A big part of Bengal’s so called politically ‘well informed’ and erudite city dwellers, who kick off their day with the widely famous vernacular daily (yes, Anandabazar of course) in their hand, are super excited. It is obviously exciting to some that the LF Government –the pack of ragamuffins -is apparently in a soup again. Nothing more could have hit the local government where it hurts when the elections are just round the corner.
Let me quote excerpts of the big news from Telegraph, Calcutta:
At least seven villagers were gunned down and 15 injured in Lalgarh this morning when bullets flew from a suspected armed CPM camp that was surrounded by 2,000 people who were apparently fed up with the diktats of the comrades. Among the dead were two women.
This morning, about 2,000 villagers went to the CPM camp. The women formed the first tier, followed by the men.
Sources close to the Maoists said that the last tier was manned by armed rebels.
The villagers reached the CPM camp around 8.30am. “We told them that we had had enough of their bullying,” said Asit Mondal, a 35-year-old farmer. “They threatened us. Tempers rose and there was a lot of shouting.”
Shots then rang out. “We saw people falling to the ground,” Mondal said. “We started to flee.”….
After the Lok Sabha polls 248 Left followers were brutally attacked, mauled and struck down in the intermediate period in Jangal Mahal. The mainstream media chose to ignore or mute the issue. Now the sight of these corpses has maddened them into wildest hysteria, as the scent of blood excites a tiger. In Bengal as we all know it is childishly absurd and pathetically ludicrous to expect ‘unbiased media’, ‘fair coverage’, ‘accurate reporting’ and the like.
Culling information from newspaper reports let us try to reconstruct the horrid script, which is now scattered like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
Think you are in Netai, an obscure hamlet in West Medinipur, 2 Km from Lalgarh. With a group of shelterless helpless people, who are dedicatedly CPIM supporters. You are on the run leaving your home and family. You live on borrowed time. You survive escaping from the so called ‘Maoist’ killers and their Trinomul henchmen and their lethal hi-tech arms. The makeshift camp is presently your sanctuary. You could have easily returned to your normal everyday life, back in your own village, only if you would agree to give up your commitment to the party and its ‘hammer sickle’ flag. You chose rather a difficult way. You chose to fight back. So, all you have in your bag is hunger, crisis and a Bolshevik zeal. Yes, you know how to give a last fight before you die .
They came in the morning. They were about 2000. You saw them coming and you could spot the two tiers of masked faces behind the mob. The faces you dread. You knew they were coming for you. And in that same morning you saw you are once again squeezed. You can’t have a luxury of ample options. Either you get lynched or fight back. Apparently, you chose the latter. The clash was inevitability. And some innocent people were tragically killed.
Mamata Banerjee can very easily claim that Shouvik Hazra’s eye was hit by police baton or Swapan Koley was killed by CPIM. She has proved it time and again that she bears little responsibility to the truth and the reality. But I
However, I am terrified. From 1972-77, it was estimated that around 1100 CPM supporters and activists were murdered. Since last Parliament election in 2009 till today, 362 CPIM activists were killed. Do we still need a louder shout to realize that the humanity in West Bengal is at stake?
It is truly heart-rending to see our world class intelligentsia, poet, playwright, author, singer and even our law abiding Governor get scared too sometimes. One His Excellency even had chill wave of horror run through his spine once (and that showed he was not merely a spineless minion). But there is a funny paradox. No tears for Sholku Soren even if his body lies prostrate for 5 days –a tasty feast for vultures and jackals.of course the killing of 248 Sholku Sorens does not seem to carry the import of the killing of 7 common men. Sholku was a Communist, a Harmad. Make no mourning for him. No tears for Dibakar Mahato, a Harmad schoolteacher, no tears for Dhoniram Mandi , a Harmad doctor. No tears, not a drop, when thousands of people, just because they bear the flag of CPIM spend their endless nights in a damped refugee camp in Khejuri or elsewhere, or when the father of Shouvik Hazra bites his lips as he sees his son’s future in jeopardy. Swapan’s mother may cry her heart out but her wails will never reach the ABP parlours! ‘Hakuna matata’ when the dead belong to CPI(M)?
I saw a few Trinomul –backed singers , actors and painters leading a protest rally today. My blood boiled as I recalled how these hypocrites spoke Parseltongue in Press Club Kolkata the day after the Gnaneswari Express massacre. History is truly inexorable.
I wish to stop here and make three clear observations:
a. Jangalmahal is now a war-zone. The Maoists are on the receiving end for the first time in the last ten years. People's resistance against Maoist militants is not only a new phenomenon, it is a Bengal phenomenon, unique and unparalleled.
b. Yes , the general ordinary masses are resisting the heavily armed Maoists and of course not with pumpkins and bananas. They are combating the biggest insurgent outfit of this country and it is but natural that the battle shall be protracted. The debate regarding armed camps is centred on childish diplomacy with both sides withholding vital information.
c. Trinomul is non-existent in Lalgarh as an independent political entity. Even its signboard is nowhere to be found ! All its support base has vanished or dissolved into the Police Santrash Birodhi Janasadharaner Committee .All it wants now is to eliminate CPI(M) from the tribal belt and for that they have found the Maoists to be efficient tactical allies . Peace will never return to Lalgarh until this Trinomul-Maoist nexus is destroyed, finally and decisively.
Whatever, we, the journalists are taught to be unbiased and non partisan (you can try ask the leading journos of ABP with a bit of truth drug and see the result). Solely, from this perspective, I can see a self defeating battle ahead. If this is a battle to show case our parliamentary democracy, we have ample and enough corpses to end it soon.
P.S.
The proverbial crowd puller of Bengal, Ms Mamata banerjee, ultimately could not manage to gather more than a few school students and hence failed to host the scheduled meeting in Nitai and Lalgarh. Later, she complained to the Writer’s that CPIM conducted rallies through out Lalgarh and thus she is threatened. Local administrations held back the rallies, but in vain. Ms Banerjee’s meeting never occurred in those two places.
The misanthrope says that to trace a Trinomul sympathizer in Lalgarh one has to bring in a microscope.
Early in the morning we heard that the villagers are knocking down the cursed building in Nitai. This, honestly, made me sad. I felt sad seeing that the party I loved so much has been so isolated from the common people. Staying away from Kolkata made me even grimmer.
Later, in the noon, I heard that my youth icon, my inspiration a respectable female tv journalist was seized in Nitai by the villagers along with her channel’s OB van.
This made me confused. I see no reason why the villagers, who were solemnly engaged in knocking down the building where CPM cadres took shelter, would be angry with a national news channel’s OB van.
In the afternoon, the picture started to sneak a look from the smoke screen. Two representatives of Bengal’s electronic media, who were famous for their ‘unbiased’ coverage on any political agenda, had hired a few people from outside to pretend to be the ‘real villagers’ and tear down the building. After discovering this, the real villagers took over the scene and seized those journalists. While being interrogated, one of the crews of that drama battalion claimed that they belong to the national broadcasting channel, the one in which my youthtime heartthrob works! We can assume that he lied to get himself free !
Later, when she entered into the village with her OB van and crew,she was detained along with her crew and literally after begging to Ms Mamata Banerjee she was freed. She paid a little price for freedom of speech no doubt…
However, Mamata’s meeting in the Midnapore with the dead bodies was a smashing hit. Soon after the meeting was over, the buses with the inter- district permit started their journey for home.
Is it not being a bit too risky Mr Shubhendu Adhikary?
PS: 2:
I’m really disappointed. From latest report of TOI"There was firing in the direction of the house, which came not from the Maoists, but from CPM cadres on the ground who wanted the villagers to disperse. Those in the house had sought help from outside when they saw villagers gather. They knew the identities of those who fired first. It was a calculated move on the part of the CPM cadres," a police officer said.
Locals reiterated they had gathered in front of Dandapat's house to meet local CPM leader Abani Singh. The group of around 2,000 villagers, which included a large number of women, stopped at a tri-junction not far from Dandapat's house. There, they decided to send a five-member representation of elders to meet Singh. Among those picked were Durgesh Roy, the local ration dealer, and retired schoolteachers Dwarikanath Panda and Krishnagopal Roy.
"We met Abani and told him of the practical difficulties faced by villagers in attending the training camp," said Krishnagopal Roy. "Abani heard us patiently, then said he would have to take up the matter with senior leaders. When he asked for some time, we told him to speak to the villagers directly. He agreed and walked towards the crowd and sought two days to sort out the matter. Everything was peaceful till then. When Abani turned to return to the house, a shot was fired somewhere along the road that leads to the village. A number of villagers came running from that side and told us an armed group was approaching. Soon, there was chaos all around."
According to Gour Mal, whose house is only 800 feet from Dandapat's, six armed men approached the spot, firing in the air all the while. When they were near the villagers, the men took up positions and opened fire.The firing continued for the next 10 minutes or so. Then the gunmen inside were escorted out by their mates.”
Can you just imagine? Yesterday the version doing the rounds was that armed ‘Harmads' shot at the non violent unarmed people from the house, which was nothing short of an armed camp. Today after the discovery of 40/45 bullet marks outside wall of the house itself TOI went to the length of inventing a whole band of armed ‘harmads’ who apparently came from nowhere and vanished into nothingness!!
I only wonder to which abyss is the Bengal media going?!?!
NB:
For a crash of course yellow journalism you can go through these:
- http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata-/Gunmen-trapped-villagers-shot-them-in-calculated-kill/articleshow/7244546.cms
- http://www.telegraphindia.com/archives/archive.html
