After the rout of the Communist Party of India – Marxist in the assembly election of 13th May, 2011, the CPI-M is now on the backfoot. Let me tell you, I hate the Communists but not Communism. These so called Communist leaders of the CPM emphasize on the evils of imperialism as is symbolized by the USA. They ask the common people not to trust them and to boycott them. But they all send their children to the USA or UK to study and work. For any medical treatment they rush to the USA or UK. The supporters of the CPM, including the Student Federation of India (SFI) leaders, are hypocrites without parallel. They refuse to wear anything but Levis jeans, John Philips shirts and Addidas shoes, and drink only Coke or Pepsi, and vehemently criticize the imperialistic policies of the USA. I have never liked them and I never will.
Before and during the assembly elections, the CPM had vehemently stated that their party did not have armed cadres or harmads, and that it was the Opposition that had all the arms and was creating terror in the countryside. But with their rout in the elections, the truth has poured out. The local populace has come forward to raid CPM offices and their leaders homes and have come up with arms and ammunitions of mammoth proportions. Enough arms, rifles, pistols, revolvers, hand cannons, bombs and live ammunition has been recovered till now from CPM dens that are enough to start and continue a civil war. There is enough evidence that the CPM has been hoarding weapons and there is evidence of their use. Why then is there no legal action being taken against the party? Why can we not try the party at a court of law, because arms have been found from a large number of their offices? Why are we not banning the outfit?
I do not think anyone would be brought to justice. The politicians of all colours are joined at the top. They instigate the party workers to fight the workers of other parties but the leaders themselves have a wonderful understanding and look after each others backs. We have seen so many instances of violence after independence, when political parties have protested against unlawful policies of the central and state governments but in these violence have we seen even a single leader being injured or killed? Rarely. It is only the party workers who die. Their deaths give the politicians a platform to scream and shout and gain personal political advantage and the death of the party workers are soon forgotten.
What will Didi do? She cannot do anything. The Congress, the BJP, the CPI, the CPM, the Trinamul, the DMK, the AIDMK, are all connected at the upper echelons of power. It is only the poor party worker who is misled into believing that a party stands for a principle or ideology. Many even join these parties to gain economic advantage. I do not know whom to blame for this present state of affairs. Should I blame the common people or should I blame the politicians?
Communism is not a bad idea.Marxian materialism is a pleasure to read and quite a mental exercise if to tend to take it seriously……(Though I am equally convinced by Orwell!).Sadly personal opinions are almost diluted when I try to compare and contrast the two!
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to West Bengal Communist- I cannot agree with you more.But how,just how can people tolerate a defunct government for some 35 years when no social indicators are actually changing?(I personally know some of the laziest of Phd students who are going to W.B to write their dissertation simply because -here no statistics ,except population seems to change over the years!!).
So how much bad is actually ‘bad’?.Even if your leader had combined characteristic of Lincoln,Gandhi,Obama and Thatcher….how long would one tolerate even that?Bongs are not even bored.
No one knows how Didi will deliver.But she epitomizes the end of the babu culture and colonial hangover to an extend.Most importantly, a change was required ,and the single handed effort of a woman who could finally overthrow the goons from power deserves respect.(Goutam Ghose is actually making a documentary on her).Ok, he has made it on Jyoti Basu too…but that’s a different tale.
But the worst part is how can young people …like you and me (and even younger) ,who has seen it all ,still support the red? How can people be so so so ‘SICK’ in their mind?
School level history books were often quoted saying…“What the world thinks tomorrow,Bengal thinks it today”.Now I say….“What the world thinks today….Bengal does’nt even give a damn.”Better still ,Bongs can’t even think.
Oppps….sorry , the comment was pretty long…but somehow I hate these ‘sophisticated bhondamo of these overtly elite,vain glorifying Bongs ’ like few other things in life.
Keep writing and cheers!
some typing error...towards the beginning and the end.Sorry.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you on all the counts. 35 years of misrule is an art that Communists all over the world have perfected. It is the power, raw power of the state apparatus and private goons that keep people cowered. It is their nuisance value that helps them stay in power. How can one protest in such an atmosphere? You protest today and your father is run over tomorrow, your brother is beaten up by the police on some flimsy charge and your mother is threatened on the street. The police will not take your complain and the judiciary will not do justice. It is a phenomena that they have been overthrown! Hats off to Didi for this feat.
ReplyDeleteAll news of the CPM being involved in anti-social activities were rubbished by the state and the party who furnished tons of data to the contrary. They made people so confused that people did not know what to do. It was the Singur and Nandigram incidents that tore the mask off the CPM, thanks to the protests by Didi and a very good coverage of the events by the media, especially electronic media. Now there was no scope of denying what people saw with their own eyes. But the CPM were confident enough to think that we were still stupid and believed them and they could frighten us with their goons. The clincher was the rigging free election - more or less, as there are two or three incidents of rigging by CPM candidates.
And about why youngsters like us believe in them is because very few of us read books or follow the news. We just gather partial knowledge from pseudos around us who talk about Marxism and Communism without ever having read Marx or the Communist Manifesto. Its time we became serious.
Now there cannot be an iota of doubt in what you say.Yes,media helped, but mostly regional media.
ReplyDeleteNational media is unware of the true politics of either the valley, the plains or the forests.But to expect youngsters to read Marx is more of an utopia. After all thats so ‘uncool’.
But at the same time sporting a Che Guevara t- shirt is equally cool.More than half of the people are not even aware of what they are promoting …so, Che Guevara shares an equal status with any of those zoo zoo (those egg bodied funny hutch ad babies,remember?)printed t shirt sold in Sarijini,Janpath,G.K or any Tantra outlet.Just imagine!
I too have not touched Communist Manifesto so far. My understanding of Marx is limited partly through some political theory I studied in high school and the rest though a paper on economics systems in graduation(add to that a very young, amazingly smart D-school ‘guy ’as the professor ).
Not that I would not have loved it otherwise.
Chondrobindu (the famous Bangla band )..puts it this way….
“ Marx,Freud er dike jeo na preme jhil mil lege jabe …./Pink Floyd er sune geo na kane jhilmil lege jabe”
And then……choto acho/choto thako /sosta saban makho/ghure dekho Kolkata”…
That’s what I want to say…even going around Kolkata with a open eye and a keen mind would help.Such a grotesque affair in Singur-Nandigram was required to force people to come out of their 35 years of stupor(??) ,when everyone (except the CPM dadas) were terrorized in some or the other way over the years.Now,if one protested the outcome would be similar to the ones you just mentioned,I agree.
But there are places(yes,there are) where one can at least cast his vote secrectly.What about the IT-professional in Hydearabad,the business analyst in Mumbai, the painter in Delhi…who still can’t digest the fact their government can do any wrong.
And what about Amartya Babu…(Amartya Sen) ,the nobel laureate with such heart warming thoughts on poverty and capability deprivation?.
Money/power/undue benefit?.Hypocrats?.Brain Dead?Blind Loyalty?
Now show me the logic.