The Political Misery Of The Common Man Of West Bengal
By Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharjee & Pramod Kumar
24 May, 2010
Countercurrents.org
Today, the peripheral politics of the state of the state of West Bengal is experiencing, a déjà vu of the unstable days of the 70s, where on one side there is a justifiable People’s War going on in the jungle areas, where civilians are being targeted along with local law enforcement and government officials and suddenly the blatant assassination of All India Gorkha League chief Madan Tamang ion broad daylight in the middle of the popular tourist hill station Darjeeling. In the presence of local law enforcement and administrative officials, and as per local media reports, hired mercenaries stabbed Tamang and fled from the extremely populated city undeterred crossing into Nepal, the neighbouring Himalayan Kingdom.
What remains astonishing that though the local populace of Darjeeling has shut down the city voluntarily in fear of a backlash leading to more violence, there has been a simple and fumble protest by the present Governor of the state, who coincidentally is on a visit to Darjeeling, who protested against he manner in which ‘democracy was suppressed’, but the rest of the political factions including that of the government, the opposition and other political units and affiliated organisations either got embroiled in their pre-ordained blaming game or remained as mute spectators. It is astonishing that the person or persons who kills or gets killed gets off the scene fast and is soon overtaken by known political figures of the state blaming each other. It is a pity that the state law enforcement agencies are in a quandary where if they do take action they will be blamed to be supporting the suppressive governmental forces and if they just don’t take actions so that peace and security and mass violence is thwarted, then they are blamed for inaction and inefficiency.
In such a situation, the general masses can either be members of the faction who kills, who gets killed or remains to be the scared mute spectator who can experience, fear for the situation, can worry about the prevailing turmoil, can down the shutters of their businesses, boast about watching a movie called ‘The Wednesday’ and hope to survive and lead their day to day affairs in the following day. No one blame’s no one as who will blame whom in a democratic polity. People in West Bengal have decided their own fate through democratic elections how rigged it might be. Today’s political turmoil and social conflict is underlined with decades of suppression, exploitation and alienation. If one gets the courage to voice one’s protest then either he is bracketed either as a rebel tribal perpetrating violence or supporting such violence in the jungles. So, it’s better to remain mute spectators, looking for each others well being and if something happens in the family like a suicide, it’s better not to report it all to the police, or the media can blow it out of proportions, where the mother of the bereaved ‘might be’ forced to stand against the government in local elections. If I don’t get food, get exploited, as I am landless, remain deprived of receiving the basic standard of living in an independent society that I expect to receive, then it turns into a basic survival than living in it.
So we expect to witness and remain mute spectators of the death of more thousands of Madan Tamangs, Rizwanurs, the tribal and the law enforcement officials, who were just trying to do their job along with the innocent silent civilians of West Bengal everyday and fear when it will be me or my near one’s turn.
Dhrubajyoti Bhattacharjee, Asst. Prof. Siliguri College, Darjeeling and Pramod Kumar, PhD Scholar, SIS, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
