, the schools open their doors by 11.00 am and the Self Help Groups (SHG) in charge of cooking the midday meals arrive in time. The provisions for the meals are procured by the head master of the school or under his supervision. Teachers arrive between 11.00 and 11.45 am and the teaching commences. The lunch bell is sounded at 1.30 pm. The lunch hour extends up to 2.00 pm, with another half hour thrown in to grab forty winks. The schools start dispersing by 2.30 pm and the teachers close shop between 3.00 and 3.30 pm. So where is the time to study? The author comments angrily that these schools have in effect been 'hijacked by the school teachers' and have become a window for disbursing their monthly pay packets.

Coming back to Arek Rakam, to understand the general drift of the publication the signed article by AM (pronounced Awe Me in Bangla) must be discussed in brief. Talking about the Left Front Government in which he was a minister from 1977 to 1987 (later AM was Rajya member of the CPI(M)), AM says that the administration was principled and one of character and it only slipped during the period when the Left Front started bowing down to the industrialists while ignoring its natural constituency. It must be emphasised that the cached events, Singur-Nandigram-Netai, are not named by AM. The article does not even mention in passing the gruesome incidents of Marichjhapi, Bijon Setu, Suchpur where CPI(M) and the LF government were culpable. AM borrows only half of Prabhat Patnaik's 'feudal Stalinism' outburst (The Hindu, 18 June 2012) and regrets that many leftists have not been able to rid their consciousness of their inherited feudal attitude. However, in all fairness, the author does come down heavily on the CPI(M) sucking up to industrialists. AM also points out that those from the CPI(M) who were responsible for the party riding to its fall still retain their positions in the party hierarchy and the 'tone of their public speeches has not changed'.

AM reserves his venom for Mamata Banerjee. Many a time in the past, he has referred to her 'as that woman from Potopara' (Aapila Chaapila, page 308). The derision in this remark is lost in this writer’s translation. In the article, AM refers to Mamata Banerjee's main source of support as the 'denizens of garbage dumps'. AM ignores the fact that the lady has come to power riding on the crest of 48% of the votes polled in the 2011 state assembly elections. In a fit of bhadralok arrogance, he forgets that if the main support base of the present chief Minister is comparable to a 'garbage dump' then that dump grew, festered and multiplied during those unforgettable 1977-2011 years of which AM was a notable part. AM fails to note that bhadraloks, not more than a fifth of the state's population, while swearing allegiance to progressive values have cornered most of the education and job opportunities in the state. They have also appropriated all the powerful positions in all the political parties. The 'garbage dump' is a fallout of this process of bhadralok domination and till the other day CPI(M) flexed its muscles in all these 'garbage dumps'.

The bhadraloks want more jobs for their pen pushing /keyboard tapping kith and kin and they care two hoots if multi-crop land is given away to industrialists whom they adore. The fountainhead of this ideology is the bazaar group and it is no wonder that they have associated with the Arek Rakam effort. At least two serving bazaar group scribes have written in the inaugural issue and one on something as trite as T20 cricket. The Singur-Nandigram phase of Bengal politics was used by many interests to sprout and strengthen their roots in the vernacular print and electronic media space. Commenting on the Bangla media, a member of the editorial team writes that "Recently some owners of chit funds (12 on the last count) have sprouted/purchased new newspapers, magazines and TV channels and turned nouveau media mughals". There may be some substance in these allegations but chit funds have not yet been classified as 'cheat' funds by the laws of this country. The author may know that chit funds are governed by the Chit Fund Act, 1982 and a holy cow like the government of Kerala owns a chit fund that goes by the name of Kerala State Financial Enterprises Limited.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 37, Mar 24-30, 2013

Your Comment if any