PRAGOTI

In recent days, the Bengali media of Calcutta is highlighting the activities of ‘Swajan’ which is a very newly formed organization comprise of a fraction of Bengali celebrities. The same group of people was formerly projected as ‘Sushil Samaj’ by a section of the media who tried to popularize the anti-establishment sentiment among the common educated people.

The existence of the so called ‘Sushil Samaj’ came into picture after the controversial police firing in Nandigram on 14th March 2007. Nandigram, a small villege of West Bengal, came into media highlight on 1st January 2007 when the main opposition party of the West Bengal staged a demonstration at Kendamari ferry-ghat to protest against the rumor of the land acquisition plans of the Left Front government. It’s just the starting of a journey towards a dark lane for the people of Nandigram in next eleven months. The actual turbulence in Nandigram started from 3rd January – the burning of Mr. Sankar Samanta, rape of Mrs. Sunita Mondal, murder of ruling party’s supporters, eviction of party comrades from their home, illegal acquisition of the properties of the party supporters, and finally the oppositions in the name of BUPC (Bhumi Ucched Pratirodh Committee), which is an obnoxious combination of extreme rights, extreme lefts, and communal forces, declared Nandigram as an open zone without the law of the land. The people under the banner of ‘Sushil Samaj’ didn’t bother to use a single word to protest against the law and order situation in Nandigram. They didn’t even express their solidarity for the sufferers who believe in communist ideology. Hence, the issue based protest of these people (‘Sushil Samaj’) raise questions about their identity and interest which needs to be discussed.

In November/December 2007 the ‘Sushil Samaj’ has floated the new platform ‘Swajan’ with demands for Nandigram related issues. In recent time (just before the Panchayet election in West Bengal) the members of ‘Swajan’ are very active to establish so called ‘democracy’ in the state. The one and only one agenda of the organization is to restore the democratic atmosphere in West Bengal, a state under the Indian territory with an elected Government in power. Many common people from different cross section of the society are getting confused because they really don’t have any idea about the meaning of ‘democracy’ according to ‘Swajan’ members. Most of the ‘Swajan’ members are celebrities and belong to either economically upper class or upper middle class of the society. These people believe in consumerism, globalization of cultural values, and support the open economy for the benefit of the rich. They even misuse their respective professional platform to sell the concept of capitalism and try to inject these concepts to the common people through their works for the interest of the business class. They deliberately maintain a safe distance with the common people to keep their image clean in the eyes of their mentor. So, when they are walking on the streets in these hot days there must be something very serious about their concept of ‘democracy’ in the state. Probably, according to their demand ‘democracy’ means,
1. eleven months of anarchy in Nandigram.
2. brutal killing of an innocent person of state police force by BUPC members.
3. prevention of rural development for eleven months by the BUPC hooligans.

May be the members of ‘Swajan’ would like to re-establish those black days once again in Nandigram and in other parts of the state in the name of so called ‘democracy’. It’s certainly a wrong step; there are enough people who would not allow that at the cost of social peace and economic growth for the common people.

There is no democracy in West Bengal – this is one of the popular slogans of the organization. Sorry to say, these people are not even aware of the constitutional frame work of the country. According to the constitution of India, there is ‘Provisions in case of failure of constitutional machinery in the state’ (Article 356); whereby the President of India can assume all the functions of the state on the receipt of a report from the Governor of the state. No such report had been sent to the President from the sensible Governor of West Bengal. It is quite obvious, since the law and order problem was in a tiny pocket of the state. In addition, the state administration always showed their keen interest to solve it at the earliest through democratic way. The state administration tried to discuss with all political parties at panchayet, block, district, and state levels but neither BUPC nor their counterpart in the state politics, TMC, was agreed to resolve the issue by discussion. Still, the members of ‘Swajan’ are saying this same story (There is no democracy in West Bengal) for last one and half years. Moreover, they didn’t even face any dire consequences till date and still asking the people to believe that slander – shame on them. Don’t forget that the current ruling coalition came into power with a vote sharing of more than 50% in the last election under the close vigil of the Election Commission’s machinery. Please don’t try to sell a new definition of ‘democracy’.
Restoring peace in Nandigram is the main concern of ‘Swajan’. Hat’s off to the organization. At the same time one suggestion, please try to be honest; don’t target a single political party who are in power with people’s mandate for last thirty years. It becomes a common practice that for every single incidence in Nandigram members of ‘Swajan’ are blaming the leaders of a single party. It raises concern about their logical thinking. These people are supposed to know the situation in Nandigram much better than the state administration. Then why don’t they speak out the truth in front of the common people. Who are the culprits? Who started all these? Who burnt the houses of ruling party’s supporters? Why Nandigram was declared as ‘open zone’? They are not going to answer all these in spite of knowing the truth. A section of common people thinks that the reason behind the whole episode was the panchayet election 2008. The opposition with the help of some banned organizations, like, CPI (Maoist) and the communal forces, under the common banner of BUPC, tried to capture the region of Nandigram to win the election by threatening the people. Now at the eve of election they have realized that they lost the mass support just because of Nandigram episode and started screaming. Most surprisingly, the members of ‘Sawjan’ suddenly started showing solidarity for the people of Nandigram once again. In recent time CPI(M) members/supporters have been routinely murdered by the activists of the same banned organization, CPI(Maoist) in the border districts of the state; members of ‘Swajan’ didn’t even bother to use a single word – solidarity is far off. It seems that killing of CPIM members is a part of the process of restoring peace.

As par the statements of the members of the ‘Swajan’, it’s an apolitical organization - it’s a lie. The organization was formed with demands which are purely political, vide supra; criticizing the ruling party all the time, couldn’t see any problem with the oppositions or BUPC – still people would have to believe that ‘Swajan’ is an apolitical organization. Just before the election in Nandigram (10th May 2008), four CPI(M) supporters have been attacked and admitted to the hospital. Like color blinds, the members of ‘Swajan’ could not see the sufferings of the members/supporters of CPI(M) - they are certainly biased in their opinion and inclined to some particular political ideology. What’s the political identity of the organization? A renowned leader of the main opposition party in the state walked shoulder to shoulder with the ‘Swajan’ members in the rally on 9th May 2008. Hence, ‘Swajan’ certainly has political color and it’s the color of the oppositions which consists of extreme rights and ultra lefts along with communal groups. Hence, a fraction of the Bengali intellectuals under the banner of ‘Swajan’ is playing a very nasty role in the contemporary state politics to strengthen the hands of reactionists – this kind of dishonesty is not expected from so called intellectuals. The nature and activities of ‘Swajan’ has already been stated in light of Nandigram episode. It is apparent that ‘Swajan’ is working for the oppositions in these days of elections. In democratic system, supporting a political party by a group of people (like ‘Swajan’) is quite expected and appreciated. Rather supporting a group of political parties (according to ‘Swajan’ for betterment of common people) with bold stand, the people in the platform of ‘Swajan’ are trying to hide their political inclination. It raises serious concern about their agenda in the name of betterment of common people and needs to be discussed thoroughly. Explanation of the same lies in the current political scenario in India. The present congress lead UPA government is in power with the outside support of more than fifty left MPs. This number is crucial for the functioning of the government and left parties are always trying to push the government to follow the common minimum program (CMP) for the benefit of the common people. The congress lead government at the same time always try to take decisions against the common people (privatization of different organizations, removal of subsidy, curtail in job opportunities) and face strong opposition from the lefts. Recently the government was almost ready to sign the Indo-US nuclear deal (well documented so far and wouldn’t be discussed here) without any discussion either in parliament or in UPA. The left parties very seriously oppose that and finally has succeeded to hold it for a while. A section of people (mainly business class and upper middle class) strongly dislike such activities of the communist at this stage of globalization. The media, representative of the business class, started attacking the left parties at the direction of their owner and also to get the market by selling news items for the upper middle class. The so called media giant NDTV telecasted a program called supporting left, moving back ward. This is very surprising and would be discussed later. West Bengal is one of the strongest communist bases in the country and the communist party lead government is in power for last thirty years. Hence, the attack on the left parties needs to be much stronger in Bengal and the Bengali media follows the same line with an unprecedented pace. At this juncture ‘Swajan’ was formed with tremendous support from the local media. The main driving force to form an organization like ‘Swajan’ is to stop the left movement in West Bengal and in greater sense in India for the betterment of business class and upper middle class. Using the platform of ‘Swajan’, they are selling the concept - supporting left, moving backward. In their opinion moving forward means accepting all the conditions (may not be good for common people) imposed by the capitalist world at the cost of national interest. No doubt, they will be benefited in their personal life but people would not allow them to eat the cream at the cost of making common people’s life harder. It’s an open challenge by a majority of the common people of Bengal.