TMC & LEFT: Stand divided on the issue of harmony
A set of pro-TMC intellectuals, gathered in a seminar to call for communal harmony in the State. Ex-MP of TMC, Kabir Suman had participated in the seminar on last Wednesday at Press Club. Other than the common faces of pro-TMC intellectuals, historian Hosenur Rahman & writer Abul Bashar too, were present there.
All the speakers expressed deep anxiety about the majoritarian communal aggression (as they found 'majoritarian fundamentalism' in the deaths & escapes of Hindus from Asansol, Raniganj) that's prevailing all over the country & appealed to the common people to remain alert about it.
They perhaps meant to say that Hindus are being heckled in so many places (like Asansol, Raniganj, Basirhat, Dhulagarh, Tehatta, Kaliachak, Samudragarh) of West Bengal because 'majoritarian fundamentalism' is prevailing all over! Did they mean that Hindus are minorities in WB & hence are heckled by the so called 'majoritarian fundamentalism'? Who, then, are the majority here?
People like Subodh Sarkar, (one amongst the famous in-public-beef-eaters) Joy Goswami, Historian Hosenur Rahman have called for unity of the whole State against these divisive forces. Each one uttered in unison that such incidents never happened on the land of Rabindranath Tagore & Nazrul Islam. Did they speak right? Rabindranath, in 1905, celebrated 'Rakhibandhan Utsav' just in order to ameliorate communal tension that prevailed in undivided Bengal at the proposal of partition by Lord Curzon. Bengal witnessed deadly riot in 1946 after Rabindranath died in 1941. Nazrul Islam witnessed communal riots many-a-times in Bengal. So much so that he wrote his famous poetry and dedicated it to Rabindranath Tagore.
হিন্দু-মুসলিম যুদ্ধ
মাভৈঃ মাভৈঃ এতদিনে বুঝি জাগিল ভারতে প্রাণ,
সজীব হইয়া উঠিয়াছে আজ শ্মশান গোরস্থান!
ছিল যারা চির-মরণ আহত,
উঠিয়াছে জাগি' ব্যথা-জাগ্রত,
খালেদ আবার ধরিয়াছে অসি, অর্জুন ছোঁড়ে বাণ!
জেগেছে ভারত, ধরিয়াছে লাঠি হিন্দু-মুসলমান!
This is just the first stanza of the poem which he wrote in the background of communal riot before independence. Through this poem, Nazrul rightly addressed the fact that peace can never prevail if the omnipresent undercurrent of grudges & discontent between communities are kept suppressed & we expect them to pretend to be happy. Proper peace & unity may prevail only after a proper war! And for that we'll have to address & identify not only majoritarian but also minority-fundamentalism to put an end to all types of fundamentalism. As long as the minorities would think the inaction & non-retaliation of the majority as their inherent weakness, evil forces of the minorities, would try to capitalize that weakness & be pro-active to tear down the mask of artificial harmony. Nazrul, in this poem of his, unambiguously versed that nectar may be refluxed only after the venom flows out. And regarding the chicken-hearted & hypocrite intellectuals, Nazrul was unhesitant to verse as follows in the 4th stanza of the same poem.
...
ক'ফোঁটা রক্ত দেখিয়া কে বীর টানিতেছে লেপ-কাঁথা!
ফেলে রেখে অসি মাখিয়াছে মসী বকিছে প্রলাপ যা-তা!
সঞ্চিতা, মে, ২০০৩ সংস্করন, পৃষ্ঠা নং ১১৪
So the conjecture of our 'liberal intellectuals' that Bengal of Rabindranath & Nazrul has never witnessed communal strain, is outright rejected. Nazrul's famous poetry "মোরা একই বৃন্তে দু'টি কুসুম, হিন্দু মুসলমান" was nothing but his effort to ease up the existing tension between the two communities in Bengal. From since Islam invasion in undivided Bengal, communal tension was a part of life of the State. Moreover, all the recent incidents of Dhulagarh, Tehatta, Kaliachak, Deganga, Samudragarh, which the mainstream media didn't cover, happened in West Bengal itself. Or do these intellectuals believe these places not to belong to West Bengal? Wouldn't it have suited the intellectuals better had they tried to introspect the real reason of these incidences? Why didn't they dig upto the root-cause?
They said, people of Bengal never observed flaunting of weapons earlier in the occasion of Ramnavami. This again, was a half-truth spoken by these elites. Ramnavami always remained a pious occasion in Bengali almanacs all through and Ayudh-pujan is an integral part of its ritual. We may refer to 'পুরোহিত দর্পন' for credible reference. It's true that Leftism, in last four decades, has tried to decompose the cultural originality of Bengal & redefine our culture in a way that suited their own political interests the best. But that doesn't mean that they had been successful to change the mind of the whole of Bengal. Toxin of Leftism has adversely affected Bengal to a great extent but not to the fullest. People of West Bengal still celebrate its original rituals & root-culture. Ramnavami is one of them. It was always celebrated along with Basanti Durgotsav & still is.
The atrocity & fierceness of incidents at Asansol, Raniganj have astonished & scared these elites. No further repetition of such deplorable incidents should there be, they retorted! It's good fortune that they've finally realized the atrocity of such incidents. Otherwise, it appeared from their golden silence over the previous such incidents of the State, that they were least bothered about what all were happening consistently along the Indo-Bangladesh borderline areas of West Bengal.
These elites contemplated that such incidents were instigated for mere political gain. One may really feel curious to know whose gain could it probably be? The riot happened in the Parliamentary Constituency of Babul Supriyo of BJP. And he was forcefully prevented from entering the area at the time of tension. The MP liaised for deployment of Central Force but the State refused the proposal. State Police was inactive (or defunct?) and the sufferers came out on the ground to save themselves from repeated bombing that happened on their residences. 3 Hindus died, many escaped, many shops were burnt and reportedly one Muslim died. It was only after that when all these intellectuals & liberals of the State came out of hibernation & broke their golden silence. However, a few days had passed by then after the break out of the incident. So, if the riot was a vindictive plan for mere political gain as contemplated by these intellectuals, whose gain was it probably for? And what could be the gain other than threatening the Hindus of that area? And who all would benefit if Hindus of any particular area of West Bengal feel threatened & decide to shift to a different safer location? Is it difficult to gauge & contemplate?
The elites added that those who began the violence, fled away leaving innocent common men behind to suffer. If so, then how could they flee away? Wasn't it a failure of the State Police? Why did the State Police fail? Did they fail because they were incompetent or because they were unequipped to tackle such rioters who were equipped with all powerful weapons? Or didn't they have permission to take action? If either of these possibilities are true, it indicates either failure or mal-intention or at least lack of good intention of the State Government.
In the press conference followed by the seminar, the elites claimed that the communal violence in Asansol, Raniganj was instigated by RSS, BJP. The fact that the attitude of rivalry exhibited by TMC against BJP to outperform BJP in organizing Ramnavami procession had created the initial conflict was outright denied by Kabir Suman in this press meet. He said, "why are you involving our State Government in it? They weren't at all there in all these incidents." This comment itself maligned our State Government! Question arises, why weren't the State Government there in all these? Had the Government been there with all its legitimate might, all these could have been prevented!
Conscious citizens had negatively criticized this press conference & asked, "why didn't these intellectuals go to Dhulagarh, Basirhat, Raniganj, Asansol to pray for peace & harmony at the very time when communal mishaps hit those areas? Now they want to walk & talk for peace & harmony as now it's clear that the political image & existence of TMC is endangered." This logic can't be outright rejected either. What is the use of political branding of intellectuals to protest against such heinous incidents which straightaway attack the very concept of humanity? But that's what these intellectuals did. At the very platform where they spoke for communal harmony, a group of intellectuals started divisive lobbying regarding who would join the harmony-rally scheduled on 8th April and who would not. Shubhaprasanna, a well-known intellectual belonging to TMC lobby, clearly expressed that they won't join the rally since Leftists would join it. He expressed, "we are working separately". If this be the example of harmony, then we may easily extrapolate what do these intellectuals truly mean by harmony!
The seminar was presided by Shubhaprasanna Bhattacharya and attended by eminent people like Nrisinghaprasad Bhaduri, Kalyan Rudra, Subodh Sarkar, Joy Goswami, Prasun Bhowmik, Samaresh Chowdhury & Abheek Majumdar. He is the same Shubhaprasanna who was heckled by ED on money-laundering case and remained absconding for long. However, since public memory is short, he has come back to serve her highness.
Abul Bashar opined candidly that there's only one person whose leadership could bridge the gap between the communities & re-establish harmony. And she's none other than Mamata Banerjee. I couldn't agree more with Abul Bashar. Indeed it's Mamata Banerjee only, who can dream to bridge the gap between West Bengal & Bangladesh & merge our State with Islamic Bangladesh benefitting many like Sri Bashar, Sri Rahman, Kabir Suman & all those who are supporting Mamata Banerjee & orchestrating their efforts in this direction since long. However, if their support to Mamata's mission is pouring honey on them, they can't be blamed much! After all, to all such greedy so called intellectuals, land & beliefs, culture & religion can never be more important than honey! Can they be? Can we expect any ethical standards from them? Perhaps not.
However, their rhythm of rhetoric against 'majoritarian fundamentalism' got disrupted when Kabir Suman & Abul Bashar engaged in bitter altercation with each other. After the seminar, the Press Club was embarrassed to observe height of excitement at the time of Press Conference, when the two eminent persons started ranting against each other. As they started ranting & spitting venom against each other, we truly realized the meaning of pro-TMC intellectualism. Thanks to Bashar - Suman duo to carry forward the Mamata-culture successfully in the Press Club.
All the speakers expressed deep anxiety about the majoritarian communal aggression (as they found 'majoritarian fundamentalism' in the deaths & escapes of Hindus from Asansol, Raniganj) that's prevailing all over the country & appealed to the common people to remain alert about it.
They perhaps meant to say that Hindus are being heckled in so many places (like Asansol, Raniganj, Basirhat, Dhulagarh, Tehatta, Kaliachak, Samudragarh) of West Bengal because 'majoritarian fundamentalism' is prevailing all over! Did they mean that Hindus are minorities in WB & hence are heckled by the so called 'majoritarian fundamentalism'? Who, then, are the majority here?
People like Subodh Sarkar, (one amongst the famous in-public-beef-eaters) Joy Goswami, Historian Hosenur Rahman have called for unity of the whole State against these divisive forces. Each one uttered in unison that such incidents never happened on the land of Rabindranath Tagore & Nazrul Islam. Did they speak right? Rabindranath, in 1905, celebrated 'Rakhibandhan Utsav' just in order to ameliorate communal tension that prevailed in undivided Bengal at the proposal of partition by Lord Curzon. Bengal witnessed deadly riot in 1946 after Rabindranath died in 1941. Nazrul Islam witnessed communal riots many-a-times in Bengal. So much so that he wrote his famous poetry and dedicated it to Rabindranath Tagore.
হিন্দু-মুসলিম যুদ্ধ
মাভৈঃ মাভৈঃ এতদিনে বুঝি জাগিল ভারতে প্রাণ,
সজীব হইয়া উঠিয়াছে আজ শ্মশান গোরস্থান!
ছিল যারা চির-মরণ আহত,
উঠিয়াছে জাগি' ব্যথা-জাগ্রত,
খালেদ আবার ধরিয়াছে অসি, অর্জুন ছোঁড়ে বাণ!
জেগেছে ভারত, ধরিয়াছে লাঠি হিন্দু-মুসলমান!
This is just the first stanza of the poem which he wrote in the background of communal riot before independence. Through this poem, Nazrul rightly addressed the fact that peace can never prevail if the omnipresent undercurrent of grudges & discontent between communities are kept suppressed & we expect them to pretend to be happy. Proper peace & unity may prevail only after a proper war! And for that we'll have to address & identify not only majoritarian but also minority-fundamentalism to put an end to all types of fundamentalism. As long as the minorities would think the inaction & non-retaliation of the majority as their inherent weakness, evil forces of the minorities, would try to capitalize that weakness & be pro-active to tear down the mask of artificial harmony. Nazrul, in this poem of his, unambiguously versed that nectar may be refluxed only after the venom flows out. And regarding the chicken-hearted & hypocrite intellectuals, Nazrul was unhesitant to verse as follows in the 4th stanza of the same poem.
...
ক'ফোঁটা রক্ত দেখিয়া কে বীর টানিতেছে লেপ-কাঁথা!
ফেলে রেখে অসি মাখিয়াছে মসী বকিছে প্রলাপ যা-তা!
সঞ্চিতা, মে, ২০০৩ সংস্করন, পৃষ্ঠা নং ১১৪
So the conjecture of our 'liberal intellectuals' that Bengal of Rabindranath & Nazrul has never witnessed communal strain, is outright rejected. Nazrul's famous poetry "মোরা একই বৃন্তে দু'টি কুসুম, হিন্দু মুসলমান" was nothing but his effort to ease up the existing tension between the two communities in Bengal. From since Islam invasion in undivided Bengal, communal tension was a part of life of the State. Moreover, all the recent incidents of Dhulagarh, Tehatta, Kaliachak, Deganga, Samudragarh, which the mainstream media didn't cover, happened in West Bengal itself. Or do these intellectuals believe these places not to belong to West Bengal? Wouldn't it have suited the intellectuals better had they tried to introspect the real reason of these incidences? Why didn't they dig upto the root-cause?
They said, people of Bengal never observed flaunting of weapons earlier in the occasion of Ramnavami. This again, was a half-truth spoken by these elites. Ramnavami always remained a pious occasion in Bengali almanacs all through and Ayudh-pujan is an integral part of its ritual. We may refer to 'পুরোহিত দর্পন' for credible reference. It's true that Leftism, in last four decades, has tried to decompose the cultural originality of Bengal & redefine our culture in a way that suited their own political interests the best. But that doesn't mean that they had been successful to change the mind of the whole of Bengal. Toxin of Leftism has adversely affected Bengal to a great extent but not to the fullest. People of West Bengal still celebrate its original rituals & root-culture. Ramnavami is one of them. It was always celebrated along with Basanti Durgotsav & still is.
The atrocity & fierceness of incidents at Asansol, Raniganj have astonished & scared these elites. No further repetition of such deplorable incidents should there be, they retorted! It's good fortune that they've finally realized the atrocity of such incidents. Otherwise, it appeared from their golden silence over the previous such incidents of the State, that they were least bothered about what all were happening consistently along the Indo-Bangladesh borderline areas of West Bengal.
These elites contemplated that such incidents were instigated for mere political gain. One may really feel curious to know whose gain could it probably be? The riot happened in the Parliamentary Constituency of Babul Supriyo of BJP. And he was forcefully prevented from entering the area at the time of tension. The MP liaised for deployment of Central Force but the State refused the proposal. State Police was inactive (or defunct?) and the sufferers came out on the ground to save themselves from repeated bombing that happened on their residences. 3 Hindus died, many escaped, many shops were burnt and reportedly one Muslim died. It was only after that when all these intellectuals & liberals of the State came out of hibernation & broke their golden silence. However, a few days had passed by then after the break out of the incident. So, if the riot was a vindictive plan for mere political gain as contemplated by these intellectuals, whose gain was it probably for? And what could be the gain other than threatening the Hindus of that area? And who all would benefit if Hindus of any particular area of West Bengal feel threatened & decide to shift to a different safer location? Is it difficult to gauge & contemplate?
The elites added that those who began the violence, fled away leaving innocent common men behind to suffer. If so, then how could they flee away? Wasn't it a failure of the State Police? Why did the State Police fail? Did they fail because they were incompetent or because they were unequipped to tackle such rioters who were equipped with all powerful weapons? Or didn't they have permission to take action? If either of these possibilities are true, it indicates either failure or mal-intention or at least lack of good intention of the State Government.
In the press conference followed by the seminar, the elites claimed that the communal violence in Asansol, Raniganj was instigated by RSS, BJP. The fact that the attitude of rivalry exhibited by TMC against BJP to outperform BJP in organizing Ramnavami procession had created the initial conflict was outright denied by Kabir Suman in this press meet. He said, "why are you involving our State Government in it? They weren't at all there in all these incidents." This comment itself maligned our State Government! Question arises, why weren't the State Government there in all these? Had the Government been there with all its legitimate might, all these could have been prevented!
Conscious citizens had negatively criticized this press conference & asked, "why didn't these intellectuals go to Dhulagarh, Basirhat, Raniganj, Asansol to pray for peace & harmony at the very time when communal mishaps hit those areas? Now they want to walk & talk for peace & harmony as now it's clear that the political image & existence of TMC is endangered." This logic can't be outright rejected either. What is the use of political branding of intellectuals to protest against such heinous incidents which straightaway attack the very concept of humanity? But that's what these intellectuals did. At the very platform where they spoke for communal harmony, a group of intellectuals started divisive lobbying regarding who would join the harmony-rally scheduled on 8th April and who would not. Shubhaprasanna, a well-known intellectual belonging to TMC lobby, clearly expressed that they won't join the rally since Leftists would join it. He expressed, "we are working separately". If this be the example of harmony, then we may easily extrapolate what do these intellectuals truly mean by harmony!
The seminar was presided by Shubhaprasanna Bhattacharya and attended by eminent people like Nrisinghaprasad Bhaduri, Kalyan Rudra, Subodh Sarkar, Joy Goswami, Prasun Bhowmik, Samaresh Chowdhury & Abheek Majumdar. He is the same Shubhaprasanna who was heckled by ED on money-laundering case and remained absconding for long. However, since public memory is short, he has come back to serve her highness.
Abul Bashar opined candidly that there's only one person whose leadership could bridge the gap between the communities & re-establish harmony. And she's none other than Mamata Banerjee. I couldn't agree more with Abul Bashar. Indeed it's Mamata Banerjee only, who can dream to bridge the gap between West Bengal & Bangladesh & merge our State with Islamic Bangladesh benefitting many like Sri Bashar, Sri Rahman, Kabir Suman & all those who are supporting Mamata Banerjee & orchestrating their efforts in this direction since long. However, if their support to Mamata's mission is pouring honey on them, they can't be blamed much! After all, to all such greedy so called intellectuals, land & beliefs, culture & religion can never be more important than honey! Can they be? Can we expect any ethical standards from them? Perhaps not.
However, their rhythm of rhetoric against 'majoritarian fundamentalism' got disrupted when Kabir Suman & Abul Bashar engaged in bitter altercation with each other. After the seminar, the Press Club was embarrassed to observe height of excitement at the time of Press Conference, when the two eminent persons started ranting against each other. As they started ranting & spitting venom against each other, we truly realized the meaning of pro-TMC intellectualism. Thanks to Bashar - Suman duo to carry forward the Mamata-culture successfully in the Press Club.
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