STRONG MEASURES SUGGESTED FOR ROOTING OUT CORRUPTION IN INDIA

By Tirthankar Mitra

Corrupt politicians and officials have been the bane of India for decades. Even as this breed embed themselves in different political outfits stashing their ill-gotten gains at home and abroad, the recent recommendations by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for India seeking to beef up the scrutiny of such tainted persons, is welcome. The FATF is a  global  action  force to check  money  laundering.

Calling a spade by no other name, these black sheep has been rightly dubbed to be Politically Exposed Persons (PEPs). And the recommendation of taking a long hard look into their bank accounts is a crucial step to combat corruption and enhance transparency of the financial system.

India has taken big strides in aligning with global anti-money laundering standards. In this backdrop, the FATF’s focus on domestic political figures seems to be part of a frontal attack on those bleeding the national economy.  FATF report  underlines  the  need for  addressing persistent vulnerabilities  in  the  system since  politicians and  government  officials weild  considerable political  influence.

Their financial transactions are often intertwined with public duties. Proximity to power can make them susceptible to corruption.  The risks of succumbing  to  greed always  exist. India  has  to  take  proactive   steps in  mitigating risks when the  PEPs bank  accounts are  subjected to a  tooth comb  search.

The FATF has called for more rigorous monitoring of the sources of funds in the PEPs’ bank accounts. Senior managers’ approval being recommended for opening new accounts of PEPs is a pointer to the need for heightened vigilance. It is   a    step to  prevent  abuse.  No harm in  a  double   check.

India has implemented stringent banking checks on foreign accounts   of  political figures. It is an indication of the country’s awareness of the risks these politicians pose to the financial system. FATF  report underlines  that corruption  is   deeply  rooted in  domestic  politics  in  India and  this  needs the scrutiny of  the  bank  accounts    of  Indian  politicians, officials   and  their  families.

And sooner it is done, the better. Known for their resourcefulness, these individuals can go to great lengths to hide the money which they have not earned.

The FATF recommendations have been made to ensure that the financial system is not being exploited for personal gains by some of those in positions of power. One has to mark the timing of these recommendations.  Several state elections   are round   the   corner and the  politicians  are  expected   to   spend   funds  from   their  ill-gotten   wealth.

Meanwhile, the powers that be have to face a challenge of balancing the need for transparency with the potential for misuse of these regulations post implementation. It is no easy task as the defaming a political opponent especially an honest one has a lure of its own.

Fairness and impartiality are essential pre-requisites before implementation of the FATF recommendations. Otherwise, they could be used to tarnish reputations of political opponents voicing dissent.

Recommendation of scrutiny of domestic political figures is not to be overlooked and is to be implemented forthwith. It is a significant step to ensure that the Indian financial system remains clean and robust. (IPA Service)

The article FATF REPORT RECOMMENDS SCRUTINY OF BANK ACCOUNTS OF POLITICIANS appeared first on Arabian Post.

By Tirthankar Mitra

Reduced to a single Lok Sabha member from West Bengal post 2024 elections, the state Congress unit is busy picking up the pieces of the jigsaw which would help it arrive at the causes of its dismal state and chart its path of revival. Apart from an organisational rejig and the search for a state unit chief, senior Congress leaders at the state and the national level are contemplating a course correction.

Defeat of state Congress chief, Adhir Ranjan Choudhury at Murshidabad Lok Sabha constituency in 2024 polls has worsened matters for the party. Not only does it end Choudhury’s winning run, it raises a question mark about his policy of remaining in close touch with CPI(M) led Left Front. Choudhury has submitted his resignation from state presidentship. It is now up to the Congress high command to choose the new president.

Several Congress leaders together with the party rank file are wondering aloud if Choudhury’s departure from the seat of power puts a full stop on opposing Trinamool Congress. After all, ever since Congress and CPI (M), political rivals for decades joined forces, both outfits lost no opportunity in criticizing the TMC-run state government in general and its chief, Mamata Banerjee in particular.

After Choudhury’s defeat in Behrampore, there has been an improvement in floor coordination between TMC and Congress in both Houses of the Parliament. Both being part of the INDIA bloc coalition had earlier run into rough weather post Choudhury’s stinging criticism of Trinamool Congress before the Lok Sabha polls.

And Choudhury being the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party in the Lok Sabha his words could not be brushed off by the central Congress leadership With TMC’,s principal critic no longer in the scene, Congress -TMC relations are likely to be better in the days to come. Nothing is more welcome to the national Congress leadership. The portents look like a new bonhomie between Congress and TMC has begun.

The firebrand TMC MP from Krishnanagar Mahua Moitra supporting a point raised by Rahul Gandhi in the Parliament is arguably an early indication. After all, Rahul Gandhi is a part of INDIA coalition, Moitra had signed off when asked for her attitudinal change.

Clearly both the leadership of Congress and Trinamool seem to be in a hurry to bury the hatchet. Both have a lot of ground to cover, especially the Congress many of whose leaders resent the fact that the floating of TMC and its increasing acceptance by the masses have pushed the state Congress into political irrelevance.

Organisational muscle turning into flab in the state Congress can be traced to the point of time when the TMC came into being. Projecting itself to be genuine opponents to Left Front “misrule”, it was a winning formula for the fledgling party state Congress stalwarts including Somen Mitra, stated to be Mamata Banerjee’s principal rival before the party had split , joined TMC and became its MP.

If Mitra returned to the Congress fold, other leaders like Subrata Mukherjee and Sougata Roy stayed put in their new political outfit. Congress had joined force with TMC to defeat the Left Front in 2011 Assembly elections but walked out of the new coalition government seeing its activists changing loyalty while TMC taking over many of their party offices.

An electoral alliance with Left in 2016 Assembly polls helped Congress reap a rich political dividend. Though there were defections from Congress, the unusual alliance often pinned down the TMC in the Assembly and away from it. CPI(M)’s number in assembly was less than the Congress after 2016 polls.

But post 2019 Lok Sabha and 2021 Assembly elections, the Congress and the Left were on further downslide. Broadsides and pot shots continued to be taken at TMC though such onslaughts were no longer as stinging as before. A moment of truth seems to have arrived for the state Congress. Its leaders have to make up their mind whether they will stay with the Left led by the CPI(M) or opt for a new innings in alliance with the TMC. Since Adhir Choudhury is no longer state president or even a Lok Sabha member, the Congress leaders who are looking for their own interests will look for a tie up with the TMC.

The Congress high command, in its meeting on Monday in Delhi has sought the opinion of the senior Bengal leaders on the choice of new state president as also what should be the strategy on alliance in the state. It is expected that the new state president’s name will be announced early next month.

Just not the Bengal Congress leaders, the state CPI(M) is waiting anxiously for the decision of the Congress high command on the new state president. The last president Adhir Choudhury had a good relations with the CPI(M) due to his anti-Mamata stance. Congress and the Left had an electoral alliance before the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and it worked well. The Congress workers worked for the Left candidates in many constituencies. The CPI(M) is interested in continuing this alliance as on its own, it has become irrelevant in Bengal politics now.

The Bengal CPI(M) is holding its plenum in the last week of August to go into the details of the factors that led to the disaster in the Lok Sabha polls. Preliminary review has shown that the party has no firm base among any section of people, workers, peasants, women and above all among the minority community which constitutes 27 per cent of the state’s population. Also the review reveals that the Congress has still organized base in some districts which the CPI(M) does not have. It is better for the CPI(M) to continue alliance with the Congress to fight both the TMC and the BJP in the state.

The state CPI(M) expects that the Congress high command’s decision on new state president will be known much before the party plenum. That should help the party in carrying discussions in the plenum on the nature of alliance. In any case, the CPI(M) is preparing itself for a situation under which the Left led by the CPI(M) will go alone in 2026 assembly polls if the Congress finally ditches the Left Front and allies with the TMC. (IPA Service)

The article Bengal Congress In Doldrums As New State President Is Yet To Take Over appeared first on Arabian Post.

By Tirthankar Mitra

Badal Sircar, the Bengali playwright and director who revolutionised the Indian theatre movement in the late 20th century stepped on to 100 years on Monday July 15.. Hr was born in Calcutta in 1925 and in his 86 years of active life as a pioneer in the theatre movement in Bengal, he introduced a new stream of theatre making called ‘ Third Theatre’ which influenced a number of young theatre people from 1960s to the early 21st century..He passed away in Kolkata on May 13, 2011. .

The theatre in Bengal is known to draw men who were in diverse professions. Sircar followed in the footsteps of Girish Ghosh who was quite at home among the ledgers and journals not to forget other books of accounts in a merchant firm when he was not on stage as well as Sisir Bhaduri who left the college classroom as a renowned professor of English literature to put on grease paint, face the arc lights and became a legend. In Bengali theatre.

Sircar was a town planner having studied both at Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur and Jadavpur University. Thereafter, the similarities and otherwise between the three greats of the stage surface and end. If his plays which are talked about with reverence to this day, few know of Sircar’s ability to look into the future. He was a voracious reader during his school days, embraced Marxism in his own independent manner and actively supported the left movement during his early days.

Theatre did not let go of Sircar while he did not let it go. It was a forum to portray emotions, top most of which was protest. Not for anything were his plays considered “as the most rigorously non-commercial political theatre in India” as Rustam Bharucha chose to describe Sircar’s works. Throughout the 1970s, he together with Vijay Tendulkar, Girish Karnad and Mohan Rakesh spearheaded Indian theatre movement.

Sircar was a pioneering figure in street theatre as well as in experimental and contemporary Bengali theatre. He prolifically wrote scripts for his Anganmanch (courtyard theatre) and remains one of the most translated Indian playwrights. The central theme of many of Sircar’s early plays is an utter meaninglessness of our existence. It leads to a state of metaphysical anguish. Starting his dramatic career with comedies, he started a movement in the Indian theatre world, known as “Third Theatre”. Which was meant for masses and did not require any official funds or donations. The frugal expenses incurred in production could be managed from the common viewers themselves.

As a theatre director and a writer, Sircar tried to emancipate himself and his works. To achieve this end, he set boundaries and crossed them by bringing new ideas and methods from the West into Indian theatre. The cost of tickets were kept very low in Sircar’s plays. Local people and dignitaries flocked to the performance of his plays which did not rely on government funds or largesse from industrial houses.

One wonders whether the idea of stalls and galleries/balconies in theatres were abhorrent to Sircar as it reminded him of Roman amphitheatres where gladiators fought each other to death to the entertainment of the crowd. It would have been the last thing for Sircar, a man of the people to accept.

The Third Theatre was about the people. Sircar saw to it that it remained so manifesting the role, responsibility and rights of citizens. Works of Odin Teatret and Jerzy Grotowski were Sircar’s early inspiration. His first play in 1956 was Solution X based on the Hollywood film The Monkey Business. It was performed by people from his office called Rehearsal Group.

Sircar’s plays were marked by minimalistic use of sets, lights, costumes and even background music. Dance was experimented with and with it came ideas with movement, time and space rather than speech. Topics of Sircar’s plays range from man-woman relationships to social and political evils. If The Pleasant History of India, Stale News, Circle, Bhoma, Procession, The Mad Horse and The Whole Night were marked out by his directorial signature, the quintessential maverick reached the zenith of his creative powers in Spartacus and Ebong Indrajit.

If Sircar chose to stage Spartacus penned by Howard Fast and once banned in US, his direction gave the play centred round slaves revolt in ancient Rome, a burst of energy which struck a chord with the audience. For all his experimentation, he had a finger on the pulse of the crowd who appreciated it with spontaneous applause. The viewers saw in Spartacus some similarity with the political situation in the country.

This play about slaves, a marginalised community then and an exploited one too, triggers a desire to change. It sought to give a voice to the oppressed not only by representation of the script by characters but through form too. Undoubtedly Ebong Indrajit was Sircar’s magnum opus. It focuses on an author struggling with the writer’s block. He struggles to write a play but fails to do so and is unaware of the root causes. He finally finds inspiration in a woman, Manasi who is a representation of the Indian counterpart of Carl Jung’s concept of Anima. Questions are frequently asked in the play while Indrajit changes his preferred name time and again in it.

The play centres on Indrajit’s life, his compulsion to write together with his love and obsession with Manasi. Naxalite movement was at its height during the enactment of the play but Indrajit’s growing revolutionary leanings which go against society, is never under the wraps. Small wonder, to crush Indrajit’s spirit, the ruling class imposes rules. His travels to London and plans to kill himself though he is not capable of it, is a pointer about the futility of life and the roles played in society by men and women as creatures of circumstances.

Sircar seems to poke cruel fun at the middle class. Though he never denied of having belonged to this class, it emerges as one which has failed to adjust and ceased to aspire thereafter even as it is engaged in the daily struggle for survival. In his plays on middle class people of Calcutta, he made fun and showed how selfish and self centred the people were. He used his plays as a mirror to this class of people.

Sircar was an influential Indian dramatist and theatre director, most known for his anti-establishment plays during the Naxalite movement in the 1970s and taking theatre out of the proscenium and into public arena, when he transformed his own theatre company, Shatabdi’ (established in 1967 for proscenium theatre ) as a third theatre group . He wrote more than fifty plays many of which have been translated into different Indian languages and staged by the leading theatre groups of the states.

Sircar was awarded the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship in 1971, the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1972, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1968 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship – Ratna Sadsya, the highest honour in the performing arts by Govt. of India, in 1997.The “Tendulkar Mahotsav” held at the National Film Archive of India (NFAI), Pune in October 2005, organised by director Amol Palekar to honour playwright Vijay Tendulkar, was inaugurated with the release of a DVD and a book on the life of Badal Sircar.

Badal Sircar influenced s a number of film directors, theatre directors as well as writers of his time. Film director Mira Nair in an interview mentioned, “For me, Kolkata was a formative city while growing up I learned to play cricket in Kolkata, but more than anything, I learned to read Badal Sircar and watch plays written by him for street theatre.” To Kannada director and playwright, Girish Karnad, Sircar’s play Ebong Indrajit taught him fluidity between scenes, while as per theatre director-playwright Satyadev Dubey, “In every play I’ve written and in every situation created, Indrajit dominates.” To actor director Amol Palekar, Sircar opened up new ways of expression. Badal Sircar’s plays are getting more and more attention from the theatre groups throughout the country as he turns hundred. (IPA Service)

The article Maverick Bengali Writer Badal Sircar Revolutionised Content Of Indian Dramas appeared first on Arabian Post.

By Tirthankar Mitra

Cautious optimism fraught with challenges has been ushered in South Africa post President Cyril Ramaphosa forming a coalition government. The new government has economic and social rejuvenation high on its agenda with the inclusion of Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen and other Opposition parties.

The coalition was formed after African National Congress (ANC) failed to win electoral majority. The election was held on May 29 this year. The formation of the coalition government is unprecedented. It has its potentials and pitfalls. The challenge before the coalition government arises from the very nature of its formation. The ruling ANC’s desire to continue its rule might have prompted to opt for the white dominated main opposition party Democratic Alliance(DA) ignoring the wide ideological differences between the two.

The expanded Cabinet, enlarged to accommodate coalition members has raised eyebrows. Increasing the number of deputy ministers to 43 is a burden to the state’s resources. Moreover, it contradicts previous calls by DA itself for a leaner government. The efficiency of the government could be diluted by an inflated Cabinet.

Moreover, the expansion of the Cabinet does not conform to DA’s centre-right pro-business stance. Yet DA’s inclusion in the government and it’s representatives being given key portfolios like agriculture, basic education, environment and public works is considered to be a much needed step fostering growth and stability.

Business leaders have expressed their agreement to collaborate with the new administration. To call a spade by no other name, such offers from captains of industry to a new administration is routine.

To be fair to the business community, the coalition dispensation must not squander the goodwill. Political expediency must not play second fiddle to national interest.

Reverting to the Cabinet composition, the absence of outside experts in key portfolios could hinder the coalition’s ability to implement effective policies. To refresh collective memory ,it needs to be recalled that South African economy is suffering from a decade long slump. The coalition government needs to adopt bold programs for generating jobs to ease the acute unemployment problem in the nation.

Appointing ministers and their deputies based on political consideration rather than their ability to address a nation’s urgent issues, may not help..

To tackle poverty, unemployment and inequality, swift and decisive measures are needed. Effectively balancing economic imperatives with nation’s political interests will mark the extent of the coalition government’s success.

Experts say that the Cabinet of President Ramaphosa has to navigate prudently the dynamics of coalition politics. It is in itself a complex process. The coalition dispensation has to deliver on its promise of revival and progress.

South Africa stands at a crossroads. If the coalition government fails or falters it would lead to ethnic and socio-economic divide which has long plagued the nation.

Promises of revival would go for a toss. The coming months will be critical. There is like little alternative but to chart a course to a brighter future by mobilizing the services of the best technocrats.

Genuine collaboration has to be prioritised cutting across political lines. It will be a delicate balancing act on whose success depends the fate of the change South Africa desperately needs. (IPA Service)

The article South Africa’s New Coalition Government Of ANC And DA Facing Multiple Challenges appeared first on Arabian Post.

By Tirthankar Mitra

KOLKATA: Roundly defeated by ruling Trinamool Congress in recently held Lok Sabha elections, BJP, Congress and CPI(M) leaderships in West Bengal have gone into brainstorming sessions to find out the cause of their respective electoral reverses. Though all the three parties are seeking to strike deeper roots with a larger section of the people, the game plans to hit the “come back trails” differ.

With 12 candidates of the BJP winning from this state, the saffron camp is chalking out plans to consolidate these victories with an eye on the 2026 Assembly elections in the state. Meeting a larger section of the people in all these Assembly seats making up each parliamentary constituency and propagating the BJP’s political philosophy in a language which they can understand will be the cornerstone of this policy, it was learnt from state BJP sources.

The language in which the people are to be addressed needs to be freed of Hindi words which are unfamiliar to the ears of the Bengali voters. Both meetings at local levels and social media interactions will be the twin tools to reach out to the voters. . An internal analysis showed that in 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP led in 90 assembly segments out of the total seats of 294 as against77 won in 2021 assembly polls. So that way, though the Lok Sabha seats had gone down by six in 2024 polls, the prospects in assembly polls in 2026 look slightly better.

Zeroing in on the words of the saffron lexicon which are unfamiliar to the people of West Bengal, it has been pointed out that Bengali equivalents of these words are to be used to embed the saffron camp ideology in the mindset of the people of the state. It has been suggested instead of “karyakarta”, the word “neta” or leader should be used.

Instead of “suchana”, it is advisable to state that a person would be informed of a specific issue, it was learnt. Apart from this, campaigns highlighting achievements of the BJP-led NDA and shortcomings of TMC dispensation should be conducted statewide.

Such campaigns are to be marked out by its widespread nature and frequency. Several national level BJP leaders have pointed out that the party could have retained the 18 constituencies it had won in 2019 Lok Sabha elections and added a few more this year had a more vigorous campaign been carried throughout the past five years instead of being active only in pre Lok Sabha polls months.

Financial probity of several leaders have come under the scanner after complaints from candidates and booth level activists reached the national leadership of the BJP after the Lok Sabha polls. Several activists manning polling booths alleged that they did not receive the sum promised to them.

Things have come to such a pass that BJP nominee for Krishnanagar, Amrita Roy alleged she was clueless about spending of party funds in her constituency during election though she was made to sign several cheques. Roy was one of the few BJP nominees in the state when Prime Minister Narendra Modi rang up to encourage.

The attendance of huge crowds in the rallies of Prime Minister, Modi and other senior BJP leaders not being reflected at the ballot boxes have raised queries about the organisational skills of the state leadership. Several state leaders have been grilled by their national counterparts in BJP on this issue.

With the strong presence of central para-military forces before and during elections, the plea of terror tactics of some TMC backed goons preventing BJP supporters from casting their votes lack credibility, it was pointed out. In this backdrop, the state leadership has been asked to beef up the organisation both in terms of motivation and numbers with an eye on the 2026 elections, sources stated. The central BJP leadership is expected to make its own review of Bengal party’s performance shortly and on that basis, the state BJP will adopt future programmes to fight better in 2026 assembly polls.

As regards the Congress, an electoral alliance between Congress and the Left read CPI(M) in West Bengal is under scanner as national leadership of Congress is playing ball with TMC to corner BJP. Though most of the state Congress leaders are opposed to TMC, their position has weakened after PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Choudhury whose opposition to TMC is well known, was defeated in his pocket borough Behrampore.

The CPI(M) which is staunchly opposed to TMC is also having second thoughts about continuing its alliance with Congress. Ever since the alliance came into being in 2016, Congress has reaped the most advantages from it. . In 2024 Lok Sabha polls also, the Congress got one seat while the CPI(M) and other parties of the Left Front got no seat just like 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

But as things stand now, the state Congress will be launching agitations against the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre, sources said. It will however, steer clear of stirs against the Trinamool state government.

Congress-TMC ties received fresh wind in it’s sails after a closed door meeting between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram at Nabanna, the state secretariat last week. The leaders remained tight-lipped though Banerjee is reported to have received a request to campaign for Priyanka Gandhi at Wayanad.

The Congress is seeking a proactive role from TMC against BJP at the Centre. Though both CPI(M) and TMC are part of the INDIA coalition with Congress, the Congress seeks to downplay it’s proximity with the Left in the days to come.

With only the Malda (South) seat in it’s kitty after the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress national leadership wants its counterpart in the state to cement its alliance with TMC at the state level. There has been reports of a drop in the animosity between Congress and TMC activists in the wake of Chidambaram’s visit.

With its influence on the downslide in West Bengal, the state Congress unit has ridden on the crest of organisational strength of the CPI(M) all these years. Despite central leadership wooing the Trinamool Congress at the national level, the state Congress is continuing its tie up with the Left in the coming four assembly by polls. Since Adhir Chowdhury may be replaced as the PCC president shortly, the future of the Congress-CPI(M) ties will be decided only after the takeover by the new president.

As regards the Bengal CPI(M),, there was total gloom in the post-election meeting of the state committee held last week. There was no light at the end of the tunnel..The leadership took no lessons from the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as also 2021 assembly elections. The same reasons were mentioned .- the party was the victim of the TMC-BJP binary. However, te party leaders at least agreed that the CPI(M) has lost its political base among the most marginalized sections of the people in Bengal. who stood by the party in substantial number even up to 2016 assembly elections. The downturn of the CPI(M) has been unstoppable in the last eight years. For the Bengal CPI(M), the party is still not reconciled that Mamata Banerjee has hijacked the Left agenda and implementing it vigorously. The CPI(M) has to work for fresh agenda and carry out massive organizational rejig if the Party wants to come out of the Zero syndrome in 2026 assembly elections. (IPA Service)

The article Bengal BJP To Deal With Its Fault Lines To Do Better In 2026 Assembly Polls appeared first on Arabian Post.

By Tirthankar Mitra

The deaths of 10 persons in a collision between the Sealdah-bound Kanchenjunga Express and a goods train raises important questions about railway safety, accountability, policy priorities and more. Are we always learning by accident? This accident in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district has registered the highest death toll since the Balasore accident in Odisha last year. Initial reports point to human error as the cause of the accident.

But even as the final report of the Commissioner of Railway Safety is awaited, conscientious citizens are asking whether the railways has been derailed owing to compromises in safety standards? Other queries follow in rapid succession.

For one, why was the goods train driver allowed to run his train at a speed higher than the prescribed norm? The chairman of the Railway Board has blamed the goods train driver for the accident. But the accident killed him and he cannot say a word in his own defence. Had he been alive, his words would have opened a can of worms.

In fact, some are already crawling out. An injured woman passenger had been made to sign on some white papers which she later learnt contained a complaint against the dead driver of the goods train.

Wonders do not cease here. A railway employee who happens to be the assistant driver of the goods train who has been declared dead by the Railway Board is yet to leave the mortal world and is admitted to a hospital. If he deposes will it not be a case of a dead man walking?

Reverting to the alleged human error which caused the crash, it may be an oversight or some other sort of mistake. But such errors do not occur without a cause. Shortage of manpower has led to train drivers working on longer shifts, enhancing the possibility of accidents.

Nearly 20,000 posts of locomotive drivers and assistant drivers have been lying vacant for years. In the trains involved in the accident there is no trace of Kavach, an automatic train protection system which has been on field trial since 2016. Kavach has been deployed in less than 1500 kilometres of railway tracks while the Indian Railways have 70,000 kilometres in terms of tracks.

This statistic sums up the whole story.

Little headway has been made in the matter of railway passengers’ safety as there has been exercise of scanty will to find a way out though every life lost is one too many. Funding is less of a constraint now as the capital outlay of Indian Railways has been raised nine times from 2013-14 to date.

One wonders if there has been disproportionate policy focus on the more eye-catching aspects of modernisation. The project Vande Bharat readily comes to mind. An unbiased enquiry would reveal whether back bending endeavours to please and curry favours with the powers that be was made at the expense of passenger safety. Meanwhile, a more encompassing and comprehensive approach is called for to ensure those who board trains all over the country every day breathe easy during their journeys and arrive at their destinations safe and sound. (IPA Service)

The article Scrimping PM Modi, Rail Minister Left Railways Vulnerable To Accidents appeared first on Arabian Post.

By Tirthankar Mitra

The CPI(M) and its partners in the Left Front have been almost completely wiped out from the electoral map of West Bengal. Except for a single seat in the Rajya Sabha from this state, it has been a dry run for the Left since the 2021 Assembly elections. The CPI(M)-led Left Front has been yielding ground to Trinamool Congress since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The retreat turned into a rout after the BJP emerged as the principal opposition, replacing both the Congress and the Left on the opposition benches in the state Assembly.

The Left now appears to be directionless. Nothing seems to be working out for it. Be it relegating the veterans to the back benches and inducting fresh faces in the poll nominees’ list, one of the formulas the Left chose to return to a place in the sun in the Trinamool regime. With a tradition of social service dating back to the Great Bengal Famine of 1943, a leaf was taken out of the book of the Undivided Communist Party (CPI), whose service and organisational capacity endeared it to the masses.

Manning soup kitchens all over the city and beyond, young CPI(M) activists, who were known as Red Volunteers, emerged as a humane face of the party during the pandemic. Yet in subsequent elections, though poll meetings addressed by some of these volunteers drew crowds, support for them was not at all manifest in the ballot box.

Even a thorough search for a panacea to political relevance for the CPI(M) is ending in a blind alley. If people in the coastal state of Kerala are not tired of a Left dispensation, the state CPI(M) think-tank is clueless why a populace who have had a much longer run of the Left, read CPI (M) regime, are in no way inclined to give it a second chance.

On the face of it, a repeat of the 2021 Assembly polls and the 2024 Lok Sabha elections’ results seems to stare it in the face in the coming 2026 Assembly elections. But, if the Left does some out of the box game planning, it can regain more than a foothold in state politics.

The TMC and the BJP did not import a support base overnight. It is the Left voters who have changed their loyalty which seems to have been taken for granted.

The Left ideology appeared to be jaded. Events at Nandigram and Singur are apparently pointers to it. That the small car factory which promised to industrially rejuvenate West Bengal shifted base to Sanand failed to be a key player in the automobile market was not appropriately conveyed to those the CPI(M) felt were its committed voters. Instead, the people were blamed for exercising their choice in the election

The CPI(M) is yet to outline in its political programme the new face of capitalism at home and abroad. Fed up with party jargon in the backdrop of some of the senior leaders leading an almost feudal life, the men and women who once marched in the processions with red flags sought other options. This marked a gross failure to point out the warts of capitalism. Lack of understanding of the complexities of Left philosophy led to this lacuna.

New areas of finding out exploited populace and drawing them to the ranks is one of the ways out of the rut if the Left Front and its biggest partner CPI(M) has to start with a clean slate. The informal sector and the gig economy beckons and the ways of inducting their workers would be widely different from the men rushing to the factories at the sound of it, signalling a working shift.

Such working hours are non-existent in the new economy where there are instances of workers being pledged of not visiting the washroom and drinking water till the “targets are met”. These are the ideal voters on the lookout for an outfit to restore their rights.

Delivery personnel, security guards, shop floor assistants are waiting to be organised and inducted into trade unions. They would be headed by the young men and women who had been manning the soup kitchens during the pandemic; the old style white haired trade union leaders would have no place in this scheme of things. The functioning of the capitalist State must be constantly challenged to usher in democratic socialism. Public debates and struggles must be initiated.

Memories of misrule of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre and in the TMC-run West Bengal need to be refreshed. Discussing real issues and long term ideological programmes will go a long way in achieving this. Deep seated frustrations have to be tapped. Only their realisation will give the toiling masses the strength to refuse doles offered to them as temporary measures to forget the pain of being deprived what rightfully belongs to them. (IPA Service)

The post Left Rout In Polls: Can Communists Chalk A Return To Relevance? first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

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By Tirthankar Mitra

At a time when Trinamool Congress supremo, Mamata Banerjee is announcing her intent of going alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, she seems to have overlooked that the company of Congress can help her regain some constituencies in north Bengal. The outfit she founded after breaking away from Congress way back in January 1998 failed to prevent BJP from winning six parliamentary constituencies in north Bengal in 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Even as Congress remained a participant in the electoral battle in 2019 polls, the BJP staged a major comeback in Bengal’s electoral politics by winning six Lok Sabha seats from north Bengal. .

Benefits of TMC state government’s development schemes not percolating to many of the residents of north Bengal coupled with BJP luring the voters with a promise of statehood helped put the wind in the saffron ship sails. These constituencies happen to be onetime strongholds of the Left Front. But the Left base has eroded completely. Many Left supporters of these constituencies switched their support to the BJP nominees finding an onetime political untouchable to be a viable alternative.

Prospects of INDIA alliance are not bright in this state and north Bengal is no exception. Trinamool supremo cannot be fully blamed for her belligerence towards Congress given its state leadership’s opposition to her even as the party’s national leaders like Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi, continue to make placating noises.

As the country inches towards 2024 Lok Sabha elections, two almost simultaneous trips of north Bengal by Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sought to boost the morale of the activists of the respective parties. On the face of it, these tours ruffled feathers, but if fissures are not allowed to develop into cracks in the INDIA in West Bengal, then BJP led NDA coalition will have an uphill task to retain the seats it won in 2019 elections if the latest political developments are taken into account..

As things stand now, TMC and Congress are unlikely to close ranks in this state. The BJP leadership despite having a state unit riven with differences has a better chance of keeping its tally of seats intact in north Bengal districts of the Trinamool-run state..

State Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has been blamed by several TMC leaders for the cohesion between the two parties not being achieved. The Trinamool has made no secret of her party going it alone in the coming elections just as it did five years ago unwittingly dividing the anti-BJP votes.BJP got 18 seats in 2019 elections while the TMC got only 22. In 2014 elections, the TMC had got 34 seats out of the total of 42.

Assembly elections results two years hence did not show any significant changes in north Bengal though BJP’s tally of seats trailed behind that of the ruling dispensation of the state. Of the 77 Assembly constituencies in north Bengal, the TMC won in 45 seats while the BJP emerged victorious in the remaining 32 seats. The Congress and the Left Front got no seat.

Both the TMC chieftain and the Gandhi scion toured Malda, parts of Dinajpur and Murshidabad. Even if the Left is not on board with TMC and Congress, these two INDIA constituents closing ranks in these districts will lead to BJP defeats in some of the constituencies held by it.

In Malda (North) Lok Sabha constituency Khagen Murmu of BJP won by more than two lakh votes against Mausam Benazir Noor of Trinamool with the Congress nominee being relegated to the third place. But if TMC and INC put up a common candidate, the combined vote share will snatch the sole Lok Sabha seat from Malda for the BJP.. In the last assembly elections as also in the panchayat polls last year, TMC has done better in the district but still in many seats, TMC on its own is not adequate to defeat BJP in 2024 polls.

Two divisions of Dinajpur comprise Balurghat and Raigunj parliamentary constituencies. Sukanta Majumdar, the BJP state chief has been elected from Balurghat while Debasree Chowdhury for whom Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought votes emerged victorious in Raigunj.

Both Balurghat and Raigunj have saffron camp representatives for the first time. Majumdar who defeated Arpita Ghosh of TMC by little more than 30,000 votes will lose by a slim margin if TMC and INC field a single candidate; the margin increases in the event RSP, the Left nominee in this seat supports the common candidate.

Raigunj will slip out of the BJP kitty, if a common nominee of Congress and TMC contests from Raigunj. While Chowdhury’s victory margin is more than 60,000 votes, the Congress nominee alone polled more than 80,000 votes. Saffron influence is strong in Jalpaiguri. Chances of other parties is dim here.

It would be a neck to neck contest in Coochbehar where statehood promise for Kamtapuri populace is a game changer for the BJP. But BJP is in no hurry to fulfil its promise, a fact voters seem to know. TMC is trying but if there is a Congress-TMC understanding, BJP will be faced with a bigger challenge.

Only in the Jangipur Lok Sabha seat in . Murshidabad BJP has a slim chance for the vote share of the saffron camp nominee second to that of the victorious But if a common TMC-Congress candidate is fielded, the alliance can get the seat from BJP.

Darjeeling and Alipurduar parliamentary constituencies are likely to remain in the saffron fold. Even if Gorkhaland remains far cry, the Gorkha votes are giving the BJP a firm footing in Darjeeling, The saffron camp dangling the carrot of statehood before the Rajbanshi populace in Alipurduar has ensured a committed vote bank for itself thereby attaining an edge over both the TMC and the Congress..

The traditional Bengali voters who are against the BJP are looking for a TMC-Congress alliance to defeat the BJP convincingly in 2024 polls in the state, but that may not take place finally due to the sudden arrogance of the TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee who is, as of now, bent on fighting all the 42 seats. It is too early to speculate whether Mamata will succeed like the last assembly polls, but it is a fact, that her distancing from INDIA and te Congress has adversely impacted a substantial educated voters in Bengal who were looking for a powerful INDIA bloc to emerge to take on the BJP in the coming Lok Sabha polls. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Democratic governance, backed by popular mandate is the sole path towards political stability, rule of law and much needed reforms. It is a contention none has any quarrel with.

Imran Khan, who led Pakistan to a victory in World Cup cricket final in 1992, founded a new party in Pakistan and became the Prime Minister of his country in August 2018 only to be deposed and imprisoned later. This has sounded a warning about the viability of the national elections. It is scheduled to be held on February 8.

Khan has painted a bleak picture of the state of affairs of his country post elections. The man who finds himself behind the bars since August 23 last year after being accused in the Toshakhana case (National Treasury) feels the coming election would be nothing short of a farce.

The former prime minister has pointed fingers at an allegedly biased caretaker government, an election commission similarly tarred together with interferences that stretch across the borders. In so many words he raises doubts about the foundations of democracy in Pakistan.

The powers that be in Pakistan are unlikely to pay any heed to Khan’s words. After all, he had not been in the good books of his captors ever since the attack by PTI activists on public installations and the military General Head Quarters on May 9 last year.

It has also been a part of Khan’s charges that the State is using every possible tactic to stop PTI nominees filing nomination for the February 8 elections. The war of words which ought to have been engaged into the confines of Pakistan’s parliament is raging outside it.

This state of affairs is a pointer to the credibility of Khan’s charges. As these allegations are being dissected, it is apparent that Pakistan is at a cross roads. The former prime minister implicates the establishment including the army and the security agencies of acting in tandem for his government’s ouster. He discerns a hand of a foreign agency.

Imran Khan is not the first leader from the Indo-Pak subcontinent to accuse the involvement of the foreign hand. Indira Gandhi was the first to do so. But India’s first woman prime minister did not name any country directing the foreign hand. Khan whose grounding in diplomacy is nowhere in near the same of Indira Gandhi, has named America., thereby implicating CIA.

Khan citing a cryptic message from US State Department honcho alleged that termination of his Prime Ministership through a vote of no confidence has been sought. Both the US State Department and Pakistani government have denied this.

But the fact remains there is a sizeable section of Pakistani populace including a significant portion of voters who will not dismiss Khan’s charges. For Imran Khan Niazi is known to be a man of honour in his country.

Here is a man who has made Pakistan proud in the field of sports. In a country where politicians are not known for their probity, he has singlehandedly built a hospital for treatment of cancer patients. Khan’s charges suggest a labyrinth of international intrigue influencing Pakistani politics. Its implications challenge Pakistan’s political decision making.

Shadowy forces are alleged to have shaped the destiny of a nation. A disconcerting picture is presented by Khan’s dramatic narrative of the role played by former army chief general Qumar Javed Bajwa and security agencies in influencing allies and back benchers.

It delves into personal and party hardships faced during and after his tenure. The charges apart from political .manoeuvering further lists assassination attempts, abductions and legal persecution to subvert the democratic process.

Thus, the former prime minister’s charges transcend the political chessboard. He seeks to expose the dark underbelly of power dynamics by citing attacks on his party leaders and activists, media personnel and not even sparing women leaders.

The democratic process is fragile in Pakistan. It is up to its people and it’s leaders to ensure that the coming elections are not a symbol of despair but ushers in a beacon of hope navigating under currents with caution. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

The legendary Kolkata based music maestro Ustad Rashid Khan’s untimely departure to the way of all flesh is not only an occasion for mourning for all those who love music and life. It cuts a link between the traditional and modern space; style was the man who had also brushed the gaps between different styles of Indian classical music.

There was little showmanship about the maestro though he was a part of the show biz. Such were his performances that they shine gemlike in the collective memory of the audience.

Music was in the genes of Rashid Khan being the great grandson of legendary Ustad Inayat Husain Khan, the founder of Rampur Sahaswan Gharana. While his tutelage was started under his granduncle and guru, Inayat Husain Khan , he also carried the lineage of eminent vocalists Mustaq Hussain Khan and Ghulam Mustafa Khan.

He sang in the style of exploratory development reminiscent of the manner of singing handed down by the redoubtable Amir Khan. His audience was struck by his tunefulness; there was a classy style in the way he embraced each note.

The great musician died at the age of only 56.Ustad Rashid Khan became a model to aspiring singers. His style, skill and even his consistency were emulated. By other singers.

It may appear to be strange and even nostalgic, Ràshid Khan’s excellence seemed to be a throwback to ’60s and ’70s. If it was not rare then, talent became increasingly in short supply as the ’80s dawned marking the emergence of this extraordinary singer who is no more.

Even as the days pass, the lovers and practitioners of Hindustani classical music are being increasingly aware that something formative of their times have ended. It is very harsh to live with this reality as Ustad Rashid Khan had many more miles to go before being enveloped in the Big Sleep.

Memory and melancholy created the soul of the artiste. But Rashid Khan was unaware of it though it can be traced to the untimely passing of his mother and younger brother

Rashid Khan had come to Kolkata at the age of ten. The city became his home where he found his music, family and appreciation; he breathed his last here. He loved Kolkata and the city also loved him.

Here was a man who carried his talent lightly. The “honorary Bengali” that Khan was he loved his adda, fish curry and para with the passion of s a Kolkata middle class..

The singer’s heart and soul was embedded in the spirit of Kolkata. Small wonder, Kolkatans stood on queue carrying garlands and bouquet to give their parting tribute to this eminent Kolkatan as his body lay in state at Rabindra Sadan.

It is not that as if such a talented singer will not come again. It is neither that such talent is not already among us.

But we are not aware of such talent right now. And the fact remains that Rashid Khan and the likes of him are not easy to come by these days.

Even as the search for his likes continues, his fans can still hear the reverberations of the boom in his voice in three octaves. The maestro broke traditional boundaries with an ease of his own in his scintillating voice evoking sensibilities among his audience many of whom felt nostalgic about the old .maestros they had heard at soirees at Pathuriaghata and Park Circus. .

Long before Rashid Khan had attained his stature he was sitting on stage during a music conference listening with rapt attention to the singing of Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. He was asked to get off the stage and sit at the back.

Panditji who did not shower his praise thoughtlessly had once said that Rashid Khan was the only singer of his generation who could pronounce “Sa” the first note of the sargam. It was indeed a balm to the Ustad’s insult and a tribute to the genius of Rashid Khan from one who knew what he was talking about. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Famous as the first ‘Showman’ of Indian cinema, had Raj Kapoor been alive today, he would have celebrated in grand style his turning 100 this month. Facing the movie cameras after putting on the grease-paint and an attire which was a take on that of the inimitable Charlie Chaplin, he essayed the part of a hero when the country had just assumed its seat among newly independent nations.

Son of leading actor of the day, Prithviraj   Kapoor, Ranvir Raj Kapoor had learnt the nuts and bolts of film-making the hard way. As a hand in assisting director Kidar Sharma, the young  Kapoor had earned himself a slap for combing his hair on the set of a film instead of being on the job.

Raj’s siblings were illustrious actors, too. Both Shammi and Shashi Kapoor need no introduction. Idealism was alive and well when Kapoor started his career and his films drew inspiration from it. The characters he essayed were known as Raju, a common man who believed in the goodness of others.

Kapoor’s story would be incomplete without the mention of his two contemporaries and friends, Dev Anand and Dilip Kumar. If  the former thrived on mannerism and style, the latter was credited with introducing “method acting” to India and went on to becoming a thespian, but there was no peer jealousy.

The trait of goodness marked out Kapoor’s roles  in almost all his films. As a callow youth stepping in unsuspectingly amidst the concrete jungle or a gang of dacoits, Raju was often duped. The girl he pined for and who  had identical feelings for him often misunderstood his simplicity. But in the last reel of the film he got back all that seemed to have slipped out of his grasp owing to  the same goodness which initially had been his undoing.

‘Anari’ opposite Nutan and ‘Teesri Kasam’ with Waheeda Rehman remain significant landmarks of his career. In both, his roles ooze innocence and goodness though they were not RK Studio films.

Kapoor’s films never jaded and the audience returned for more. First in black-and-white and, thereafter, in colour, these films were  usually produced and directed by him under the banner of RK Films and shot in a studio bearing the same name.

A simple story line, which sometimes had Dickenson undertones, with the leading ladies, usually  in white, singing melodious numbers carved out Kapoor’s captive audience. Appearing  as a romantic lead opposite Raj  Kapoor was often a milestone in the career graph of a heroine.

And Kapoor liked to present these glamour girls to the audience in a  dark  theatre in a state where their images  would visit them later, again and again. He knew every trick in the book to get them wet though ‘Jagte Raho’ was an exception.

It was the same for Nargis in ‘Shree 420’, pouring passion drenched in rain, or Padmini in ‘Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai’ or Mandakini beneath a waterfall in ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’. One must not. forget  the wet Zeenat Aman in ‘Satyam Shivam Sundaram’. Aman was inarguably the most unconventional of R.K heroines. Her face was scarred by make-up with Kapoor’s intent to concentrate the attention of the audience on her svelte figure cannot at all be ruled out.

Female form and the camera focussed on it was Kapoor’s game-plan to ensure hits. But it did not work out the way he had planned though ‘Mera Naam Joker’, a critically acclaimed film turned out to be the biggest flop of the RK Films.  Kapoor was brought down to his knees by this failure at the box office. In the next, Shankar-Jaikishan, who had given RK films so many memorable numbers, was dispensed with and Lakshmikant- Pyarelal replaced them in ‘Bobby’.

‘Bobby’ was a launchpad for his son Rishi and a new teenage girl, Dimple Kapadia. It marked the beginning of teenage love stories on screen in India; it had come to stay in Indian filmdom and its pilot was Raj .Kapoor. ‘Bobby’ gave Kapoor’s creativity a new lease of life. His finances were back on the rails.

There would be no looking back thereafter. ‘Jawani Diwani’, ‘Kaal Aaj Aur Kal’ and ‘Dharam Karam’ followed but did not quite stand out though all were popularised by foot  tapping music. ‘Prem Rog’, starring Rishi Kapoor and Padmini Kolhapure, with Raj’s sibling and yesteryear dancing star Shammi Kapoor, essayed significant roles in a story line based on widow remarriage.

Raj Kapoor seemed to have regained his touch in it. ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’ had  Kapoor’s son Rajeev  as the male lead together with another newcomer ‘Mandakini’. It was a Kapoor’s magnum opus. It became a landmark Hindi commercial film. Kapoor’s films portrayed strong female characters, but  he was  always in the hero’s role. ‘Sangam’ was an exception with Rajendra Kumar in the role of the “third man” , Though it was Raj in the screen name of

Sundar who gets the girl in the end.

Incidentally, Kapoor got the girl in all the films under the RK Films banner in which he acted as a hero. A winner in life and on screen, the role of the weeping lover whose beloved goes to another man was an anathema to him.

Known for emotional link ups with his heroines, Kapoor’s name was never away from the gossip columns. But it was always Nargis, his first heroine, who was the only woman entrenched in his heart.

Kapoor, who was not keeping well, collapsed as he was on the point of receiving the Dada Saheb Phalke Award from  President Venkatraman. The first  citizen of India walked down the podium to give it to the first Showman of the country; Kapoor passed away soon thereafter.

In an interview,  the actor-director had said that he was just beginning to understand cinema. He had sent up a prayer to let him live a little longer to continue film-making,  the profession he loved best. It was not granted. But the mode and manner of its refusal was in keeping with the way Raj Kapoor led his life and made his films; it was grand.  (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

There are not too many leaders who are looked upto by his/her followers and political opponents even when they are no more. Late prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee belongs to this distinguished group. A great consensus builder whose 99th birth anniversary is being observed today, December 23,  he cobbled together a coalition of divergent political ideologies into a winning combination. It did not matter whether he was wielding the seals of office or was sitting in the Opposition benches, whenever Vajpayee stood up to speak, parliamentarians cutting across the political divide listened.

A great orator, if ever there was one, he spoke of the political ideology he espoused without deviating a whit from the high standards of parliamentary democracy. It could be taking a dig at Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru on his China policy or reminding the late prime minister’s great grandson Rahul Gandhi to defer to Vajpayee’s years in the Parliament during which, as a Jan Sangh leader and a leading light of the BJP, he had entered into many a war of words with members of four generations of the Nehru-Gandhi family without hurting parliamentary democracy.

Arguably very few leaders understood that democracy goes hand in hand with difference of opinion though, in the process, no amity between the people’s representatives need to be lost. There were only a handful who had great respect for diversity. Vajpayee understood that India was a land of unmatched diversity. It is reflected in her geography, social structure, political landscape and her cultural life.

It is this appreciation that made Vajpayee an outstanding politician and a great Prime Minister. This was the man, setting aside his opposition to some of the policies of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the government she headed, who referred to Indira Gandhi as “Devi Durga” after India’s resounding victory in the 1971 Indo-Pak war.

He brushed aside intra-party criticism for this take on the then Prime Minister. It was the same man who refused to remove Nehru’s portrait which adorned the office of the Minister for External Affairs after taking his place as the new occupant of that office as part of the first non-Congress dispensation.

Vajpayee was never a man who would talk of a “Congress-mukt Bharat” like his present-day successor. It would have been arrogant, unseemly and myopic of him. Establishing complete dominance over others was never a Vajpayee trait. No community or organisation has ever succeeded in doing this. Vajpayee’s first tenure as a prime minister was of 13 days. He returned to this office to continue for 13 months and then a full term is a pointer to his policy of taking all on board. If some of them, like Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, parted company later, her quarrel was never with Vajpayee. Whether welcoming her to his Cabinet or stepping into her tile-roofed home in Kalighat, he always had a winsome personality.

Vajpayee was a believer in secularism. And it differed from the secularism used to grab minority votes. Nor was it a brand of secularism that defamed any religious community. It was comfortable on its own. It was a natural corollary to democracy and diversity. Vajpayee never refused to accept his being a Hindu.

Yet it was overlooked by some of his political opponents who never ceased to attack the BJP as a communal party. They were unaware that their tirade helped the BJP to gather more and more Hindu votes. It is a sign of Vajpayee’s foresight that he insisted on including “positive secularism” as one of the ideological commitments of the BJP in 1980 when it was founded. Like any true Hindu, he was never anti-Islam.

The nuclear test in 1998 showed the tougher side of Vajpayee. Then came the Kargil War when at the head of his government he fully backed the army, fully in defeating and driving back the enemy.

A year before he was on a bus to Lahore. Vajpayee said that one cannot change geography; he sought to change history trying to befriend an enemy. It was the same man who, a few years ago, was with the Narasimha Rao government when India needed a strong and united voice at the United Nations to defeat Pakistan’s machinations.

A wordsmith, Vajpayee was the right man for the job, one who could mobilize his language and prove the case for his nation. He will be remembered as one of the most enigmatic leaders to sit in the Opposition benches and adorn the Prime Minister’s Office, both. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Come winter, a season of mellow fruitfulness, Kolkata springs up pleasant surprises. A three day festival on Sahir Ludhianvi, whose lines of love and protest are still hummed began on December 15 at Dhana Dhanyo stadium.

Tributes are paid to an individual’s memory usually on his/her birth anniversary or the day he had passed away. Though today does not qualify on either count, every day of the year is a celebration of a man who was born Abdul Hayee but renamed himself Sahir Ludhianvi having penned verses in 122 films and 500 songs.

Born in Ludhiana in undivided India, Sahir became the numero uno poet and lyricist of his time. He could write with same empathy about secularism (Tu Hindu Banega Na Musalman Banega….) and ideology going astray in independent India (Jinhe Naaj Hain Hind Par Who Kahan Hain….)

Sahir’s command over Urdu and his ability to argue on both sides of an issue if need be, was soon noticed. Already a member of the Progressive Writers Movement, as an editor of progressive Urdu periodicals like Shaahkar, of Savera and Pritlari his free and bold writing cutting both sides shot up circulation but Pakistani government of the day was rubbed the wrong way by his barbs against Partition and the loss of solidarity between the Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs.

Sahir decided to move to what was then Bombay where he was no stranger as his book of poems Talkhiyan had already cemented his reputation. Having already written extensively on the bitterness of life and love, he was in his element penning lyrics. Never bereft of friends like Ismat Chugtai, Krishan Chander, Kaifi Azmi and others from the IPTA, Sahir made his debut in the film Azadi Ki Rah Par (1949). He never had to look back.

If Baazi, Pyassa came in quick succession were a forerunner of a brilliant career as a lyricist, he was no flash in the pan type. Gumrah, Gazal, Dhoolka Phool, Kabhie Kabhie to name a few are pointers to this fact.

Sahir was not as prolific as some of his peers. But whatever he wrote was gold standard. Lines of love from Sahir’s pen always carried a hint of sadness. For the man whose name was associated with poet Amrita Pritam and singer Sudha Malhotra knew there cannot be perfect love.

For Sahir was only too aware happy endings sometimes linger onto sadness.. Such is life and the poet has to accept it too. There exists a sweet spot between blissful union and agony of separation. Penning Chalo Ek Bar Phirse Ajnabi Ban Jaye Hum Dono, Sahir sought to give an expression to it.

The timelessness of his lines deploring the departure of one who takes pride on Hindustan in the film Pyasa, would have landed him in trouble had he penned it now. The inequalities and poverty he wrote about then still very much exists.

Sahir’s search for people who have found love reciprocated continues. There are many fellow travellers. His lines about humanity ring true. For they are the cornerstone of an egalitarian society Sahir and his fellow travellers sought to build.

Possessing a fine mind which nurtured a different thought process, Sahir’s take on Taj Mahal, a paen to love in marble travelled a path less travelled. To him, it was a statement on the rich and poor divide as he wrote “Mere mehboob kahin aur milakar mujhse” as in the film Gazal.

Kudos to Sahir Ludhianvi Genius Global Research Council , West Bengal Urdu Academy for organising Sahirki Sahiri. A champion of the cause of the working class, whose lines bring out the happiness, pain and love richly deserves it. Sahir, according to film lore had asked for one rupee more than what the producers were paying Lata Mangeshkar, the Nightingale of India. Here was a poet who did not lack guts. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Trinamool Congress has found itself in a political whirlpool ever since the cash for teaching jobs case unfolded in West Bengal leading to several senior Trinamool Congress ministers and leaders marking time behind the bars and CBI and ED grilling some others. As the cup of woes of the ruling dispensation of West Bengal was spilling over, its de facto number two Abhishek Banerjee rocked the boat voicing the need for a cut off age for some veterans to call it quits.

At the moment, 10 out of 23 of TMC’s Lok Sabha MPs are aged over 65 years. Five of them are 75 years or above. Small wonder, many seniors are feeling the heat as the controversy over upper age limit of contestants swirls through the party ranks. It needs to be mentioned that the principal vote catcher of the TMC, the charismatic supremo Mamata Banerjee is 68.

A tussle between the old guard and young guns is a common feature in all political outfits within the realm of electoral politics.. The TMC is no exception. The controversy can be traced to a party rally at Netaji Indoor Stadium addressed by chief minister where, a picture of Abhishek Banerjee was not placed besides that of his aunt. If the absence of Abhishek’s picture not being in the place where it should have been, the age limit issue was triggered off by a party spokesman, loyal to Abhishek. .

But the matter took a more serious turn when Abhishek said that like in all fields, politics too should have an age limit. Even as rank and file started taking sides, discussion among sitting MPs and MLAs went on an overdrive whether they will be denied renomination owing to their age crossing the upper limit which is unknown till date.

Many of these leaders like Sudip Bandopadhyay, chief of Trinamool Congress in Lok Sabha have been with Mamata Banerjee since the party’s inception. When the party supremo’s nephew, Abhishek voiced the need of the veterans to call it a day, it sent a shock wave through the party.

Abhishek’s wish to infuse new blood seemed to be at variance with the wishes of the party supremo herself. Of late at a meeting organised at Netaji Indoor Stadium she called upon the rank and file to give respect to the seniors. The chief minister made a specific reference to senior MP from Dum Dum, Sougata Roy who sometimes says that he is ageing. Perish the thought, she told Roy who was sharing the podium.

It was learnt from TMC sources that senior leaders like Roy and Bandopadhyay have placed their trust on the party supremo. On the other hand, the younger brigade for obvious reasons is looking upto Abhishek.

The Opposition in West Bengal, though it shares space with Trinamool in anti-BJP INDIA bloc, is looking for fissures to turn into cracks in the ruling dispensation of the state. If the fissures are yet not discernible, the difference of opinion among the Trinamool leadership is for all who cares to.

Underscoring the need for both youth and experience, Kolkata mayor and state urban development minister, Firad (Bobby) Hakim known to be close to the party supremo, said that unlike a councillor a MP does not need to go around a ward looking for a leaking waterline or a choked drain. The party’s representative in the Parliament has to concentrate on national issues and his experience is helpful in this task, he added. Hakim even referred to Roy as a role model. We learn from Sougata Roy how to nurse a constituency, he added.

Walking a different path, Kamarhati legislator and former transport minister, Madan Mitra drew analogies from cricket to drive in his point. Sunil Gavaskar retired to make way for Sachin Tendulkar who made space for Dhoni, he said. Mitra suggested that seniors should find place in advisory committee. In so many words, they should be away from the hurly burly of electoral politics and thus Mitra echoed Abhishek’s views.

The seniors should give up their positions voluntarily, deputy leader, Trinamool Legislature Party, Tapas Roy said. It seems Abhishek brigade is growing though his aunt Mamata has the final word in all party matters.

The fact remains Abhishek who was first elected an MP from Diamond Harbour in 2014 is not quite comfortable with leaders whose age and experience far exceed his own. With a desire to build his own team at the back of his mind and his choices for Cabinet berths after TMC’s victory in 2021 elections and the civic polls, he is set to induct younger persons who can work like him, in official positions

Unlike the BJP, the TMC has no cut off age to leave active politics, Sougata Roy who is in the eye of the storm said. The BJP has an upper age limit of 75 years. Even as the tussle between youth and experience continues, all eyes in TMC are on Mamata Banerjee. The veterans are banking on her silence which they interpret to be her reluctance about the old making way for the young.

There is also a feeling in the inner circle of the party that Abhishek is showing intentions of jumping the gun. Once earlier he had been pulled up for it by the party supremo. As the Lok Sabha elections are inching closer, the leaders seeking renomination are keeping their fingers crossed. Some of the young guns are hopeful of getting their maiden opportunity to represent the party they belong to. (IPA Service)

The post Old Versus Young Debate In Bengal Trinamool Congress On Lok Sabha Polls Eve first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Making no secret of any love being lost for each other, Trinamool Congress seeks to upstage BJP on what the saffron camp considers to be its sole preserve – religion. An outfit stated to be close to the ruling dispensation of West Bengal has planned to organise a Chandi Path programme days before a Gita Path programme by an organisation. stated to be close to BJP on December 24 at Brigade Parade Ground. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be attending this BJP sponsored programme.

The city is no stranger to back to back political rallies and processions. But one does not readily recall such competitive religious programmes which seek to upstage one another being held even in the distant past.

Rani Rashmoni Avenue in the heart of Kolkata is reported to be the venue of the proposed Chandi Path programme. Both the programmes assume significance as Union home minister, Amit Shah had called upon state BJP leaders to ensure 35 candidates victory from West Bengal which has 42 Lok Sabha constituencies and parliamentary elections are just 3-4 months away.

The BJP won 18 seats in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. While Shah aims to almost double the figure, the fact remains West Bengal unit of BJP is in doldrums with state leaders speaking against one another thereby achieving the target set by Shah to be a tall order.

In this backdrop, the Gita Path programme was quite in keeping with the state of the divided West Bengal unit of the saffron camp. Apart from a handful of law violation programmes coupled with turning Assembly sessions into bedlams together with some adverse court orders against TMC state government, it has little to show as signs of Opposition resurgence against the ruling TMC regime..

The state BJP is eyeing the Gita Path programme to better it’s political prospects on the Christmas Eve with a visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi thrown in for good measure, TMC has not taken the aid of religion in election battles till date. Though chief minister Mamata Banerjee is a practising Hindu who recited slokas from the Chandi in 2021 Assembly elections campaign and organises Kali Puja in a big way at her Kalighat residence, religion had little to do with the ruling party of West Bengal.

A senior TMC leader rubbished the charge that religion is being roped in to reinforce the party’s arsenal for the poll campaign next year. Till date, Mamata Banerjee and other TMC leaders had taken on an assorted Opposition on the strength of a raft of development projects like Kanyasree, Sabuj Sathi, Lakshmir Bhandar to name a few.

Though chief minister Banerjee had spoken of her devotion to deities of all religions and participated in some of the religious festivals, she had steered clear of religion even when Prime Minister Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah were criss crossing West Bengal during the 2021 Assembly election campaign. But with her hand on the pulse of the people of the state, it seems she is loath to take any chances in 2024 electoral battle.

Incidentally, Sri Panchayati Akhara Mahanirbani Sri Sri Brahmamayee Kali Bari, Noapara the organiser of “Lokkho Konthe Gita Path” (A lakh voices chanting Gita) programme invited chief minister Mamata Banerjee and governor C V Anand Bose together with PM Modi to attend the function. The invitations water down the charge that the Gita reading session will be an out and out saffron affair.

Yet attendance of the political big wigs to the Gita Path programme lends it with political colour. The same applies to the Chandi Path programme owing to the proximity of its date and venue to the Gita Path programme. The Chandi Path venue and the date are yet undecided but organisers denied any competition with the Gita Path programme. It was learnt that chief minister Banerjee had attended a big programme organised by Paschimbanga Rajya Sanatan Brahaman Trust at Digha in August.

The idea of the Chandi Path programme was at a nascent stage then. But reasons behind the plan of holding it in a big way preceding the Gita Path programme are not known. It seems that though BJP was faster on the draw, the TMC has outplayed the saffron by organizing it before December 24. No reports of the Gita Path programme being advanced I nottere.

Politics in the state have kept religion at arm’s length in the post-independence period. The scars of communal conflagration of 1946 and an independence stained by Partition next year saw to it. Shyama Prasad Mookherjee, the Bharatiya Jan Sangh stalwart rode the crest of popularity for championing the cause of the refugees. Communal incitement was never a part of his campaign pitch.

Neither the Congress governance nor the Left Front regime have pandered to religion. The rise of the BJP in the state saw religious slogans being raised and related issues being invoked at political rallies. West Bengal witnessed occasional communal flare ups following the Babri mosque demolition and other issues. But they were quickly tackled and fizzled out on their own.

It is to be seen how finally, the two programmes are organized and what messages get delivered. There are reportedly some moves for a joint programme. In sum, the year end has assumed significance in term of both politics and religion in Bengal coinciding with the poll campaign for Lok Sabha elections 2024. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

The Bengal unit of BJP is in dire straits now as the leadership has no face to face its supporters after the big flop of the party rally addressed by the Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday afternoon. All the earlier big hype made by the big guns of the party came to a cropper as Shah, thoroughly dissatisfied at the small size of the rally spoke only for 23 minutes and gave no clarion call for the removal of the Mamata government which the saffron crowd was expecting.

The obsequious men and women around him on the makeshift podium at Dharmatala, made affirmative noises. But the second tallest leader of the BJP saw it all and left the podium in a huff. The few thousands who came to hear their leader went back wit little enthusiasm to fight the ruling Trinamool Congress.

Interestingly, from Thursday morning, the twin central probe agencies, CBI and ED started raiding the residences and places of work of Trinamool leaders. To call a spade by no other name, these agencies are being used by the BJP to pin down the ruling party leaders of the state.

Whenever the Trinamool leadership is convening a rally, the speakers are invoking the names of the probe agencies to be the principal sources of their “harassment.” Not unnoticed by the state BJP top brass, it has been reported to Union home minister, Shah too.

Burning issues of alleged corruption against the state government’s are for all there to see. So is the paucity of the agitations by state unit of the BJP on these issues.

The saffron cadre force in West Bengal is in so many words directionless. More often than not, the party rank and file come across their leaders not in local party offices but in news channel studios participating in talk shows.

A party office of BJP near chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s home is closed. It is a clear pointer that the biggest Opposition party in the state is unable to make its presence felt at a spot where it was most needed.

The performance of state BJP leaders on television screen may earn them kudos from some viewers. But the party activists are none the wiser when the call for the next agitation programme will be delayed.

The state leadership dare not voice the actual state of affairs. For they are chary of not only a rap on the knuckles but removal from the post. Against this backdrop, the 2024. Lok Sabha elections will be vastly different from the 2019 parliamentary polls in West Bengal. Nor will it resemble the 2021 Assembly polls in the state

In 2019, a significant section of the populace chose to vote wholeheartedly for the saffron party’s nominees. It was a litmus test of sorts for the BJP nominees. It led to BJP getting 18 MPs from West Bengal, its tally being an all-time high for the party. Five years have gone by and the stirs powered by the unexpected support base these MPs had overnight acquired are no more.

The numerical strength of BJP, and the organisational muscles which the state unit was to acquire therefrom exist only on paper. Lack of agitations, a few MPs have regretted can be laid at the door of not finding several berths in the Union Cabinet.

It is a lame excuse. Besides it will not cut any ice with those who had voted for BJP five years ago. The state BJP was in for a windfall in 2021assembly elections. Pulling out all stops, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister, Shah crisscrossed the state together with other leading lights of the party.

It seems that the voters seeing the saffron unit’s inaction were unimpressed by this sporadic burst of election campaigning. Thinking the BJP’s head honchos words will not be followed up by deeds, they voted overwhelmingly for the Trinamool nominees.

Not even engineering a spate of defections from TMC, could the BJP swing the elections. A wheel chair bound chief minister Banerjee campaigning with a bandaged leg took the wind off the BJP sails.

Even in the unlikely event of a unique campaign plan next year, the BJP will be all at sea as Modi and Shah, two of its most charismatic leaders being busy in a nationwide poll campaign will be devoting much less time to West Bengal.

In sum, the morale of the state BJP rank and file post-Amit Shah rally, is further down. Grassroot workers raring to plunge into coming agitations much less in next year’s election campaign is the last thing the saffron leadership in West Bengal can hope for. A weakened BJP will be facing the TMC in the coming Lok Sabha polls compared to its strength during 2019 polls. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

It is a morning knock but is no less sinister than a midnight one as Dublin microbiologist Eilish Stack comes face to face with state’s totalitarianism as powers that seek to interrogate her trade unionist husband Larry. It is in this way Paul Lynch, an Irish author begins the book ’Prophet Song’ in the backdrop of Dublin’s descent into dystopia.. The book just got the Booker Prize for this year..

It is a fine act of emotional storytelling. It is an empathy in words sadly missed these days and it is in its own way brave.

In an imaginary Ireland that is descending into tyranny, Stack’s world is upended as Larry disappears in the stranglehold of state machinery. Does it sound familiar to those who had witnessed in their youth and teens Emergency promulgated by Congress government of Indira Gandhi?

Of late in West Bengal, the nightmarish scenario visited an academic of a state university when he tried to make a harmless joke quoting a dialogue from a Satyajit Ray film about sudden ministerial change in the Union Cabinet orchestrated from Kolkata. In Prophet Song Larry’s disappearance is followed by the breakout of a civil war in Ireland.

Lynch’s fifth novel Prophet Song is about dark shades that may very well become a reality. It won the Booker Prize for literature this year pulling no punches as it unsettlingly depicts life of Stack in a country in the cusp of irreversible change.

Many a reader in India will identify with the storyline as Eilish is left to look after their four children and her elderly father as she fights to hold her family together as civil war rages outside.

Call it happenstance or coincidence, days after Lynch’s announcement as the Booker winner, three children were injured in a stabbing attack outside a primary school in central Dublin. Expressing his astonishment, Lynch a former film critic said that always “this kind of energy is below the surface”.

Looking further, one finds Prophet Song echoes the violence in Palestine, Ukraine and Syria. It is also about the experience of all those who flee from war torn countries. Here is the dark story of a society that descends into war. But though set in the backdrop of an imaginary Ireland, it resonates far beyond it.

It is also a story about Mother Courage. She is determined to protect her brood.., Prophet Song is an important book in an uncertain age. It has a feel for implosion latent in every society. Lynch makes it clear he is not a political novelist. Nor did he pen the book to voice a warning.

It articulates the message that the things written about in this novel are timelessly occurring throughout the world. There is need to deepen collective responses to this idea. All said and done, it is a nightmarish story. Powerful, claustrophobic and horribly real, it is truly a masterful work of fiction.

The author has spoken how this work is his way of interpreting the political chaos around the world. It seems to be a take on the immigrant crisis and the West’s apathy towards it. In the author’s words the book is an endeavour at “radical empathy”. Stack is asked by a character to leave her beleaguered country.

She says “History is a silent record of people who did not know when to leave.” Does it evoke memories of hurried flights of a generation from post Partition East Pakistan and even later to a country where they would be sneered at as refugees?

Yet some people dug in their heels and hung in at a land that has been home which has suddenly turned hostile. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

A fish curry is a meal while macherjhol is a emotion that will find widespread support in West Bengal. Its residents who swear by the taste of hilsa would in all likelihood be foxed by Gujarat’s choice of Ghol as the state fish.

Black spotted croaker or ghol is considered to be a fisherman’s lottery for its rarity. For it is an expensive fish. Consumption of this variety is not widely heard of. But it has a huge market in China and other countries.

Even as Trinamool Congress state government of West Bengal organises global business summit and never stops to mention that Bengal means business, away from the air conditioned venue of the business conclaves, trade and commerce is not a popular topic of discussion among the people. Expert opinions would be offered about food or films and though the topics of business are not quite no-no even among the coffee house crowd, it would rather be skirted.

Talks would rather centre around Karimeen fish from Kerala, Goa and Odisha. One would wax eloquent about a sight of Karimeen bathed in a marinade of turmeric, salt and red chilly together with black pepper powder, fennel powder, ginger-garlic paste and lemon juice.

Turning down a dish of Karimeen is a test beyond temptation especially when roasted till it is crisp on the outside and melt in the mouth delicious when one digs deeper. Nearer home magur or walking catfish, though demands mellower treatment, flavoured into a light broth with slivers of green plantain.

No discussion of the lovers of fish dishes is complete without hilsa. It can be dressed up in golden mustard paste or fried in smoking hot oil. Ghol, by comparison, is of a status of Johnny come lately. It can lend itself quietly to cutlets and grills. But then it’s announcement as state fish of Gujarat is most unlikely to stir up an impassioned discussion among the residents of the state. For most of them are not fish lovers.

In fact, the Gujaratis have an affinity for vegetarian food. How did then the Ghol meet the cut? Strange as it may sound, it is for the business acumen of the people of Gujarat. After all, it is known as fishermen’s lottery for its elusiveness. It is a delicacy in Europe and Middle East. It is air-bladder is much covered for its medicinal property in Asian countries especially in China.

It makes Ghol a “floating business proposition” in a state where men have been known to make millions from much lesser opportunities. The prosperity of Gujarat though not at all richly endowed with natural resources stand testimony to it.

It is too good a business opportunity to pass up. The point may be underscored by the fact a kilogram of Ghol’s air-bladder can fetch a sum surpassing Rs 20,000 in the export market. This was an ace up the backers of Ghol’s status as a state fish. It made Ghol edge out ribbon fish, pomfret and Bombay duck. Found mostly along the coast of Gujarat and Maharashtra, Ghol is a coveted catch among fishermen. Now it’s new status as state fish will ensure conservation.

After all, being a prize catch poses a threat to the not too populous Ghol. If collective memory can be refreshed, knee jerk conservation efforts were discernible in West Bengal and Bangladesh to conserve hilsa.

Fishing bans and price regulations were imposed. Hopefully Ghol won’t be need such efforts owing to the infrequency in netting it; after all, it is known as fisherman’s lottery. (IPA Service)

The post Gujarat Govt’s Choice Of Ghol As A The State Fish Leads To Murmurs In Bengal first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

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By Tirthankar Mitra

The veteran Hollywood film director Martin Scorsese’s life is apparently somewhat reminiscent of the great American dream of a new kid on the block overcoming odds and gaining material success, a humble background notwithstanding. But as one looks at the vast body of his works in celluloid one is left in no doubt that the man from the mean streets of Lower Manhattan, a New York suburb was not in pursuit of mere commercial triumph but something that far outlasts it- a place of honour in the hall of fame of world cinema.

Scorsese whose 81st birthday was on November 17 had the offer of priesthood for a career. He chose a road less travelled and yet attained what he sought for, the satisfaction of being a great film maker. His Indian connection surfaces in the choice and the single minded pursuit of a career. It is by his own admission that one learns that Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy having an effect on him.

Ray had etched out Pather Panchali from the huts and fields of Boral, a sleepy neighbourhood in the southern suburbs of what was then called Calcutta. Scorsese too drew the topics of his films from his neighbourhood of Little Italy, the ghetto where the immigrants from the sunny olive grove dotted Italian villages make a beeline for when they arrive in the New World in search of a better life.

An asthmatic childhood with an inexpensive television set as a company at home (both his parents worked in a neighbourhood garment factory) and stepping out to a rundown film theatre marked out his path of a steep climb to the heights of glory. It came back in Scorsese’s maiden film “”Who’s That Knocking At My Door” when the principal protagonists out on their first date sits on a concrete bench and talks of old Western films they had earlier seen.

Just like “Pather Panchali”, according to Scorsese has Indianness in its flesh and bones is yet meant for world audience , so were the early films of the man from Little Italy. It is a Manhattan suburb where Italian immigrants are in a majority clinging to their old customs, a malevolent presence of the Mafia is palpable, fisticuffs break out and yet friendships are renewed among individuals who had been at each other’s a little while ago.

Scorsese’s films have often been about him, alive and inviting even if they are about mobsters and monsters. They are work of a true believer. Such scenes of violence were part of “Mean Streets” Scorsese’s second film. Library of Congress while recommending its order action in National Film Registry hailed it as “culturally, historically and aesthetically significant.”

The daily lives of the inhabitants of Little Italy comes alive in the silver screen thanks to the efforts of a local boy. It is not dissimilar to Ray’s efforts decades earlier portraying the joys and sorrows of a little family of the village of Nischindipur before an international audience and earning kudos for it.

Western film genre is part of Scorsese’s cinematic roots returning in the movie Killers of the Flower Moon. In this film, Scorsese shatters the supposedly god gifted right of a white, reckless, conscientious male on whatever is on the land and underneath in a north American landscape reminiscent of the backdrop of The Great Train To Robbery, another American classic in celluloid.

If one dubbed Scorsese’s films to be wrapped around mobs and Little Italy, he needs another think coming. The King of Comedy is a film which portrays a journey from reality to delusion in which the director casts Robert De Nero in an effortless role of a walking embarrassment, a far cry from the sharp and about it roles he usually essays.

It is De Nero again in the role of a boxer portraying raw brutality with close resemblance to a caged breast. He enacts the role of a chest thumping savage who under Scorsese’s direction finds peace in beating someone’s brains in or someone doing it to him in scenes that remain poetic and horrific works of art.

Scorsese teams up with De Nero again in Taxi Driver where the actor drives a cab alone at night to prepare for the role and is dangerous in a way on screen even he cannot quite understand. The film feels familiar every passing day provides altogether a new hellscape..

Scorsese has made many classic films which are seen as masterpieces. No two people will agree which are which. There is very little “worst” in his films. Because Scorsese’s films are always made with care and almost religious fervour. His films have always been a part of his mindset. Small wonder, they are passionate, deeply personal works that list his obsession, riffling on religion and spiritual torment.

Scorsese’s films rarely feel cut off from the world. They are fully engaged with their specific milieus, be it Tibet or Little Italy. There were a few cinematic ambitious misfires of imperfect curiosities in Scorsese’s oeuvre. As he turned 81, his rightful place is behind the camera and not the pulpit. Scorsese’s message to the audience is better conveyed through his efforts on the screen. He had rightly rejected priesthood and chosen a better calling. (IPA Service)

The post Looking At The Great Works Of The Hollywood Filmmaker Martin Scorsese first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Politics makes strange bed fellows. But eyebrows were certainly raised when Subhendu Adhikari, a state leader of BJP which makes no secret of his outfit’s affinity for Hindutva recently spoke of supporting a representative from another political outfit at Lok Sabha constituency of Diamond Harbour to defeat Trinamool Congress’s Abhishek Banerjee.

Peopled mostly by Muslims and minority community leaders and activists, the other outfit which has been hinted at happens to be Indian Secular Front (ISF) which a single legislator Naushad Siddiqui represents in the state Assembly. The day after Adhikari’s announcement, Siddiqui stated he wants to take on Banerjee at the next year’s Lok Sabha election is a pointer to the fact that Adhikari was not kite flying.

Siddiqui’s words are indeed storm signals for the TMC dispensation. For it indicates that ideologically divergent forces in the Opposition are closing ranks as even PCC chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury has sounded muted support for Siddiqui if he contests from Diamond Harbour.

For once the Trinamool leadership displayed neither contempt nor complacency at words of their political opponents. At a time when allegations of leader of the Opposition Subhendu Adhikari are derided and dismissed, Abhishek’s take on Siddiqui’s words showed no signs of contempt.

For the day after Siddiqui spoke his mind about contesting from Diamond Harbour it’s MP Banerjee addressing a meeting warned his voters of the efforts of communal elements to stir up trouble. Putting up a brave face, Banerjee said that anybody can contest from this constituency and at the same time called upon his supporters to push up his victory margin to 4 lakh votes come 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Apart from pre-election jitters including party supremo and his aunt, Mamata Banerjee asking him whether he would opt for a Rajya Sabha seat, the de facto second in command of TMC had won by a margin of 3.12 lakh votes in 2019 elections. Yet his alacrity in reacting to a legislator of a political party cannot camouflage his concern

If one is intrigued at Banerjee’s alarm at the apprehension of Siddiqui’s “ingress” in Diamond Harbour, the causes for the former’s concern are not unfounded. Siddiqui hails from a family who are custodians of the famous shrine at Furfura Sharif which holds immense influence over Muslims in the rural areas of the state.

Supported by the Congress and Left, Siddiqui won in 2021 assembly poll from Bhangar in South-24-Parganas which had been an epicentre of an agitation over acquisition of land for a power station. His victory which preceded ISF turning into an year old political outfit has been a wakeup call for the Trinamool Congress.

For the Muslims have always voted en masse for the TMC nominees post Nandigram agitation in which the majority of those who were likely to lose their land if a chemical hub came up were from this community. It is Siddiqui’s appeal to the members of his community which is worrying Banerjee and Trinamool.

Though Bhangar Assembly segment is not part of Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, both are part of South-24-Parganas district. According to 2011 Census report, South-24-Parganas is inhabited by 35.57 per cent Muslims. More than 50 per cent voters of Diamond Harbour are Muslims. Even if Abhishek has won twice from this seat, he is not taking any chances the third time.

Siddiqui, according to Trinamool sources have carried out a recce in this riverside Lok Sabha constituency before throwing his hat in the ring. To cut a long story short, he is banking on the Muslim votes.

When the ISF nominee won from Bhangar in the Assembly elections, not a single Congress or Left Front candidate won from any other constituency in the state. It was BJP which emerged as the principal Opposition party and the saffron camp offering it’s support to Siddiqui if he contests from Diamond Harbour indeed conveys grave tiding to the state’s ruling dispensation. Post Assembly polls, the ISF influence showed no signs of being washed away in the panchayat elections. It won a large number of seats in Bhangar.

Opposition game plan seems to be boiling down to Sagardighi model where Left-supported Congress nominee Bayron Biswas with tacit backup from BJP defeated a Trinamool candidate who happened to be related to the party supremo. Incidentally, like Bhangar and Diamond Harbour, Sagardighi happened to be a Muslim majority constituency in Murshidabad.

Two time MP Abhishek’s concern is a reflection of party supremo Mamata Banerjee’s worry at slipping away of Muslim votes from the TMC kitty post Sagardighi electoral reverse. This vote bank have stood by her in 2019 and 2021 elections, spelling electoral success even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah had criss crossed the state campaigning for the saffron camp candidates.

Banerjee has taken several measures to woo the Muslim votes, including changes in the party’s minority cell. Meanwhile, the Diamond Harbour MP has promised several schemes for inhabitants of his constituency and promised the “gifts” would be delivered to the people’s doorsteps by TMC activists.

If finally Siddiqui becomes the ISF candidate he which is in alliance with the Left Front and the Congress is allowed in the state by the high command to ally with the CPI(M) led Left Front and ISF and the BJP supports the ISF candidate from outside, that might be a formidable combination to take on Abhishek Banerjee. The ISF may not win but the margin will certainly come down from more than 3 lakh of 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

But there is a big question. With Mamata Banerjee’s influence on INDIA leadership and Abhishek’s personal rapport with Rahul Gandhi, will Congress allow the state Congress to be a part of a combine that is challenging the member of the coordination committee of INDIA bloc and also being overtly or covertly supported by the BJP. Congress leadership has no liking for ISF which has all the backing of the CPI(M) state secretary Mohammad Selim. For the CPI(M) central leadership also, it will be a delicate issue if the CPI(M) becomes a party to a combine which is being supported by the BJP also.. Only when this issue is solved, the time will come to assess whether Siddiqui will be a real competitor to Abhishek or like 2021 assembly elections, the CPI(M) will lose its face again. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Her acting is a combination of vivacity which gels completely with her natural acting style. This has earned Aparna Sen a place of honour among the greats of Bengali cinema. Here is a heroine turned director whose co-actors have ranged from Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chattopadhyay to Shatrughan Sinha and Amitabh Bachchan (during her brief foray in Hindi filmdom) but unlike many of her more famous peers, she was never overshadowed by her male lead actor. The maverick film actor cum director turned 78 on October 25.

Aparna’s trait came to the fore when in her debut film, the Satyajit Ray trilogy Teen Kanya she essayed the part of a tomboy. Blissfully unaware of her femininity, even as she was gambolling with her pet squirrel while the hero Soumitra Chattopadhyay watched bewitched, there was not an iota of self consciousness in her maiden performance.

And all eyes of the audience cutting across the gender divide was on her. The teenaged girls wanted to be like her while the boys of the same age group nursed the ambition of taking her out for pandal hopping. .

It did not matter to the audience that Chattopadhyay’s presence had taken a back seat beside her. Of course, Ray who never failed to get what he wanted from his protagonists had arranged the script thus, but the fact remains Aparna Dasgupta has arrived.

Whatever be the role, she fitted it to a tee. Remember, Aparna’s cameo in Aranyer Din Ratri in which she acted in the role of Samit Bhanja’s aka Hari love interest.

Setting aside her attention to Hari, a sportsman who hadn reply of a letter in which she had poured her heart out to his beloved sent a “pygmy reply”, she appears to be in her element. Here was an attractive and urbane girl who beneath all her sophistication yearns for emotion even if it is only on paper.

Aparna’s role be it in Jay Jayanti, a not too successful take on Sound of Music opposite Uttam Kumar exuding all the qualities of a male lead, she never yielded ground. On the occasion of her birthday her acting in Basanta Bilap opposite Chattopadhyay leading a bunch of misogynist youths led by Soumitra all of whom turn over a new leaf, readily comes to mind.

Versatility appears to be her middle name. Essaying the role of one who seeks to settle down to domesticity in Aparichita with both Uttam Kumar and Chattopadhyay with a galaxy of character actors, Sen shines bright.

Once accused of not being able to fit in role of a conventional Bengali girl/woman, she silenced her critics for once and for all following her performance in Swet Patharer Thala. Here was Aparna in the role of a loving newly married wife, a heartbroken young widow and a single mother bringing up her son.

Sen did not need a hero in Nilkantha. Enacting the role of a sex worker in an house of ill fame, she poured her heart in a role having found her family members and her rejection by most of them.

Sen, the daughter of eminent film critic Chidananda Dasgupta knows the heart and soul of every woman character she depicted in screen. And never there was a false note in her direction even as Jennifer Kapoor’s heart wrenching portrayal of an Anglo-Indian teacher of English fighting loneliness brilliantly portrayed in her debut film 36, Chowringee Lane. The originality of the theme and the nature of direction showed that she had a long innings ahead.

Walk over to Parama, her film on a bored and attractive housewife of the same name as the title who finds love and discovers herself en route, is one of the boldest statements on screen on Indian womanhood. If it was a lifetime role for RakhiGulzar, the direction elevated Sen to a class of her own.

Sen’s direction and acting in Paromitar Ek Din cements her position as one of the leading film makers of the country. Her performance as a dragon like matriarch of a prosperous joint family who bonds with her beautiful daughter-in-law with a spastic child is unforgettable.

In the end, as Sanaka she seems to be present even in her funeral. Her indomitable spirit seems to have been implanted in Paromita, no longer her daughter in law, having tied the knot with another man and carrying his child in her womb as she journeys to happiness in confident strides. Her other directed films like Mr. and Mrs. Iyer, The Japnese Wife, The Rapist are all marked by hr complete command over storytelling and thematic excellence.

IBe it raising her voice loud and clear against Nandigram atrocities or the insensitivity of a subsequent dispensation, fearlessness and rationality seem to be the driving forces of her character. Aparna Sen has always been in the forefront of any protest movement to draw the attention on attack on democratic rights, be it on the writers, playwright or the peasants. Though brought up in left liberal environment, she has never tied herself to any political party. She has her own distinct view and that are reflected in her films as also in her personal behaviour.

Years may have greyed a few of her locks while a roller coaster personal life earned her the headlines for the wrong reasons. But Sen to this day lives up to the spirit of her landmark film Parama-The Ultimate Woman. (IPA Service)

The post Aparna Sen Is Still Enthralling Bengali Viewers With Issue-Based Cinema first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Time was when Calcutta as it was known then glorified itself in the title of ,”City of Palaces” owing to majestic buildings be it offices or grandees’ mansions dotting it. Lamenting those glorious gone by days when merchant princes from the city ran the economy of the country and beyond stop during the four days of the puja as Kolkata is choc-a-bloc with palaces of cardboard and bamboo built on myriad themes ranging from the Somnath Temple to a story which fetched Ernest Hemingway a Nobel prize.

A battle of themes in which the little grey cells of the organisers working overtime double as artillery pieces and ammunition seek to get the better of neighbourhood competitors as well as those offering worship to the goddess at the other end of the town. Rituals and revelry fade into the background as the strife and suffering in Manipur appear as themes nearer home at Salt Lake FC Block Sarbojanin named “Manipurer Ma”.

Arjunpur Amra Sabai, a club in Baguiati has a 15 feet mud idol sculpted by Bhabatosh Sutar representing Durga is another take on Manipur. So is Kazi Nazrul Islam’s poem “Bidrohi” The Rebel is heard in the background its theme is “Ganadevata’,” the deity of the masses takes a look at the Manipur strife depicting defiance in the face of an adversary.

Badamtala Ashar Sangha off Rashbehari junction has Protirup (The Reflection) as its theme. The pandal is an urban forest made up of eco friendly objects is the brain child of Debatosh Kar, the theme artist.

Briksha Moder Matri Shakti pointing to reverence to trees is the theme of Jadavpur 96 Pally near Sulekha. Its message is an appeal as well as a protest against deforestation. Pujas in a city which has produced Nobel laureates in literature and economics cannot be far away from books. The theme of Bagha Jatin Tarun Sangha is Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea.

Not quite within hailing distance of this community puja but neither very far off it too, Santhoshpur Survey Park community puja pays tribute to Sandip Dutta for setting up the only little magazine library in the city. Little magazines on display at the pandal inaugurated by the widow of this unsung pioneer are a pointer to their thankless service to different facets of literature, culture and other issues while a clay .model of Dutta keeps watch on what were the most precious possessions of his life.

Site of many festivals, the puja at Rani Rashmoni’s Janbazar residence was not being held for three decades. It is being held this year with Ditipriya Roy who essays the role of the legendary queen in a popular television serial expressing her joy at its resumption..

Organising one of the oldest community pujas in the city attended by both Robert Clive and Warren Hastings, rituals are followed in detail at the Sovabazar Rajbari which was in the news for the wrong reasons. Sparks flew nearby when large cutouts of BJP leader J P Nadda scheduled to visit the city were found to be overturned.

Politics is loath to leave pujas especially if it is Nandigram where Trinamool Congress supremo suffered her maiden defeat in Assembly polls in 2021 to her onetime Cabinet colleague Suvendu Adhikari. Adhikari locked horns with TMC spokesman, Kunal Ghosh each challenging the other’s claim on who has inaugurated more pujas.

Governor C V Anand Bose whom controversy has dogged almost since his landing in the city appears to kick off another war of words on Dashami, the Durga immersion day on October 24. He will be awarding Bangaliana Puraskar of Rs 5 lakhs, not stated to be sourced from state coffers, it is being awarded on the basis of highest number of email messages in support of a community puja displaying the traditions of Bengal.

Reverting to themes, it is Prana (life) that is the theme of Hindustan Park Sarbojanin. The pandal is a sawmill look alike with abandoned firewood collected from the city’s outskirts decking up its interiors. Ahiritola Sarbojanin’s theme is Abinashwar (Indestructible); Somnath temple of Gujarat ransacked and destroyed 17 times by invaders. It seeks to depict the unconquerable human spirit. Eco friendliness is the theme of Suruchi Sangha. It lives up to its name.

.Kidderpore Sarbojanin Durgotsav makes no concealment of its opposition to corporate advertisements. Their pandal is decked by a 1500 m cotton banner. Food and water crisis is the theme of Patuli Sarbojanin Durgotsav. Sound effects and paintings within the pandal seek to make the people aware of the scourge of draught.

Here is news for any one seeking to refresh his/her memory about the advertisement “Size matters”. An half inch idol is being worshipped at Gobardanga Bhattacharyapara Sarbojanin Durgotsav at North 24 Parganas. As if to strike a balance, a fibre-made idol of Gobardanga Milan Sangha is 50 feet high. The goddess and her entourage are being worshipped in a Jain Mandir look alike pandal at Park Circus maidan. Uma Amader Gharer Meye is the theme of Haltu Shakti Sangha.

Among all the puja pandals with varying themes, the Hatibagan Puja’s theme on Abol Tabol and its writer Sukumar Ray is under discussion among the pandal hoppers and the literary circles. The nonsense rhymes of Sukumar have been regaling the generations of Bengalis for the last one hundred years. The puja pandal copied the house where Sukumar, the father of legendary Satyajit Ray was born and his rhymes were painted on the walls of the houses leading to the pandal. It was a unique idea on the centenary of the death of Sukumar Ray.

Bengalis lack money power, joblessness still haunts thousands of youth both educated and unskilled. But on these days of puja festival, their innovative instincts reach its peak and irrespective of caste, creed, religion and status, citizens join in a festival which surpasses its religious rooting and turns into the biggest socio-cultural phenomenon of the state. It is significant that few incidents take place during these days when millions of people are in the streets in Kolkata and the districts. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Come late September and October, kash flowers are in bloom in parts of Maidan in Kolkata together with a few more spots in the city yet to be invaded by concrete jungle heralding the arrival of the biggest festival of West Bengal – Durga Puja. Yet the fact remains preparations for the puja continue all the year round in the clubs holding community pujas.

These pujas, once known as barwari pujas meaning a culmination of the effort of 12 friends to hold a puja involving all the residents of the locality. But barwari pujas exist only in name these days; senior political leaders having emerged to be the driving forces of these pujas have reduced them to one-man shows.

Time was when leading lights of Bengal politics used to be associated with community pujas to strike roots among the populace and inculcate nationalistic feelings. Long before being dubbed Netaji, Subhas Chandra Bose was one of the chief patrons of Simla Byam Samity in north Calcutta.

After having parted company with Congress and floating Forward Bloc, Bose did not quite lose his popularity base especially in south Kolkata where he lived. A puja organised by Forward Club is still going strong not too far from the residence of chief minister, Mamata Banerjee.

Incidentally, one of her siblings is a key organiser in it, a pointer to the ongoing trend of associating politically influential persons with community pujas. It is not that their political importance which adds an extra sheen and shine to a puja but the moolah that the name brings in terms of door to door subscription and corporate advertisement in the puja souvenirs and placards which are part and parcel of a beautiful pandal housing the goddess and her entourage.

The trend of politicians actively associating themselves with pujas for name, fame and more can arguably be traced to the ’70s in Kolkata. It started after Ballygunge MLA Subrata Mukherjee then the youngest minister in Siddhartha Sankar Ray’s Cabinet associated himself with Ekdalia Evergreen Club off Gariahat in south Kolkata.

He was the prime mover of this community puja which he took to great heights. Even as other puja organizers burnt the midnight oil to think of themes ranging from Kuwait war or some such headline news, it was Mukherjee’s proud contention that his puja had nothing to do with themes but followed rituals and rites of worship of the goddess as per the book.

Another Congress stalwart, Somen Mitra too was associated with the community puja at College Square off Calcutta University’s College Street campus, though his involvement was not as thick as that of Mukherjee. The name of Priya Ranjan Das Munshi crops up almost automatically with the two other Youth Congress leaders spearheading the party’s revival after its split.

Das Munshi brought out Dakshinee Barta magazine on the eve of the pujas. Replete with advertisements and write-ups of the leading authors it underscored his cultural credentials which set him apart from other members of the party.

The trio is no more. But their pujas espousing traditional values continue to burn bright till this day. Pujas were not quite the event which Left Front leaders felt comfortable to be associated with. Though stalls selling “party literature” were set up in different puja pandals by CPI(M), its agonistic ideology did not quite gel with religion, though Subhas Chakraborty was an exception.

A mass leader, who never lost his following in life and death and had a legion of admirers in the political parties opposed to him, Chakraborty was a frequent and welcome visitor to many puja pandals. The community puja at Sreebhumi organized by his lieutenant Sujit Bose, enjoyed Chakraborty’s blessings.

Bose is now a minister in the Trinamool Congress Cabinet headed by Mamata Banerjee. His puja continues to be one of the biggest crowd pullers owing to the uniqueness of the theme of its pandals every year.

Community pujas literally took a giant leap forward after Trinamool Congress replaced Left Front as the ruling dispensation in the state. Let alone Kalighat Milan Sangha off the chief minister’s humble tiled home in Harish Chatterjee Street who states boldly in a placard that she is its chief patron, many a member in her Cabinet organise pujas which have gone a long way in securing the worship of the goddess in Kolkata secure a heritage tag from UNESCO.

There is Ajeya Sanhati organised by Partha Chatterjee, education minister and TMC secretary general now marking time behind the bars at Presidency Correctional Home for his alleged involvement in cash for teaching jobs scam. But this puja in Naktala, once a southern suburb of the city and now a booming locality will celebrate puja with the usual pomp and paegantry.

It is scheduled to have a visitor from Brazil, the ace footballer Ronaldinho. It is indeed a coup on part of this club to get this august visitor who is also scheduled to call on the chief minister and present her with a jersey he dons.

Suruchi Sangha puja in New Alipore is organised by state power minister, Arup Biswas. This puja is a by-, word in innovativeness and taste as is underscored by the number of prizes it wins every year. Chetla Agrani’s puja at Chetla, not far from the CM’s residence, is organised by city mayor Firad (Bobby) Hakim and stands out among all the pujas as the eyes of the idol are drawn every year by Mamata Banerjee.

She is known to lend her hand in making the bhog, the offering of cooked food to the goddess in this puja. When a portion of Majherhat bridge collapsed a few years ago threatening a major drop in the foot fall in Biswas and Hakim’s pujas, the state government set up a Bailey bridge to facilitate the passage of pandal hoppers.

Themes abound in the city puja range between women’s menstruation at Pathuriaghata Pancher Palli Sarbojanin Durgotsab in north Kolkata to acid attack victims at SamajSebi in south Kolkata to name a few.

Chetla Agrani focusses on class division and social struggle in its theme Je Jekhane Dariye. Abol Tabol the title of Sukumar Roy’s evergreen book of nonsense rhyme is the theme of Hatibagan Nabin Palli.

Some pujas centre around religion and Kedarnath temple is the theme of the community puja at Md Ali Park in central Kolkata. Ram Mandir of Ayodhya is the theme of a puja at Nebutala Park which is scheduled to be inaugurated by Union home minister, Amit Shah. BJP president J P Nadda who can speak Bengali, will be in the city also to inaugurate a puja.

Surrogate mother and saving the girl child form the themes of Shyambazar Palli Sangha and Sovabazar Burtola Sangha respectively. Kolkata being a foodie’s haven, phuchka being the theme of Behala Natun Dal raises no eye brows.

If Tin Chakar Galpo, the auto rickshaw story is the theme of Hazra Park Durgotsav, a stone’s throw away from it Yuba Moitri focus is on hand pulled rickshaw and it’s neglect. It may be recalled it was Balraj Sahni essaying the role of a peasant who on losing his land becomes rickshaw puller in the big city, had shot some of the scenes of Do Bigha Zameen not too far off this community puja.

Chaina hote Uma is the theme of Kashi Bose Lane puja committee. It highlights child trafficking. Bhatkapar, a take on the domestic help is the theme of Behala Nutan Dal.

Time was when a paint company was the sole giver of best puja prizes. There has been a major change of scene especially with emergence and proliferation of television news organisations and print media making prizes galore these days

Of course, some of the recipients of the prizes have already been decided and there are no prizes for guessing. But even amidst this unequal contest and competition where some are more equal than others, quite a few of the deserving community pujas will carry away the honours they deserve so richly.

There are some pre-puja takeaways too with the TMC state government giving a sum of Rs 70,000 to every community puja. Not to be outdone, the principal Opposition party in the state, BJP is not lagging behind though it’s recipients are only 500 community pujas and its offering going up to one lakh rupees. BJP is far behind TMC in organizing the number of pujas, though the party clams to be Hindu centric. It is apparent that during this period of festival in Bengal starting from Mahalaya on October 14 to Dassami on October 24, the TMC is the dominating the cultural life in Bengal with BJP trying its best to perform as distant second.

Chief Minister is the brain behind organizing the puja carnival on October 27 when all the major durga idols will pass through Red Road attended by the CM and the other VIPs in a spectacle that few Kolkatans afford to miss. The white kurta draped men along with the women with red bordered sarees proceeding in rows along with the tribal men and women with dhols portray a scene of religious and social harmony. The puja festival organisers belong to all social classes ranging from a CEO and a successful businessman at a salt Lake puja to a auto driver in a locality in Garia. There are many pujas which are organized by only women. One puja organized by women this year had made a muslim girl for kumari puja defying the sanatan dharma tradition of restricting pujas to only Hindus..

For the coming four puja days, Bengal with its towns and villages as also Kolkata will be witnessing puja pandals hopping by millions including people of all provinces and religions who will be mesmerized by the variety of the themes of the pandals and the making of the idols and compare who is the best. The shop owners and the street vendors will have a field day during puja days as their sales reach the peak. The Durga pujas in Bengal benefit the state’s economy. One estimate is that in 2022, the puja economy totalled Rs. 32,000 crore. The amount will be much more in 2023 as there are no covid restrictions. While the common people will be busy in enjoying the pujas, the political leaders of the TMC and the BJP will start weighing how much mileage they get from the festival five month before the crucial Lok Sabha elections. (IPA Service)

The post Trinamool Congress Is Getting Maximum Political Mileage From Puja Festival In Bengal first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

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By Tirthankar Mitra

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is on a mission to rebrand the Conservative Party. Time is running out for him in his bid to reach this goal as the elections are due in January 2025 in Great Britain. But there are shadows of doubt over the Tories electoral prospects. The Conservative Party is at a crossroads. Sunak wants to project his image as a decisive decision maker. The decisions, he feels, will be the catalysts of change.

Arguably, aiming at fiscal responsibility, Sunak announced the cancellation of a high-speed railway connection to the city of Manchester. Incidentally, it was at this city during Conservative Party’s annual conference came the cancellation announcement.

Vote banks and pocket boroughs are seriously nursed and electoral dividends are eagerly looked up to from them, come elections. Sunak’s decision has infuriated local people, businesses and political leaders cutting across the ideological divide as one and all would have used high speed railway connection once the trains started rolling.

Recent opinion polls point out that Labour are ahead of the Tories. Neither does Sunak’s decision improve matters for his party, nor is it is a bright spot on his political acumen. For there are already signs of shifting sand below Sunak’s feet in the Conservative Party. It seems his partymen are not convinced that the call for change is accompanied by concrete policies addressing pressing issues such as healthcare and a cost of living which seems to be ever increasing.

Reverting to the “shifting sands in Sunak’s support base” was a standout moment when the crowd at the Manchester conference gave a rapturous welcome to his predecessor Liz Struss on her arrival at the Manchester conference. Struss had put in her papers after only 49 days in office.

Market concerns about her debt heavy economic plans may have hastened her departure. But the cheers greeting her arrival at the Manchester conference indicate undertones of intricate intra-party dynamics.

The conference was marked by the attendance of pro-Brexit campaigner, Nigel Farage. He might have led a rival party which eroded support from the Tories and yet he was given a warm welcome thickening the complexity of the situation.

Sunak is on a sticky wicket. And he is aware of it. The British Prime Minister has a tightrope walk ahead of him. He has to be an all-weather man for his partymen and women. Sunak has to retain support from the right wing faction of his party. In doing so, he cannot afford to alienate the centrist voters.

Current opinion polls show that the Labour is leading. But one will do well to remember that political climate shift swiftly. General elections in Great Britain in 2015 and 2017 are pointers to it. The vote for Brexit in 2016 is another case in point.

Moreover, Tories have a track record of proving opinion polls wrong. There is no reason why they cannot do it again. Immigration and tax cuts are issues resonating with core Tory supporters. But more than a focus on conventional issues is called for to win the next elections.

There are voters who are still undecided in their choice of candidates. Immigration and healthcare are at the top of their concerns. And electoral success or reverse will centre round Sunak’s performance on these issues. Fiscal responsibility has to meld with social compassion in the Tories’ message to the voters.

It is a precarious path demanding astute political acumen on part of Sunak and the leading lights of Tories. The odds against the Tories can only be defied by effectively communicating their vision and addressing the tangible concerns of the voters. It may sound to be an uphill task. But the peak to be reached after the toil and trouble is worth it. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Size matters, so do strength. But it was something more than these physical attributes which helped Soumendu Roy, the most appreciated film cameraman after Subrata Mitra, having carried a heavy Mitchell camera on his shoulders and run in the sets of Pather Panchali cameraman of Bengali films as a cinematographer in twenty one Satyajit Ray films.The legendary cameraman of Bengali films passed away on September 27 in Kolkata. He was 90.

He was looking after the upkeep of an expensive camera on behalf of Technician’s Studio in the sets of Ray’s debut film’ Pather Panchali’ through which Roy started learning the art and craft of a film maker. He was assisting Ray’s principal cinematographer Subrata Mitra.

Soumendu Roy’s internship with Mitra continued till Satyajit Ray’s much acclaimed film Devi. It was a period of invaluable learning for the younger man. Roy never made any secret that a gift of a Baby Brownie camera first sparked his love for photography. One wonders whether the person who made this gift came to know the heights the recipient later scaled.

Small wonder, an impatient Satyajit Ray not a man to put up with any lackadaisical effort on part of any of his unit members during a shoot stopped short of putting Soumendu in his place when the latter insisted on taking his time to arrange lighting for a scene and expressed his feelings about the maestro’s restiveness over a delay.

A street scene of Jana Aranya was being shot when the onesided exchange occurred. And it was just an occasion when one perfectionist easily recognised another. Occasionally during his career, Soumendu had been asked about his utility as the cinematographer in Satyajit Ray’s films. After all, the maestro was known to be skilled in every aspect of film making.

The contention, even if it has a grain of truth in it cannot be substantiated at all. Ray was in the habit of explaining to the protagonists of his film in detail about the venture they were to embark into. It did not exclude Soumendu to whom the maestro stated in detail the intensity of light he sought for the scenes. Both the director and cinematographer were aware that it was far beyond an average lensman’s ability to understand the instructions imparted nuances and all and put them into practice when the cameras started rolling.

The mood of the .men, women or a child on the frame had to be caught right. Any deviation would be a blot on the film and the reputation of its maker not known the world over to deviate from the high standard he set for himself.

In Soumendu Roy were all the qualities which Ray sought in his cinematographer. The maestro was never let down. The street scene of Jana Aranya apart, Roy displayed his skills in the film Sonar Kella in the scene at its end when little Mukul who off and on recalls his previous birth in a Rajasthan village amidst sand, camels and sparkling stones runs about in an abandoned castle in Jaisalmer in search of his long lost friends with the villain in tow.

It was no easy shot subdivided that it was in several parts. Shot in natural light of the morning, Soumendu made it look like a cakewalk to the viewers. Asani Sanket a film on the Great Bengal Famine of 1943 posed a challenge to Soumendu Roy. But it turned out to be another feather in his hat.

Looking back in wonder one finds Soumendu fully associating himself with the maestro from the documentary film on Rabindranath Tagore on his birth centenary. Together with it, Ray had in mind making a feature film clubbing three short stories of Tagore titled Teen Kanya. Though Mitra was to be its cinematographer, he opted out owing to some eye problems. Soumendu stepped in his place marking the beginning of a long and illustrious journey of light and shade.

Working in Ray’s first film in colour, Kanchenjungha was a trial by fire for Soumendu Roy. But he rose to the occasion even if it was no easy task for him to depict through his lens the loneliness of a principal protagonist, a titled gent of the British era enacted by Chhabi Biswas recalling the glories of a dead epoch even as his wife and children find themselves busy deciphering their lives problems enveloped in a Darjeeling fog.

Soumendu Roy’s association with the maestro continued till the latter’s film Ghare Baire, a Tagore novel. But the fact remains that he had given ample evidence of his skills in the sets of films of such hard task masters as Tarun Majumdar and Tapan Sinha, no mean directors themselves. Soumendu Roy’s works with Majumdar are Palatak and Alor Pipasa. He was behind the camera in Sinha’s Wheelchair and Ek Daktor Ki Maut.

In the words of Soumendu Roy, the shots that Sinha directed to be shot had a certain simplicity to it. There was a commercial angle to Majumdar’s films, according to him. Asked what he learnt from his years with Ray, pat came the reply “The language of cinema.” A baritone voice saying “Yes” would have come from the country’s sole Oscar award winner had he been around. With Soumendu Ray’s death and earlier by Subrata Mitra, Satyajit Ray’s two great cinematographers are gone. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

A self effacing man with a deep commitment to egalitarianism who worked as a welding apprentice in Indian Railways, Shailendra would have been just another man in a crowd whose birth and passing do not deserve a mention had he not given vent to his penchant for poetry which Hindi screen legends lipped in songs on screen. As his centenary year passed by this week, one recalls there was no turning back for the man from Mathura whose lyrics enveloped profoundity in simplicity post his journey to the city of gold -Bombay.

“Sajan re jhooth mat bolo; khuda ke paas hai hai, Cahan na hathi hai na ghoda hai; Vahan paidal hi jaana hai…” This song lipped by Raj Kapoor in Shailendra’s maiden production venture Teesri Kasam is a summary of the peerless philosophy of life of the author of these lines.

Many more songs like this set to tune with Shailendra’s lyrics continues to be hummed to this day. They were the words for all occasions be it joy or sorrow, desolation or jubilation. Small wonder, they were hit songs which are much in demand even now among the young and old. For they often bask in the limelight in soirees and of course musical shows on the small screen removing the sepia tint which otherwise would have wrapped them.

Soulful words of Shailendra fitted the tunes of Shankar Jaikishan, Sachin Dev Burman, Naushad and Salil Chowdhury to a tee. It was usually the inimitable voice of Mukesh or Lata Mangeshkar which Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna not to forget Vyjjayantimala and Padmini lipped on the silver screen.

Simple, soulful and profound, these songs had something in common. They were all hits. Shailendra was not quite comfortable with his surname. It was a pointer to his caste which did not quite place him and his own high on social pecking order.

But the numbers flowing out of his pen being hits ensured Shailendra’s way to any high table in Bombay and beyond. After all, call it by any name, in the city of dreams beside the Arabian Sea, success or the lack of it is the final arbiter of being around.

Shailendra was to be made aware of this harsh reality. Accustomed to be feted for the success of the films whose songs he had penned, the lack of box office acceptance of a film he was closely associated with, hastened his passing.

Be it Barsaat (1949), Awara (1951), Shree 420 (1955), Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai. (1960), Yahoodi (1958), Parakh (1960), Guide (1965), Jewel Thief (1967) and Anand (1971) to name a few, were all running commercial success having songs penned by Shailendra. But the man who left Rawalpindi to make his home in a truncated India could not reconcile himself with box office failure of Teesri Kasam, the only film he had produced.

Shailendra took to the bottle and journeyed to the land of the shadows soon thereafter. It is a pity that soon after he breathed his last, Teesri Kasam directed by his old friend Basu Bhattacharya won a national award and was hailed as a masterpiece in celluloid.

Armed with his belief in social justice, Shailendra joined Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) and continued to nurture his ideology throughout his life. His uncomplicated thought which he put in similar words endeared him to the masses.

It needs to be kept in mind, when Shailendra was penning his songs, creative juices of writers like Sahir Ludhianvi, Majrooh Sultanpuri, Hasrat Jaipuri, Kaifi Azmi and Jan Nissar Akhtar were in full flow. Dubbed Pushkin and Kaviraj by Raj Kapoor who came across him at an IPTA event where Shailendra recited “Jalta Hai Punjab” in the backdrop of the Partition violence, Shailendra was always a favourite of Raj Kapoor.

It is interesting to learn that Shailendra refused Kapoor’s offer to write for the film Aag thinking it would be a watering down of his ideological belief to write for commercial cinema. But pecuniary considerations made him change his mind and he wrote for Kapoor’s film Barsaat (1949) and the rest is history.

Under Kapoor’s baton, Shailendra’s lines set to Shankar-Jaikishan’s subtle tune and Mukesh’s earthy voice made a generation of film goers ask for more. In a career spanning 17 years which included 900 songs, he delved into hope, love, poverty, irony and female emancipation amalgamating Hindi and Urdu with a smattering of folk which had his heart written all over.

The words of the songs he penned spoke of hope, despair, life and longing. The common man felt it was his feelings the songs were speaking of as they were sans any adornment unearthed from the heart of the masses. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Time was when Cuttack was a city in Odisha whose resident’s footprints in the Indian literary scene were nothing home to write about. One of its residents, Jayanta Mahapatra, an Indian poet writing in English changed the notion and more.

To say that Mahapatra’s passing at the age of 95 in Cuttack on August 27 left the Indi literary scene poorer would be a cliche. Long before he was awarded Sahitya Akademi Award and was conferred a fellowship of the Akademi, he had emerged as a leading writer in English language.

It was a venue where only a handful of Indian poets had ventured at that time. Sarojini Naidu, A K Ramanujan, Nissim Ezekiel and Kamala Suriaaya are among those who have achieved this honourable distinction.

It was a cultural leap in a newly independent country from the shackles of a race who spoke in English, exploiting Indian land and labour to serve the ends of capital of an alien race. To continue to write in English about the heart and soul of India could have been construed as something unpatriotic.

That would have been harmful for the person and poetry of Mahapatra. But it was a different time and dispensation when ideas and ideologies freely flourished. The ’60s heralded a churn. Far away from Cuttack where Mahapatra lived and wrote, the scene of action of English writing in India had shifted to Bombay.

The boom town had not changed its name and soul. The likes of Nissim Ezekiel, Arvind Krishna Merhotra, R Parthadarsthi, Dom Moraes and Adil Jussawala were helming Bombay Poets and experimenting with literature in English.

A language of cosmopolitanism was evolving. If many Bombays came out of the penmanship of these helmsmen, Mahapatra, a worthy peer had something else to offer. His lines encapsulated loss and longing of individuals, impoverishment and despair of plagued people living in the heat and dust of the small towns of India.Mahapatra had captured the play of light and shade that in turn lit up and darkened the large landscape of Indian provincial life.

Critical and affectionate, Mahapatra’s gaze swept the entire Indian national scenes. It’s frailities and flowers came out in his lines warts and all. Old windows and dying men found place of honour in his poetry. So did obstinate prayers and a desire for freedom.

If Mahapatra did not care to carry his ideology in his sleeves, it was a quality which had not gone to sleep. His poetry was imbued with a ruminative political consciousness. It manifested itself in 2015 when Mahapatra returned his Padmasree Award. His act was in protest against the rising intolerance in his country.

Tolerance and humanism lay at the deep core of Mahapatra’s consciousness. He gave vent to his conscious writing poetry in English in which the patriot with the pen manifested himself. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Much water has flown down Hwang Ho river since the July day of 1971 when US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger visited China and met People’s Republic of China’s first Premier Zhou Enlai to broker an understanding between two ideologically incompatible nations which would irrevocably change the economy behind the Bamboo Curtain in the decades to come. In this backdrop, the recent curbs on technological investments in China by US marks a low in Sino-US relations.

If the US Secretary of State was on a secret visit, PRC’s giant economic strides taken thereafter was there for all the world to see. It was in US’s interests to make China into an economic super power.

China’s military prowess has indeed taken a giant leap forward together with its economy. It is no longer in US interests to let China’s martial muscle to grow any further especially if it was funded by investments from American firms.

The curbs in key technological sectors are aimed to reduce American concern about military advancements of China straining the bilateral relations. Unlikely to cry over split milk, efforts of leaders of the “Middle Kingdom” would be pivoted towards securing funding from other regions.

These likely sources of technological investments include domestic sources, European investors and alternative financing methods. While overall trajectory towards recovery of relations between the two nations won’t be affected, the curb signals increasing scrutiny and control over technological investments in China.

For it emphasizes risk reduction rather than complete de-coupling. Though the executive order of President Joe Biden aligns with the broader concern of safeguarding sensitive technology and intellectual property, one cannot rule out apprehension of exacerbating diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

But the curbs do not leave China short of options as its domestic economic system is growing. There are international investors interested in the Chinese technological companies.

Chinese semi conductor, quantum computing and artificial intelligence companies have certainly benefitted from US technology. But the curbs do not mark an end of the world to them as American venture capital and private equity investment are not the sole source of funding to these buoyant companies.

It seems a diversification of investment channels for Chinese technology companies is already in the cards. But “Cathay” as Marco Polo, the famous explorer who familiarised China to Europe referred to it has to put internal sources of finance as the first-go -to investors in its hour of need.

The US executive order may prompt other countries to have second thoughts about investing in China lest they rub America the wrong way. Such stepping back would have broader re-evaluation on global technological collaboration and supply chains.

All eyes would be on China to see how it responds and adapts. For the impact of the order is not unlikely on future trade negotiations between US and China.

One wonders whether President Biden before issuing his executive order had thought how it could be a rallying point of Chinese efforts to achieve self- sufficiency in critical technological areas. Given the Chinese penchant to fend for themselves, this order would stimulate further domestic research and development.

All regional players, including India which is enjoying closer ties with US than ever before should draw lessons from this situation. For it has potential for repercussions spanning diplomacy, technology, investment and global trade.

The American apprehension is based on the impact of state of the art Chinese technological firms can pose to US national interest. Given the unfruitful American search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Uncle Sam’s misgiving has to be taken with a substantial pinch of salt. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Manipur is passing through the worst of times. The border state in one of the hinges of India’s North East needs special treatment from the centre. Bordering Myanmar, after having witnessed one of the bloodiest battles of freedom struggle where Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose led Indian National Army fought with British forces, Manipuris had shunned violence for years and walked the path of normalcy. A few sporadic incidents occurred but militancy was rebuffed till in a camouflaged form, it found sum and substance in the attacks of communities living side by side like brothers over the ages.

The state has about 3.3 million people living in it. Of these 53 per cent belongs to the ethnic Meiteis far outnumbering Kukis and Nagas. State government of Manipur cannot wash its hands off the violence and arson made worse by crimes against women and displacement of children. The violence has been fuelled by weapons looted from the armouries of police, Manipur Rifles and IRB battalions.

Even before the smoke of the burning huts have cleared and vigilante parties continue to roam the state, questions arise as to why the loot was allowed to happen. After all, state forces’ armouries stocking arms and ammunition for upkeep of law and order are not guns slung on the walls of a householder to be taken down in self defence.

Usually these arms depots are heavily guarded. . The wonders never cease as to why no incidents of firing by those guarding the armouries, even in self defence are yet to be reported. One is in the dark about the action taken against those who surrendered to the mob.

The situation warrants that the responsibilities on the police, intelligence agencies and civil administration have to be fixed. No pick and choose approach can restore normalcy.

Thankfully the Supreme Court has directed former Maharashtra DGP DattatrayPadsalgikar who is functioning on the apex court’s order to “investigate the allegation that certain police officers colluded with the perpetrators of violence (including sexual violence) during the conflict.” The nation needs to know whether the acts of abject surrender to a mob was further tainted by the complicity of some of the men in uniform.

Not even baby steps have been taken to kick start the peace process. In this grim and grave situation, the daily death toll is merely “total number of lives lost.”Men are being murdered, women raped and molested and every day in relief camps is one of dismay and the nights are sleepless. Meanwhile, the state which provides pivotal stability to ASEAN forays continues to be in flames.

Mere appeal to surrender the weapons looted and used in ethnic conflict will be cries in the wilderness. A weaponised society, being a sure recipe for disaster, concerted operations have to be launched to recover the arms and incentives offered to those surrendering them voluntarily. The perpetrators of violence need to be put behind the bars sans any regard to community or socio-political group. This has to be done with alacrity.

The ruling dispensation has to reach out to all political players, youth and civil society groups and take them on board to explore the path to the peace process. A strong commitment to restore peace and a shared perspective will go a long way in this regard.

The discussion on a no-confidence motion in the Parliament this week gave no real assurance to the suffering people of Manipur as the assurances by the Prime Minister and the Home Minister, are yet to reach the ground. . This is time for concrete action and just not lip services. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

In the aftermath of Wagner rebellion Sino-Russian relations is not what it used to be earlier.. It was a “bromance” between two most powerful authoritarians, President Xi Jingping of China and President Vladimir Putin of Russia and the uprising was the most significant to the latter’s authority in the past two decades.

In terms of real politic, Mr Jinping’s big bet on Mr Putin is not looking so safe. The challenge to the Russian President’s authority hitherto unquestioned, faced a challenge from the Wagner affair.

Russian war effort in Ukraine is crumbling. Ukrainian sappers contention that Russians have strewn the path of their opponents’ counter offensive to slow it down tells a story of a turn in the tide.

Russian Federation no longer enjoys a position of strength it once occupied in its negotiations with the People’s Republic of China. Xi-Putin bromance had peaked in the year of Ukraine war, it seems a slump is round the corner.

Given PRC’s not too distant past foreign policy trends, Russia is considered to be a weakened, unpredictable nuclear state in China’s border. It’s leader’s grip on power is not firm.

In this scenario, the Chinese Communist Party is advocating a broader international alliance. It is at this juncture where India can make its presence felt provided China settles several Sino-Indian disputes which are pending. There can not be one time settlement but at least, the process can be cordial.

India can act as a honest broker in China’s greater engagement with the West. The presence of India can go a long way in dissolving the disbelief which many countries in the West harbour about the country behind the Bamboo Curtain.

India interceding on PRC’s behalf setting aside Doklam and other disputes will add much needed crediblity to China’s endeavour for a wider acceptance in the West. Delhi not abandoning it’s closer ties with Washington will add heft to its effort to further China’s better ties with the West as India’s standing with US matters..

The ball is clearly in China’s court As a first step to initiate closer ties with India, it is for Beijing to decide whether it will continue to pour good money in a basket case of Pakistan. India is rising. No longer can China afford to ignore it.

It is time for both countries to cut down geo-strategic rivalry. It is a time for engagement.

China’s steps to cut down long-standing Sino-Indian disputes has to be given a big dose of reality and reasonableness. A forecast of what India stands to gain from its endeavour in helping China attain a better footing with the West is in order.

A settlement of border disputes will help India what economists term as “space to grow”. Such a situation is not to be sneezed at.

Unlike the “halycon days” of Panchsheel, India needs to keep its strategic interests paramount as it engages with China. It can no longer afford to be caught napping thereby allowing a cross-border intrusion or failing to respond to an overture from China.(IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

KOLKATA: Having flexed all its organisational muscles in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, BJP secured 18 MPs from West Bengal; with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister, Amit Shah making almost daily trips to the state before 2021 Assembly elections, the saffron camp had 77 victorious legislators. Falling far short of the number of legislators to send Trinamool Congress state government packing, it is back to invocation of Hindutva, gods and godesses to fuel its Lok Sabha campaign next year with Shah asking state BJP leadership to secure 36 parliamentary seats from this bastion of Trinamool Congress.

After having been sharply reprimanded by its national leadership for finishing second to TMC in the recently concluded rural polls, the BJP has decided to rope in the divine to it’s aid. If launching marches in support to build a house of a god in Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh fetched it nationwide electoral triumph, the saffron camp think tank sees no reason as to why West Bengal populace’s enthusiasm and devotion to Durga cannot be translated to votes for BJP in next year’s election.

Come Mahalaya day, a harbinger of West Bengal’s biggest festival Durga puja, a group of senior BJP leaders will descend on the state to kick-start the saffron party’s 2024 Lok Sabha election campaign. They will not take part in rallies, they will instead spend their time in the Durga Pujas organised by the local BJP workers.. After Ram, Durga bandana will be the focal point of the BJP campaign to win the heart of the Bengal’s voters in 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

But before that, several BJP leaders will witness offering worship to Ram in the state. Their game plan to worship both the deities is to channelise the devotion of the populace towards the divine duo to persuade the voters to exercise their franchise for the political party championing Hindutva.

With the Ram temple scheduled to be inaugurated in January next year in Ayodhya, the worship of the warrior king who has been elevated to the ranks of gods will follow the celebration of Durga Puja. In October this year.’ Whatever criticism may an atheist Left and and TMC may hurl at us, the fact remains that Lord Ram used to be the family deity of Gadadhar Chattopadhayay who is better known as Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa,, former state BJP chief Rahul Sinha said

But it will have to be a low key affair. The clutch of BJP leaders in West Bengal will find themselves being watched over by men in mufti and uniform even as the former get busy in worshipping Ram at sync with the national programme of Ram temple inauguration next year,.

Violence having broken out after taking out Ram Navami processions in the state earlier, the state law enforcement agencies will see to it that the celebrations around pujas do not ignite communal violence. Whipping up religious sentiments thereafter to be channelised into ballot boxes is the last thing TMC dispensation can afford before the crucial Lok. Sabha polls.

Four chariots or rathas will be taken out by the Bengal BJP leaders in as many parts of the state. The journeys dubbed “Sourja Jagran Yatra”s will be carefully watched over by state security agencies lest they set on fire the fuse of communal sentiments.

The apprehensions are not baseless as some BJP functionaries indicated no efforts to dim the glitter of the progress of the rathas will be tolerated. The routes along which these vehicles will pass through is not yet known but given the experience of earlier journeys of Ram rathas through mixed population areas and it’s communal fallout, the authorities are keeping their fingers crossed.

The fact is that the BJP workers will be holding more Durga Pujas this year as part of their poll campaign. There in lies the apprehension of violence. For hackles will be raised at local level as these pujas will be in competition with community pujas mostly enjoying TMC leaders patronage.

The BJP leadership will find it hard to accept what it’s participation in pujas amounts to. It is a pointer that even while running a government at the Centre under a Constitution which goes by secularism, the ruling of the centre party is flouting it, state agriculture and parliamentary affairs minister, Sovandeb Chattopadhayay said. .

What about BJP’s participation in religious festivals of other communities, the veteran leader asked. It is zero, he said.

Apart from its communal character, an ulterior motive comes to light from BJP’s sudden zeal in participation in Durga Puja worships in which it had once taken no interest, said Chattopadhayay. A sudden spurt in devotion of BJP leaders to Ram and Durga boils down to the fact that it is seeking divine intervention in its favour having conceded it’s defeat to Trinamool Congress organisation coupled with the charisma of its supremo Mamata Banerjee which has proved to be more than a match than the Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself .

Unapologetic about his party’s plans to mix religion and politics, Sinha accused TMC being the first to do the same in the state. Does not chief minister Mamata Banerjee does pandal hopping and inaugurate community pujas passing it off as mass contact exercise, he asked.

A raft of ministers of the state Cabinet like Firad Hakin and Arup Biswas are driving forces of big ticket community pujas in the city, Sinha said. Even the CPI(M) sets up book stalls at puja pandals, he points out.

But Sinha is missing the wood for the trees. The chief minister and some of her Cabinet members are involved in community pujas years before they had attained their present official stature.

The BJP’s endeavour to organise pujas is more of a knee jerk reaction to get votes than a spontaneous effort. It goes against the spirit of the biggest festival of the state which draws all residents to the puja irrespective of of caste and creed, a trait BJP organised pujas are unlikely to display.(IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

KOLKATA: Congress national leadership has a tough task ahead of it to make some of its West Bengal unit leaders cooperate with Trinamool Congress in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Given earlier intra-party differences coupled with panchayat election clashes, the bonhomie between Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee and former Congress chiefs Sonia and Rahul Gandhi at the Opposition meet at Bengaluru is yet to percolate to several state Congress leaders.

The INDIA (Indian National Devlopment Inclusive Alliance) Opposition alliance formation has led to confusion and contradiction among some of the Congress state unit leaders. While some of the leaders feel that the travails of the rank and file havebeen bulldozed to cobble together the alliance, there are others who feel that ruffled feathers can be smoothed out.

Not quite opposing the alliance, state unit Chief Adhir Ranjan Choudhury felt with the groundswell of nationwide support for Congress after Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, it is Trinamool which needs Congress more now. He took this occasion to remind the party rank and file that Mamata Banerjee came to power in 2011 with Congress help and yet she denied it.

Given the prevailing condition in the state, the people are disillusioned with TMC regime, the state Congress chief felt. In so many words, he made it clear that TMC should tow the Congress’s line in the newly formed alliance.

Not quite echoing Choudhury, another Congress leader Koustav Bagchi felt that the party leaders would find it hard to explain the rationale behind sharing a common Opposition platform with Trinamool Congress. How do we explain our joining an alliance with TMC especially to those who have lost their relations in rural poll clashes allegedly with TMC workers, he asked.

State issues cannot be road blocks in the path of formation of a National Opposition to BJP for 2024 elections, former state party unit chief, Pradip Bhattacharya said. One of the architects of the Congress-TMC poll alliance in 2011, the veteran leader felt thatit may take some time to iron out intra-, party differences but it is not a goal beyond the capacity of the leaders of the respective parties.

After all, an alliance had been worked out between the Left and Congress in 2016 Assembly elections. Both the parties had been considered to be old political opponents and had yet sunk their differences, Bhattacharya said.

The quandary in the state Congress over its coexistence with TMC in INDIA is out in the open. Sparks are likely to fly over intra-party disagreement, yet there is an effort to muffle discordant voices lest it splinter an anti-,BJP alliance.

The state Congress leadership has to take a call after weighing all possible options. Principally, it is a toss up between considering the humiliations by Trinamool a closed chapter and the unwelcome prospect of defying the party’s national leadership which is poised to enter into an alliance in which TMC is a key player.

For the past decades and more, the Congress is out in political wilderness. The prospect to make a comeback to political relevance in Bengal by being part of a national combine with TMC , is also nourished by many Congress leaders.

Inter-party squabbles are unlikely to consider being major obstacle. In this backdrop, the olive branch offered by TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee cannot be spurned. Totally.

Moreover, none of the leaders raising discordant voices opposing alliance which includes TMC can afford to break away from the party. They lack both the charisma and support base to do so.

The state unit of the CPI (M) has announced stepping up its agitation against the TMC state government. Along with the BJP in the state. The state CPI(M) is in a big swoop. The party wants to stick to the Congress- Left alliance against the TMC to continue, notwithstanding INDIA, but the party is not sure whether the Congress will finally stick to its alliance. Congress national leaders may think of their own party interests much more than the alliance with the Left in Bengal. It seems that the Left Front led by the CPI(M) will have to move alone in the Lok Sabha polls.(IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Be it Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha elections, political parties participate in them to add to their number and traction within the two Houses and beyond it. The choices of nominees of BJP and Trinamool Congress in the recent Rajya Sabha elections indicate that both the outfits of divergent ideologies have in their sights prospective vote banks for 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Of three newcomers to root for the causes of Trinamool Congress and Bengal in the Rajya Sabha, two are party   activists and third had little to do with politics till his name was announced as a party nominee. While Prakash ChikBaraik and Saket Gokhale have been associated with the TMC, it is a first stint in politics for SamirulIslam.

Yet it is Islam who will be deployed as a major vote catcher in 2024 elections. He has been named for Rajya Sabha after post poll analysis of panchayat election results revealed that it’s minority vote bank is no longer committed fully to the TMC cause.

Incidents of violence in which the minority community has been at the receiving end together with the rise of Indian Secular Front has seen to a marked fragmentation of Muslim votes. The victims of a carnage at Bogtui in Birbhum, one of the strongest support bases of the state’s ruling dispensation have turned out to be a reason of a section of the Muslim community cold shouldering TMC nominees in some of the rural polls.

The perpetrators of the crime at Bogftui are alleged to have links with the state’s ruling party Things came to a head when one of the relations of the deceased contested as a BJP nominee in the recently concluded rural polls.

The tip of the iceberg of Muslim voters’ disenchantment with TMC almost came to the fore in 2021 Assembly elections. Yet the elections came up with a triumphant outcome for TMC even after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister, Amit Shah extensively campaigning for BJP was offset by wheel chair bound Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee criss crossing the state on a gammy leg.

For the first time in post-independence West Bengal, there were no Congress and Left legislators representing their respective outfits in the Assembly. But if Congress and Left were wiped out in an electoral battle in which the TMC and BJP were the principal protagonists, ISF nominee Naushad Siddiqui pulled off a victory from Bhangar Assembly constituency. Till now, he is the only non-BJP opposition candidate in the Bengal assembly.

If Siddiqui’s has not been a sterling performance as a Opposition MLA, his run ins with the state administration has kept him in the limelight. His stature rose among his followers after the ISF legislator spent weeks in judicial custody following central Kolkata traffic going haywire after a demonstration by ISF supporters.

Things have not looked up for Trinamool with an alliance cobbled out between the ISF and Left Front. Bringing in Samirul Islam in the Rajya Sabha, the Trinamool leadership seeks to break Siddiqui’s connect with the disgruntled Muslim votebank and reclaim it..

Islam has floated “BanglarSanskriti Mancha” The Forum for the Culture of Bengal. An IITian who teaches chemistry in a city college, his tireless work among minorities, migrant workers and other poor sections of the populace during the pandemic have helped him grow roots among the masses though he was not connected to any political outfit then.

But it was not his social work but his political stand in tune with the Trinamool ideology when the chemistry teacher’s forum involved itself against NRC and CAA and advocated communal harmony which endeared him to the ruling dispensation.  His organisation’s participation in a campaign of “No vote to BJP” which caught on in the social media before 2021 elections, seems to have paved his way to the RS nomination.

If Islam is sought to be projected as ai progressive Muslim face against Siddiqui, the former will have no cakewalk before him in next year’s Lok Sabha election campaign. For apart from Bhangar in South 24 Parganas from where the ISF candidate has been elected, the influence of this newly formed party in other parts of the state is feeble as indicated by the panchayat poll results.

About 27 per cent populace of the state are Muslims spread over South and North 24 Parganas, parts of Burdwan, Birbhum, Murshidabad and Malda. While ISF aided by Left has made its presence felt sporadically in the rural polls, Islam’s good work has also benefitted many people of these areas.

Come Lok Sabha polls, it will be a toss up between the spheres of influence of a debutant MLA and an academic cum social worker who is taking baby steps in politics. It would also be a show of strength between the Left and the TMC supporting each of the duo.

While Prakash ChikBaraik of TMC and Ananta Maharaj of BJP have been nominated by two different parties, they share a commonality. Both of them belong to the Rajbanshi community.

It is this common link which led to their nomination in the Rajya Sabha. And it is this shared background which will see them asking for votes from their community members in almost half of the 54 Assembly segments of north Bengal where Rajbanshi support is a deciding factor.

Apart from being a Rajbanshi, Baraik is from a tea garden area and his nomination is being looked upon as a move to placate separatists seeking to carve out a separate state. Incidentally, it is a demand which Ananta Maharaj has championed long before he was named a BJP nominee for Rajya Sabha while the TMC state government lambastedit immediately.

If the BJP nominee, once courted by the TMC dispensation has not voiced the separate state demand of late, he has showed no signs of backtracking from it. Thus the ruling dispensation of the state and its principal Opposition party have chosen candidates for the RS who can be vocal spokesman of their respective parties to influence voters before 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Baraik will be reinforcing TMC’s efforts to recover lost ground in north Bengal which it had lost as Rajbanshis, Kochs and of course Gorkhas had voted earlier for BJP which tacitly supported their demand for a separate state. Ananta Maharaj, on the other hand, while campaigning for the saffron camp next year will subtly underscore to the aspirants of a separate state that with one of their kin on board in the ruling party at  the  centre, the fruition of their demand is not far off.(IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

A redoubtable politician, a no-nonsense administrator, a poet whose works often finds place in bestsellers list (a fact which her detractors take with a pinch of salt), West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee wears many hats. But though she has never staked a claim for managerial skills, her campaign technique in the run-up to the rural polls is a pointer to her acumen in marketing management.

‘Didi’, as she is widely known among her followers, displayed this skill during the short period she was able to campaign for the panchayat elections. Had she not been out of action after suffering a foot mishap while getting down from a helicopter and awaiting a minor surgery, the Trinamool Congress supremo would have continued to display more of her managerial skills.

One may hazard a guess that Banerjee may have picked up the idea of “target audience” from Prashant Kishor and his marketing team. But it does not reduce her credit as the woman of action has put into practice a theory in a manner few of her peers or political rivals could have done.

While most of her supporters may be unaware of it and her political opponents remain tightlipped about it, Mamata Banerjee knows the ins and outs of “target campaigning”. Small wonder, she told a crowd during one of her rural poll rallies in north Bengal, that she would never discriminate against them even though they did not support her party in past elections.

The chief minister was sticking to the facts. The voters she was addressing had indeed exercised their franchise for the BJP nominee in past elections, yet they have been the recipient of benefits of the social welfare schemes like Lakshmir Bhander, Kanyasree and Sabuj Sathi to name a few.

It did not matter to the Trinamool supremo that the venue of the meeting was Coochbehar, one of the Assembly segments of Alipurduar parliamentary constituency, from which a BJP candidate has been elected. She beckoned to the crowd to stand by her in the rural elections just as her government had showered development schemes on them without taking into consideration their political preference in earlier elections.

In the election meetings in southern districts of the state, in her speech over a mobile phone, an incapacitated Banerjee graciously acknowledged the support of the people, which was amply manifest in 2019 and 2021 elections. And in 2023, thundering approval greeted her address as she expressed hopes that this support would continue to remain with her party nominees in the panchayat elections.

It was a remarkable display of the Trinamool chief’s instincts when to overlook and when to oversee. And it is also a pointer that she has the finger on the people’s pulse. The people voting for BJP over successive elections cannot wish away the Trinamool dispensation. Nor can they do without the benefits of the social welfare schemes of a government, which does not subscribe to the saffron ideology.

Assuring them of continuance of the social benefit schemes, the chief minister is trying to wean the people who had supported BJP away to her party’s side in the coming rural polls.  Election results will be a pointer whether her game-plan has been a success or failed to take off. Differences between the northern and southern parts of West Bengal cannot be wished away. People in northern part of the state have complained of disparity in development with south Bengal.

If extremist political movement emanating from Naxalbari in north Bengal changed the political contours of the state forever, indigenous groups like Rajbanshis and Kochs have felt that they are yet to be given their due recognition of the ethno-cultural identity. The BJP have stoked these feelings together with maintaining an ambivalent stance on creation of Gorkhaland, a stand which has helped in reaping rich electoral dividend for the saffron camp.

Landslides and road maintenance have plagued the hills and Banerjee’s attempts to upgrade infrastructure and administrative assistance have not yet fetched her election results she expected. This is the reason behind her well concealed sulk in the hills.

The chief minister’s tone and tenor are thus hurt but hopeful in north Bengal. On the other hand, during her campaign trail in south Bengal  in her address over a  mobile phone, she was unmistakably on her front foot talking at length about the benefits of her brain child projects and the people’s support which turned the tide in TMC’s favour when BJP was breathing down its neck.

The Trinamool chief may not be up and about nursing an injured limb. But the speeches of TMC de facto number two  and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee as well as other leaders criss crossing the state being in identical vein of the supremo’s words  are pointers that she has set the tone of Trinamool campaign for July 8 panchayat elections. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

A crisis brings oddballs together. Having nothing in common, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) joined forces closed ranks against Imran Khan- led PTI government.

The government led by the former cricketer ace was removed and as the coalition partners awaited PTI’s dissolution, cracks in the uneasy alliance came up.

The void post PTI seemed to have triggered the formation of the cracks in the coalition which had held together what it described as the erstwhile dispensation’s populist politics. But the cement which held the ideologically diverse partners together seemed to come off as PTI’s retreat turned into a rout following the May 9 crackdown after attack on military bases .

Testimony to the beginning of the political estrangement was marked by Bilawal Zardari-Bhutto’s outburst against the government of which he is the foreign minister. But it was no carping in inside circles but a public rally where he chose to speak his mind against the Shahbaz Sharif-led government.

It was no veiled threat that Bilawal made when he said that PPP would not vote in support of the budget if it’s demands were not met. The PML-N not kowtowing to the new development is a pointer that it has dug in its heels.

But with greater budget allocations for Sindh’s flood affected areas being given a nod by Prime Minister, Shahbaz Sharief, oil was poured on troubled waters. But the solution turned out to be cosmetic as PPP continuing to distance itself from what it considered to be unpopular policies of a government of which it happens to be a partner.

Without walking away from the coalition, several PPP leaders voiced criticism targetting inflation and financial mismanagement which led to it. One wonders what would be the people’s verdict at this double standards.

The sniping and broadsides fired from PPP camp towards the PML-N are expressions of the former’s disapproval of its not calling the shots in the coalition government. It is not a wild guess that the coming together of the ideologically divergent outfits came about following a nudge from the armed forces and security establishment.

Disenchantment with PTI was running high. It was a scenario in which the disparate parties came together with little thought that they were entering into a marriage of convenience.

The fact which states both the coalition partners in the face is that PTI’s mass base has not evaporated. By all means a forced exodus of its leaders has dimmed it’s electoral prospects, but Imran Khan is holding his ground.

In this backdrop, breaking the alliance would be politically suicidal for both the partners. Moreover, there has been a change of scene with the entry of Istekham-e-Pakistan Party.

Led by Jahangir Tareen, the new outfit has infused uncertainty in PPP’s prospects in this game of thrones. It is a power game as some PML-N leaders have not ruled out a seat sharing arrangement with the new outfit.

As the coalition mulls the prospect of imposing an economic emergency, holding elections ought to be the last thing in its mind. Extending the term of the National Assembly by six months subject to the apex court’s nod seems to be in the cards.

The PML-N leadership, meanwhile is clearing the decks for the return of Nawaz Sharif from London from where he has been reportedly running the party and the government. A new law permits him to file his review petition on his conviction by Supreme Court and another legislation would let his disqualification from politics to five years which is about to be completed.

Even if Nawaz’s return is likely to enthuse the rank and file of his party, dynastic politics continued to be PML-N’s bane. Senior party posts continue to be occupied by Sharif family members does no good to inner-party democracy.

The PPP cannot claim itself to be free of a similar malaise but the poll date is approaching signalling it to strike out a course to maintain at least a pretence of a liberal ethos. Yet while it is not clear whether Pakistanis will stand in queues before polling booth; the coalition with cracks and all seems here to stay. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Fissures have appeared in Congress-Left Front alliance less than a month before panchayat elections are scheduled in West Bengal. CPI(M) has unilaterally declared candidates in Murshidabad, of all places, an area known to be the stronghold of state Congress chief, Adhir Ranjan Choudhury.

As of now, out of 78 Zilla Parishad (ZP) seats in this border district, the CPI(M) nominees will contest in 58 constituencies. Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) will contest in 23 seats, leaving three seats to Forward Bloc and two to CPI, thereby leaving just two seats up for negotiation with Congress, which had been in rain and shine with the front for past eight summers.

The Left Front decision has come as an unpleasant surprise to Congress, which had defeated Trinamool Congress candidate at Sagardighi by-election in this district with Left support. It is another matter that the Congress nominee Bairon Biswas crossed over to the Trinamool recently.

While the starkly unequal seat-sharing decision was a display of realpolitik on part of CPI(M), the Congress is hardly in a position to accuse it of infidelity in a poll alliance. After all, the two had not been equal partners in terms of reaping political dividend.

Fielding candidates unilaterally in Murshidabad seems to be an expression of letting off the inter-party resentment in CPI(M), following Biswas’s defection. Post Biswas’s switching sides, several district level leaders had voiced their difference with the top leadership over the alliance with Congress cobbled together before 2016 state Assembly elections.

The resentment of these district leaders from Burdwan, Birbhum, Nadia and several south Bengal districts have been two fold. According to the irate leaders of the Left Front, if the state Congress leadership cannot keep its flock together for even a few months, citing Biswas’s defection, then they think it’s time to give second thoughts to continuing support to the Congress.

Moreover, it was alleged that while the Front, read CPI(M), activists had campaigned with great vigour for Congress nominees, their Congress counterparts did not return the favour for their CPI(M) candidates in successive elections. The lack of shared enthusiasm was stated as the reason behind more Congress candidates winning in 2016 Assembly election than CPI(M) nominees.

These CPI(M) leaders had advocated fielding candidates belonging to the Left Front in the spheres of Left influence. In other words, it opposed any decision of the leadership to let Congress candidates contest from areas where it had little organisational base.

State party secretary, Mohammad Salim tried to pour oil on troubled waters when he said that Biswas’s defection was a pointer to TMC leadership developing cold feet at Congress-Left alliance. But it did not cut much ice.

The situation in Murshidabad is the fallout of this inter-party distrust. The CPI(M) leadership was left with little option but to accede to the resentful voices from the districts.

At the end of the day, state Congress chief Choudhury finds himself in an unenviable position. He has announced that Congress and the Left will be in alliance in the panchayat polls.  But Choudhury had never thought that he would find his party in a subsidiary alliance with the Left, despite his heading the largest Opposition party in the Lok Sabha. The Behrampore MP has failed to read the tealeaves.

The Murshidabad panchayat poll’s ZP seat declaration allocation does not put an end to negotiation in the two other tiers of panchayat — gram panchayat and panchayat samitis. Neither the Congress nor the Left are in a position to walk away from the negotiation table.  Because winning the gram panchayats and panchayat samitis are essential preconditions of running the Zilla Parishads. It is here that the negotiation skills of the Congress and Left leaders will be tested.

At the ground level, the voices of CPI(M)’s Murshidabad district secretary, Jamir Mollah may appear to ring out louder in the matter of seat-sharing in Murshidabad, a traditional Congress territory for decades. But given the impending meet between former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and senior Left leaders, together with other stalwarts of national politics scheduled to be held at Patna on 23 June, the Left read CPI(M) backtracking in the matter of seat-sharing in the coming panchayat polls in West Bengal cannot be ruled out. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Declaration of the schedule of 2023 panchayat election has come during the Jan Jowar Yatra of Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee which apparently gives TMC a leg up in West Bengal rural polls scheduled to be held on 8 July. The polling date can be rescheduled to July 14 if Calcutta High Court insists. The HC is presently hearing the case.

Though Abhisekh’s his statewide journey is a warm-up of sorts before the rural polls to his party, the declaration of the election date coming a day after governor CV Anand Bose gave his nod to the appointment of former state chief secretary Rajiv Sinha raises several questions even as the Opposition does not quite seemed to be geared up to participate in the last significant polls in Bengal before the Lok Sabha elections in 2024.

Time was when CPI(M) led Left Front seemed to be ever ready to take part in any elections. If CPI(M) state secretary Md. Salim stated clearly that there are no gaps in Left Front’s poll preparedness, there are dissenting voices in his party as also in other Left Front partners.

Senior CPI(M) leader and Rajya Sabha MP Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya pointed out that it has been planned that goons will play a significant role in the coming rural polls, his foreboding cannot be dismissed as a sign of pessimism if past records are anything to go by. In all, 27 persons died during the 2018 panchayat elections. Of these persons, the most significant was the death of a polling personnel, Rajkumar Roy. It is not yet known whether he was murdered or had committed suicide.

The shock over the deaths especially that of Roy is yet to subside. Bhaskar Ghosh, a leader of the state government employees agitating for enhanced dearness allowance has made it clear that state government personnel will stay away from the rural polls unless the polling booths are patrolled by central para military force personnel and there are 61,636 polling booths.

State election commissioner Sinha has however hinted that the state police personnel will supervise the rural polls. He has asked to keep faith in the state administration of which the state police is an integral part. But the apprehension of electoral violence refuses to go away even as the TMC is looking the other way from likely poll violence. Abhishek Bandyopadhayay has been reassuring that the TMC workers will ensure peaceful polling this time and there will be no repeat of 2018 violence.

Successive bomb explosions in different villages of West Bengal and deaths in them over the last few months have rocked the state before the rural polls. It sends a wrong message to the voters and does not amount to reposing confidence in the law and order machinery of the state which would oversee the panchayat elections.

The deaths apart, the 2018 panchayat election results were heavily tilted in TMC’s favour. In all, 34 per cent of the rural poll seats went uncontested from which Trinamool nominees emerged unchallenged winners while the Opposition outfits were loud in their protest that their candidates were prevented from filing nomination.

Truth to tell, Trinamool came out with a brute majority in 2018 panchayat election. In this three tier poll aimed to ensure grassroot democracy 95 per cent Zilla Parishads, 90 per cent panchayat samitis and 73 per cent Gram Panchayat seats were won by Trinamool candidates.

The allegation of some voters not being allowed to exercise their franchise also did the rounds in the 2018 rural polls. Trinamool Congress losing 18 seats to BJP in 2019 Lok Sabha elections has been interpreted by some of the political observers of an expression of the voters ire which led to their voting heavily in favour of saffron camp candidates. In 2019 Lok Sabha poll, just a year after the panchayat polls.

In fact, results of the 2018 panchayat elections were a clear pointer to the political contours of the state in the days to come. The BJP had emerged as second political party of choice after TMC in all the three tiers while it was followed by Congress and Left Front respectively. Both Congress and BJP have declared their intent to move court on the panchayat election. Online nomination, deployment of central para military forces and safety is being sought by the Congress.

While the CPI(M) state secretary sought to put up a brave face, there are other dissenting voices in his party other than Bikas Bhattacharya. The issue of scarcity of time given to the Opposition parties to file nomination is preceded by the short time span the candidates will be given to fill up their nomination forms. Senior CPI(M) leader and former MP Shamik Lahiri has computed that each nominee will get a measly 39 seconds. This is the time allotted to fill up the three page form in which there are 36 blanks needing to be filled up, he said.

The process which is aimed to empower the rural populace would end up in confusing the individuals who aspire to be the part and parcel of the empowerment procedure, Lahiri feels. Mistakes are likely to be made and the prospective candidates will be loath to take part in the election process again.

At a time when Abhishek Banerjee’s Jan Jowar Yatra is letting him interact with grassroot workers revving them up for the coming rural polls, chief minister Mamata Banerjee rolled out an outreach campaign hours before the announcement of the election date. She announced Shara Shari Mukhya Mantri (directly to the chief minister) which would enable the people to place their grievance to her directly through a help line.

It was a canny move before the rural polls which is aimed to underscore Banerjee’s image as a people’s leader. If the Opposition has labelled Jan Jowar Yatra to be a camouflage for training camps of rigging and other procedures aimed to subvert elections, it is at a loss for words to criticise the chief minister’s latest outreach programme.

The Left-Congress combination as of now has no roadmap  for seat sharing in the crucial rural polls. The CPI(M) and its Left Front partners have taken the lead in filing maximum nominations in the first two days. The Congress is fumbling and there is no signs  from the Congress leadership to take up the polls as a challenge to the TMC and the BJP.. The CPI(M) workers in the districts are proceeding on the basis of their own strength with the prospect of any alliance with the Congress getting sidelined.

The CPI(M) district leaders from Birbhum, Nadia, Burdwan (east) and (west) and several other south Bengal districts have voiced unwillingness to let Congress field candidates where the front has the organisational muscle. Their dissent if followed would certainly dent Congress Left alliance at a time when state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Choudhury is pleading scarcity of time in the poll schedule in which the time frame for submitting nomination forms started on June 9 and ended on 15 June..

If the Congress leadership thought of contesting the election on the dependence of LF organisation, dissent of several district level CPI(M) leaders threaten to upset the former’s apple cart. On the other hand, thanks to its constant hammering of the Trinamool dispensation on issues including cash for teaching jobs, coal and cattle smuggling the Left are better prepared to take on Trinamool than Congress.

As for the BJP whose tally of seats was only next to Trinamool’s in 2018 rural polls , the party is on the backfoot now. By admission of a section of its leadership, it lacks booth committees in a major swathe of the state, a state of affairs unexpected of the principal Opposition party in the state Assembly.

Grounds of postponing the elections like too little time and poll personnel being unsure of their safety provided by state police force were being trotted out by national vice-president Dilip Ghosh during the day. Clearly state BJP unit appears to be in a shambles.

Jan Jowar Yatra of Abhishek Banerjee was aimed to earmark Trinamool candidates with a clean image in the rural polls. It has fallen far short of its target as several melees and confusion during his stopovers indicated.

Inter-party squabbles can turn out to be a bane for the ruling dispensation in the rural polls. But the TMC is most prepared with its huge mass base and organizational power, apart from financial resources. Both the BJP and the Left- Congress combination if it happens are far behind the TMC in terms of poll preparedness. As of now. Trinamool Congress is most advantageously placed to face the panchayat polls as against its contenders, BJP, the Congress and the Left. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Pakistan seems to be teetering on the edge of an abyss of crisis with none its political parties offering a policy prescription of course correction. Uncertainties abound even as industrial sector contraction is likely to rise, former prime minister Imran Khan despite being bogged down in a number of litigations not asking his party activists of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to slow down their ongoing stir though it is erupting in fits and starts

It seems that Pakistan is a long way to recover from the fallout of 9 May riots which scarred the country in general and singed some army establishments in particular. Khan it seems is in no mood to ask PTI activists to cool their temper as the events of that eventful May day seems to have triggered a crackdown as never before on the members of Pakistan’s former ruling dispensation.

The reasons behind the obduracy of the man who led Pakistan to a cricket World Cup victory is not quite in keeping with his one-time image of an individual who played and partied hard. The transformation of Khan comes in the backdrop of former PTI leaders and law makers quitting their party while the Shahbaz Sharif government tightening its screws on Khan stating he would be tried in a military court as his supporters have vandalised army establishments.

Small wonder, hitting any dialogue with Sharif government out of the park, Khan has dug in his heels. There is little reason that he will not continue to do so.

Along with the political crisis, the economy is going south as the IMF bailout is still illusive. For IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva has set a precondition for the resumption of the stalled economic aid programme. Such bailout does not appear to be on the cards unless Pakistan arranges to fill the gap of 6 billion dollars in its current account of its financial year which ends on 30 June. Despite curbs placed on it, the reserves have plunged to less than a month of imports.

Short term measures like imposition of import controls have been put in place. Even a marked slide of the GDP growth which is far less than the previous year is contested. Exports have declined. Inflation having reached the highest level, with an eye on the elections a fiscally lax “relief budget” seems likely to be rolled out.

Democracy in Pakistan has been always in a crisis with it always coming out second best or even more lower vis-a-vis its neighbour India. And this time the mode selecting a popular government seems to have come a new low.

Looking back at the path of descent of Pakistan down an inglorious path will hardly improve matters. With PTI disintegration not being ruled out, the plight and passage of its votebank is worth going into. Pakistan national elections are likely in October this year.

An option open to the voters of Pakistan is formation of a party from PTI deserters and dissidents. With this goal Jahangir Khan Tareen is on the job though he needs to have his disqualification set aside legally.

A look at the electoral battleground of Pakistan reveals that a four way contest is going to be witnessed by Punjab which determines the national outcome. The PTI voters have a choice between PML-N and PPP.

Tareen’s voters is unlikely to get the support each of these parties. That leaves them with their own party and PTI rump. The remnants of the PTI is not to be ruled out. After all, voters have been known to punish deserters in the past.

Pakistan’s future seems to be uncertain as few factors having a bearing on it showing signs of constancy. Decisive long term action in political and economic fronts is the need of the hour. But who will ring the bell? (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Bairan Biswas, the lone Congress legislator from Sagardighi, Murshidabad, defecting to Trinamool Congress does not send a signal of unity in the coming days. The defection comes just ahead of a crucial meeting of Opposition parties at Patna to set the stage for an anti-BJP front in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It also marks a new low in West Bengal politics which has been value-based over the decades, till hordes of TMC leaders defected to BJP before 2021 Assembly elections, only to return shamefaced in ashes and sackcloth.

The defection almost coincides with state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury’s contention that some of the TMC government’s measures would still be criticised and opposed, despite the tidings of Lok Sabha 2024. Chowdhury’s words and Biswas’s deed are pointers to the fact that there is no love lost between the TMC and the Congress, notwithstanding a likely electoral understanding in national politics.

The Congress and Trinamool leaderships had been on the same page at the national level, with both staying away from the inauguration of the new Parliament building and the latest NITI Aayog meeting. Chowdhury’s words, in the wake of the twin boycotts, had denoted an intent that may not have been adhered to after the Opposition conclave at Patna resulting in greater Congress-TMC bonhomie.

In this backdrop, Biswas’s defection has led to further deterioration in the Opposition’s inter-party relations. It would boil down to both the Congress and the Trinamool leaders facing greater reluctance among the rank and file when the time comes to make a common cause against the BJP in West Bengal Lok Sabha.

The Congress, post Biswas-switching-sides, is left sans any representation in the key state Assembly. Its leaders attending the Patna meet on 12 June will certainly feel a bad taste in the mouth when they come across their TMC counterparts.

With its presence almost nonexistent beyond the borders of West Bengal, the Trinamool leaders will find it difficult to seek seats from Congress in the latter’s areas of influence in this backdrop. Biswas’s defection has certainly swelled the ranks of the Trinamool legislators, but representatives of the regional parties together with Congress would be wary of TMC as none seeks ‘poaching’ from their flock.

No brainstorming session is necessary to guess the thought uppermost in state Congress chief Chowdhury’s mind. After having once claimed that Biswas will never leave Congress, the leader of the Congress parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha must be eating his words.

It is beyond debate that Biswas’s defection leaves the state Congress chief with egg on his face. The TMC leadership, especially its national general secretary, Abhishek Banerjee, whom the Congress-Left leadership loses no occasion to deride as a political green horn propped up by his aunt chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s support, has clearly outsmarted them as Biswas changed his allegiance in Banerjee’s presence.

The Left, read the CPI(M), has not taken kindly to Biswas changing his political allegiance. After all, he was a Congress nominee supported by the Left Front. Calling Biswas “spineless” as CPI(M) Rajya Sabha MP Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya did, hardly improves things for the Left. For though considered to be more aware of which way the wind is blowing, the Left was clueless of the plot unfolding with Biswas changing sides.

The Left cannot be blamed if in future it demands fielding its own candidate even in a seat more favourable to Congress. Inability of the Congress to ensure the loyalty of the nominee that won as its candidate with Left support, can be cited as the underlying rationale for such a demand.

Though BJP reportedly extended tacit support to Biswas at Sagardighi by-election, the saffron camp appears to have emerged with a marginal gain from his defection. Now it has the sole ISF MLA, Naushad Siddqui, to oppose it during the state Assembly proceedings, apart from the Trinamool MLAs.

The choice of Ghatal as the venue of Biswas’s switchover of political allegiance, being hundreds of kilometres away from his constituency, is significant. One wonders whether the latest defector from Congress to Trinamool was chary of changing sides in a district which had once been a Congress stronghold.

Biswas’s photograph being garlanded with shoes and set on fire at Sagardighi adds credence to this apprehension. Rest assured, a warm welcome is the last thing he can expect when he next comes to his constituency.

Biswas is reported to have said at Ghatal that he had sought nomination from Trinamool and on being denied settled for Congress candidature. The political novice is blissfully unaware that he is declaring himself to be an opportunist, a most undesirable tag in politics.

The Patna meet was in the eye of the entire anti-BJP bloc when its attention shifted to Ghatal for a while. Even as they pack their bags for the Patna meeting, the participants, seasoned political players all will chalk out a game plan to hold their cards close to the chest while dealing with TMC.

Apart from the Congress, the other outfits opposed to the BJP who are coming to Patna are likely be tight-fisted in allotting seats to Trinamool nominees in their sphere of their influence. After all, mutual trust is a key adhesive in forming a coalition, be it in a pre or post-election scenario. But Banerjee, de facto second in command in TMC, showed no qualms in binning it.

Abhishek Banerjee is certain to get a pat on his back from his party leadership for engineering Biswas’s defection. It remains to be seen if the same group of leaders raise their voices in criticism of the defection after the Congress and the other parties bargain hard and leave TMC with crumbs instead of the requisite number of constituencies from which it seeks to field its candidates. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Self help is the best help. Irked by the West Bengal unit seeking its help on issues big and small, national BJP leaders have asked the state unit to follow this time tested adage, sources in state unit said.

But the real reason of the state unit being asked to pull up its socks does not quite lie with it. The new thought has been sparked off from the electoral debacle in Karnataka where all the top guns of saffron camp including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah hit the campaign trail.

Following the Karnataka election results and in the backdrop of 2024 Lok Sabha election inching closer, the saffron camp think tank is unwilling to convey the image that the party’s principal poll campaign spearhead has been blunted. The thought seems to be belated as the seemingly invincible Modi-Shah duo had been seen to come to the end of their winning run when Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress convincingly defeated the BJP in 2021 Assembly elections.

After this being pointed out, a senior state BJP leader said on condition of anonymity that election debacle in West Bengal and Karnataka are two entirely different propositions. After all, Trinamool is a regional outfit while despite huge depleted in numerical strength in the Lok Sabha and running only a few states, the Congress happens to be the principal opponent of BJP in national politics.

Small wonder, a defeat by the Congress carries a more far reaching consequence for BJP. Hence the decision to involve the national leadership read Prime Minister Modi and Union home minister Shah far more sparingly.

The failure of the saffron camp’s most formidable duo to ensure electoral success would carry a wrong message to the party rank and file. Disenchantment would set in and desertions are not ruled out, sources stated.

But the BJP national leadership can ill afford to place these facts before the state units. A fear of denting the image of the party’s principal campaigners is the last thing the BJP leadership desires.

Earmarking the West Bengal unit for the pep talk has reasons of its own. After an unexpected runaway electoral success fetching the BJP 18 seats in 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the saffron unit seemed to run out of steam if subsequent poll results are anything to go by.

The state especially Kolkata is a hot bed of agitations against TMC dispensation on several anti- government issues. But most of these stirs are being organised by Congress and CPI(M). The BJP is a smaller participant.

So tours of the Prime Minister Modi and his takes on shortcomings of the Trinamool state government will be on hold for some time. Of course, participation of the prime minister in next year’s election campaign in Bengal will be ensured but the impression will not be given that the PM is fighting the BJP’s battle in the state.

But the campaigning skills of Prime Minister Modi are more likely to be deployed when election fever has peaked. The saffron camp top brass are reluctant to throw in their best bet at the primary stage.

The directive to the West Bengal unit to be take its own decisions is a precursor to this game plan. The national leadership is unwilling to draw attention to the absence of the senior leaders when the campaign for Lok Sabha begins this year after the panchayat polls. The rural poll results will give some idea to the state and national leadership about the shape of the saffron organization.

The self help prescription has been given to prepare the ground for this strategy. The saffron camp leaders are aware that their party will be facing a make or break situation as soon as the election dates are announced next year.

BJP chief JP Nadda has entrusted Sunil Bansal, Amit Malaviya, Asha Lakra and Mangal Pandey with the organisational affairs of West Bengal. The four will be assisted by Satish Dhanad holding the post of joint general secretary (organisation) in the state unit.

The leaders have been asked to encourage young aspiring activists for greater responsibility. Besides strengthening the rank and file, a careful check is to be maintained to ensure that decisions taken by the top leadership gels with the grassroot ground realities.

Post election stock taking has revealed that such decisions have sometimes reduced chances of success of the saffron camp candidates. Taking into consideration the opinion of the local BJP leadership will thus be a part and parcel of the strategy targetting the next year’s electoral battle. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

It has been many summers since Mamata Banerjee floated Trinamool Congress in 1998, thus leaving the Congress a pale shadow of its former self in West Bengal, and no longer a political force to be reckoned with in the eastern state. However, post Congress’s decisive victory in Karnataka assembly elections, Chief Minister Banerjee’s call to all the regional political parties opposed to BJP to take on the saffron outfit in their respective support bases assumes mammoth significance.

In so many words, the Trinamool supremo offers a nationwide coalition formula against the BJP, which ought to have takers. Representatives of its political opponents arrayed together in several constituencies against BJP nominees have been a boon to the saffron camp.

But a change of dispensation at the Centre cannot be ruled out if the BJP faces a single opponent in the coming electoral battle in every constituency. With the vote-bank of its political opponent intact, it would be an uphill task for the saffron camp nominee to secure a victory in many, if not all, seats.

Banerjee’s clarion call to the Opposition parties to close ranks actually cloaks her message to her former party, the Congress. Despite being dissension-riven and hamstrung by the lack of charismatic vote-catchers, the Congress is still ahead of several other parties in the yet-to-be formed anti-BJP coalition, if one goes by its wide organisational base and raft of experienced leaders.

So far, poll opponents, instead of giving the BJP nominee a run for its money, cut into each other’s vote-banks, leaving the saffron vote-bank untouched. Precisely why it had often been a cakewalk victory for the BJP nominees, faced with a divided opposition.

Of the 543 Lok Sabha constituencies, Banerjee wants Congress to field candidates in 200 seats and leave the rest to the regional parties. It is doubtful if Congress leadership will be amenable to this division of seats.

However, it goes without saying that the Congress needs Trinamool’s support in West Bengal elections. It is the other way around in the rest of the country, leaving Congress in a better position to draw up the terms of seat negotiation, come 2024.

But while such welcome negotiations can keep on coming, one has to congratulate Banerjee for reading the tealeaves right. If one wonders what took her so long to think aloud, here are the answers.

Astute politician that the Trinamool chief is, she has admirably timed her offer, a year before the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections. With her comfortable majority in the state Assembly and a marked representation in the Lok Sabha, she is sitting pretty, notwithstanding agitations ranging on issues — from paying dearness allowance to state government employees at a higher rate, together with cash-for-teaching jobs scam rocking the state almost daily.

Trinamool’s dismal electoral foray in the northeastern states has been a wakeup call about the extent of its popularity beyond West Bengal. But Banerjee bided her time, as she preferred not to begin any negotiation for alliance till the grand old party attained a position of strength.

After all, the Congress’s performance in the Northeast was nothing to write home about either. Though with two MPs and an MLA, the Congress is not a force to reckon with in West Bengal, the resounding electoral success in Karnataka has nevertheless sent out a loud and clear message that the party is yet-to-be written off.

But roadblocks are already discernible in the path leading to Congress and Trinamool’s possible reconciliation with an eye on 2024. Though a practitioner of personal brand of politics, Banerjee has not yet voiced direct congratulatory messages to Rahul Gandhi, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and her one-time mentor, Sonia Gandhi, though she has congratulated the state of Karnataka for choosing secular politics over communal hatred.

The fact has been taken note of by none other than state Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, who has accused Banerjee of trying to slink into the anti-BJP alliance sans an act of courtesy to the Congress leadership.

The West Bengal chief minister has asked Congress to refrain from opposing her in the state. Given the rash of litigations on corruption issues and a slew of agitations against her regime organised by the Congress-Left Front combine, the miniscule Opposition in the state has been a veritable thorn in the Trinamool’s flesh.

Congress cannot afford to stay away from the stirs now. After all, it is owing to these agitations that it has regained some ground below its feet.

The Congress-Left combination is another hurdle, which the party has to tackle before joining the anti-BJP coalition with Trinamool. For the state Congress will be loath to leave the Left who had stood by it against the ruling dispensation all these years.

For the Left, read CPI(M), sharing an anti-BJP alliance with Trinamool might not quite be the cup of tea. But then politics is the art of the possible. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Time was when hearts beat faster whenever Imran Khan charged in to bowl or looked the way the red ball moving at him as he raised his bat to send it to the ropes or outside the stadium. One does not recall too many occasions when the outstanding all rounder was stumped.

But stumped the still handsome former Pakistan captain appeared to be when a group of Pakistani Rangers bundled the former Prime Minister away from Islamabad High Court early this week. But he seemed to have regained the crease after Pakistan Supreme Court held his arrest illegal and Islamabad High Court ordered that he be released on bail marking a pause in the battle.

It seemed to be that like a cricket match another game of uncertainty was on. In it the former prime minister’s role was befitting the man in white flannels who navigated Pakistan together with Sussex and Worstershire, the counties he had represented to the shouts of victory from the jaws of impending defeat.

As long as the Supreme Court did not step in, Pakistan appeared to be almost dropping into a bottomless abyss. The violence in the wake of Khan’s arrest had sparked off protests like no other in the past though Pakistan is no stranger to elected leaders being incarcerated and killed. A radio station was set aflame, a police lines were under siege, army bases were under attack. A man of the people had been put behind the bars and the people had taken to the streets for his release.

Ever since his dismissal from the prime minister’s post, Khan had often taken on the army and ISI, the country’s secret service, a duo whose writ never fails to run in his country. The doom sayers had almost written him off showing the precedent of Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto and his daughter Benazir Bhutto.

Khan’s detractors and supporters were chary that he has walked into a blind alley. It seemed his innings as a political leader was nearing its end. But these prophets of doom had failed to take the popularity of the cricketer turned politician into consideration. Even as they are eating their words, Khan is padding up for another innings away from his beloved cricket grounds.

Generals far outrank a captain in the army. Such hierarchy is non-existent in a field of cricket where the captain reigns supreme. But ranks be it of men in uniform or the one heading a sporting squad lose significance in public life. Only the people’s verdict and the performance of the individual for whom it is given matter.

Khan is not yet a free man being named in more than 140 cases including one on profiting on state gifts. His arrest was just a matter of time. The present case is before Islamabad High Court now. Khan took on the army seeing red over its withdrawal of support to his regime and it’s refusal to help him continue in office.

Given law’s delays, the former prime minister is unlikely to emerge a free man in a hurry. But his supporters are rooting for a fresh election. Khan is riding the crest of a sympathy wave. It is a sure shot way of regaining what his supporters feel a post which he reached through democratic elections. The error of judgement Khan made was that he did not remember that the people he railed against still call the shots. He took on too many and too much.

Army chief, general Asim Munir going by the ongoing indications show that the outfit he heads will continue till the bitter end. If things go according to the army’s script then Khan is going to be convicted in one of the many cases against him and disqualified from running for office like his predecessor Nawaz Sharif.

But this script may go awry ranged that it is against a popular movement. For popular movements are unpredictable. Those on the other side of the barbed wire need to watch out instead of rejoice. For chaos in any part of Pakistan is not a good news for India .India needs a Pakistan with some political stability in the interest of the South Asian region. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Pep talk and tall talk are separated by a wide gulf. Unofficial number two in Trinamool Congress hierarchy Abhishek Banerjee’s recent claim of his party bagging 40 out of 42 seats from West Bengal in next year’s Lok Sabha elections will be taken as pep talk by many among his party faithful; the Opposition leaders cutting across ideological divide will be dismissing it as tall talk.

After Trinamool’s expansion plans were grounded in the Assembly polls of the North Eastern states months ago, nearer home given the present state of existing organisational muscle of TMC, the ruling dispensation of West Bengal will have to struggle hard next year to retain the turf which 23 of its nominees now represent in Lok Sabha. A subtle mix of political fortune and organisational skills is the only route to increase it’s tally of seats.

Political fortune is fickle. As for organisational strength, let the ground realities be considered. Banerjee is on a two month long tour of the state on his ‘Jan Sanjog Yatra.’ It’s twin objectives are to rejuvenate party organisation and get the names of prospective candidates for the panchayat election according to secret ballots cast by the people.

Banerjee’s critics indicate that the journey on board an air conditioned caravan is actually an attempt to upgrade his own image. After all, the Diamond Harbour MP’s charisma and connect with the people trail far behind his illustrious aunt, party supremo and chief minister, Mamata Banerjee.

Choosing the panchayat nominees by going by the people’s choice is a unique method which is Abhishek Banerjee’s brain child. It seeks to replace the much criticised mode of candidates’ selection by a coterie of leaders in the backdrop of intrigue by backroom boys seeking to pass themselves off as “organisation men.” Unpleasant surprises were in store for Banerjee who chose himself to be the new broom poised to sweep clean. His intent was to make a clear break with the past.

But the results were not pleasant. Ballot boxes were looted before Banerjee’s eyes at Coochbehar in north Bengal and in Murshidabad even as Trinamool leader has vast swathes of the state to cover. Seeing her nephew and political heir apparent all at sea, chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee had to take the field herself embarking on a journey of the area where Abhishek was camping.

There were other acts of indiscipline which met Banerjee’s eyes. He has taken stock of the situation and come to a belated realisation that pep talk is the only way to rejig the party rank and file hence mouthing the 40 seat claim.

The men who were behind the vandalisation of the ballot boxes have not yet been accused of being from the ranks of the Opposition outfits. It boils down to the conclusion that these “political vandals” represent vested interests in the ruling dispensation.

The system of using ballot for choosing nominees for the rural polls is not at all a good idea to them. Hence they have screwed up the courage to indulge in indiscipline despite the presence of Banerjee at the spot and the fallout of his reporting back to his aunt and party supremo have not dimmed the vandals’ zeal.

The popularity of the ruling dispensation of West Bengal cannot be stated to be high now with former education minister and party secretary general Partha Chatterjee and the party’s Birbhum strongman Anubrata Mondal being behind the bars. The charges against the duo range from cash for teaching jobs, cattle smuggling and money laundering.

The state government has its back to the wall on the issue of paying enhanced dearness allowance to its employees. Successive court orders in favour of the employees have made matters worse for the state government.

In sum, it is certainly not the Trinamool organisation sans flab, individual interest and sloth likely to fetch 40 seats in next year’s Lok Sabha polls. Trinamool Congress is a house divided though individual interests are too small to be identified quickly before the rural polls.

It seems that Trinamool’s best chances of electoral success lies in Opposition disunity. Banerjee’s target of 40 seats will not be quite off the mark if differences arising in Congress and BJP camps in the state are anything to go by.

Sagardighi by-poll in Murshidabad in which a Left supported Congress nominee emerged victorious with tacit prop up from BJP witnessed sinking of differences. Difficulty in replicating this formula statewide can give TMC an escape route to victory given the broadening of electoral frontline for the Lok Sabha polls next year.

The fallout of the attendance of a raft of Opposition leaders at a rally near Banerjee’s residence by state government employees demanding dearness allowance on par with central government employees is a case in point to substantiate Opposition disunity. Already the state Congress leadership is abuzz at some of its senior leaders sharing the podium with Nandigram BJP legislator and leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari.

The Congress leaders included former leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan, veteran leader Asit Mitra and Koustav Bagchi, Calcutta High Court lawyer who was recently arrested and released on bail after a night in custody. Their sharing the podium of demand for enhanced dearness allowance with Adhikari is reported to have rubbed PCC chief Adhir Chowdhury the wrong way.

The Congress is already a declining political force in Bengal. The CPI(M), despite all its efforts for turnaround, has not been able to make any breakthrough. New young leaders have emerged but the Trinamool supremo has hijacked the pro-people agenda of the Left and also the Trinamool is most vocal against the BJP led communalism. So the CPI(M) is in a dilemma. The cadres at local level want an understanding with the BJP to take on Trinamool in the elections but that is contrary to the CPI(M)’s political line.

BJP leadership is fractured and the fight between the new entrants and old RSS loyalists is continuing. The BJP at the lower level is trying to make an informal front with the CPI(M) and the Congress. The BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari is encouraging it but this is not liked by the RSS faction led by the president Sukanata Majumdar and Dilip Ghosh. There is little possibility of any anti-TMC front emerging.

That is the trump card for Trinamool Congress before the 2024 Lok sabha elections. Abhishek’s claim of 40 seats out of 42 in next Lok Sabha, is based on that. Apart they have their CM Mamata Banerjee, who is most popular in the state, despite the misdeeds of her party men. The rural poor, women and unorganized workers see in her a real messiah. Bu before that, the TMC as also other three opposition parties have to cross the hurdle of the coming panchayat elections. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

An open air gymnasium being set on fire at Churachandpur merely 60 kilometres away  from  Manipur capital, Imphal followed by chief  minister, N Biren Singh being advised not to come to the trouble spot are some of the ominous signs indicating that things  are not at all shipshape for the BJP  in this North Eastern state a year before Lok Sabha election. The district magistrate imposing section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and state home department suspending internet services for the next five days from April 28 are further pointers that augurs ill for the saffron party regime in  this  north eastern   state..

If the present state of affairs is anything to go by, voters may not support BJP come 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The functioning style of the present BJP state government has ruffled a lot of feathers.

Describing the Churachandpur  incident  to be  an act of hate mongers, chief minister Singh  threatened to act tough. Appropriate action would be taken and the miscreants would be put back behind the bars, he said.

Yet a tough act would not be an easy Inclusion in the chief minister’s agenda as  after having sworn in recently, the Biren Singh led BJP government of Manipur has to tread  cautiously. The ominous signs of its house being divided were visible right from the time when Singh was about to be sworn in as the chief of BJP’s legislative party.

Of the 32 MLAs invited, only six turned up  making Sambit Patra, BJP’s national spokesman and in charge of Manipur ask Govindas Konthoujam propose Biren’s name for the post of the chief. Konthoujam did so and a tribal MLA seconded it making Biren Singh chief minister for the second time.

It may be mentioned Konthoujam headed the Manipur Congress and had joined the BJP before the elections. Thus none from the ranks of veteran BJP MLAs being available to propose Singh’s name as the chief of the BJP legislature party speaks volumes about the solidness and expanse of the second time chief minister’s support base.

As for things reaching flashpoint at Churachandpur, trouble had been brewing ever since Indigenous Tribal Leaders Forum (ITLF) had called a sunrise to dusk bandh on 28 April. The announcement was followed by the arson at the gym the night before the bandh.

A rumour of the chief minister going to attend the function sent a large crowd near the gym triggering a stand off with the police. Tear gas shells were lobbed accompanied by police firing, two policemen were injured and six persons arrested.

It seems Kuki community has been rubbed the wrong way after Singh announced forming the Manipur Peoples Commission and asking the Centre to implement the National Register of Citizens in Manipur. The Kuki apprehension cannot be stated to be unfounded as large number of Kukis have infiltrated from Myanmar and intermingled with their kinsmen with similar surnames and thus stand the risk of losing their citizenship.

Trouble appears to have been kickstarted by the present BJP dispensation at Manipur when Kuki National Organisation and Xomi Revolutionary Organisation, both militant outfits,   decided to be pulled out from suspension of operations, a tripartite agreement and understanding between some 26 militant Kuki outfits. Both the organisations were suspected to be involved in poppy plantations.

A letter from ITLF to the chief minister asking him to reconsider the matter has yielded no results. Kukis continued to be rubbed the wrong way after aiming to evict encroachers the chief minister ordered survey of wetlands, reserve forests and protected forests which house many “unofficial” Kuki villages.

Chief Minister Singh does not seem to have too many options to keep the Kuki vote bank of his party intact during the Lok Sabha elections next year. A rollback of the programme to evict encroachers read  “unofficial” Kuki villages from government land or offering the evicted populace a sop in the form of rehabilitation elsewhere  seem to be another  option before him.

Backtracking on the existing programme would boil down to reduction of the chief minister’s authority but would open a line of communication with the ITLF which would be advantageous during election next year. Offering a sop to the aggrieved Kukis would be a short term solution as the demand for living space would again be raised in future.

Unhappiness of MLAs with the chief minister came to the fore following a raft of resignations from the legislators running the different state-run corporations.  Karam Shyam Singh chairman, Manipur Tourism Development Corporation, Paonam Brajen Singh chairman Manipur Development Society, KH Raghumani Singh chairman Manipur Renewab Energy Development Agency have all put in their papers.

The grouses of these MLAs vary but they are all directed to chief minister Singh. Karam Shyam rues of having no role in organising the tourism festivals and being publicly humiliated.

Works executed by Manipur Development Society had work orders cancelled was pointed out by Brojen Singh. The chief minister is increasingly finding the ground below his feet to be sinking.

Chief Minister Singh’s allies are turning into opponents. His own party leaders are openly expressing their hostility towards him.

Seeing storm signals, fire fighting operations headed by Sambit Patra started on April 26. Trying to pour oil on troubled waters, he was closeted with the legislators, meeting one at a time.

No matter, whatever the extent of peacemaking efforts are, once some of  the Manipur BJP leaders have defied the leadership persuading them to join the poll fray led by chief minister Singh will be a tall order. For the dissidents will either seek the chief minister’s removal or downgrading of his authority in the conduct of the election campaign.

Reading the riot act to the dissidents will send a wrong message to the party rank and file. Moreover, such an act would dent the BJP’s Image of being a party with a difference.

Dissension is haunting the chief minister who seems to be in urgent need for course correction. It can be in the form of a Cabinet reshuffle or a complete reorientation by projecting new leaders may see BJP sans its back to the walk in next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

Truth to tell, things are steadily going downhill for the saffron camp in Manipur with no indication of a turnaround. Continuing to rest on a bed of laurels of this year’s Assembly polls, it can find itself on a bed of thorns when Lok Sabha election comes calling next year. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Trinamool Congress leaders were irate on hearing Union home minister Amit Shah’s call to his party activists to ensure victory from 35 constituencies in Lok Sabha elections next year and usher in a BJP government in 2025. But had these Trinamool leaders taken a little pause and watched Shah’s subsequent words, the anger of their reactions would have been replaced by contempt.

During his recent tour of West Bengal, Shah expressed his dissatisfaction at the organisational muddle of the BJP state unit. In no uncertain terms, he had asked the state leadership to pull up its socks. Organisation man that Shah is, it was not a pep talk on his part. Even during his short trip, he had zeroed in on the lacuna of the state saffron unit. Shah had asked the local leaders to set up booth level committees. Ahead of the panchayat polls, the party’s outreach programme was also asked to be ramped up.

Sound organisational exercises though both are, such programmes should have been launched much earlier. Absence of booth level committees are an indication of grassroot organisation’s weakness as these units are micro level platforms to launch agitation against the ruling dispensation as well as to counter the propaganda of the ruling party.

Asking for ramping up of the party’s outreach programme is a pointer to BJP’s lack of connect to the state’s populace. No matter how high pitched is the praise for the success of BJP government’s development programme, asking to ramp up the outreach programme boils down to losing touch with the populace.

Well aware of the nuts and bolts of the party structure that Shah is, he has cottoned onto the twin drawbacks of the state unit in no time. Shah’s words can also be interpreted as backhanded reprimands to some of the state BJP leaders.

For it was up to these leaders to put in place a tight organisation structure of the state unit. Its loopholes being identified and asked to be plugged by none other than the Union home minister ,is a pointer to organisational honchos of the state saffron unit were sleeping on their job.

Another pointer to the slipshod running of the state BJP organisation is Shah coming all the way from the national Capital to single out the high point of the outreach programme. He said at a organisational meeting that in the outreach programme “the corruption under the TMC government” should be highlighted.

Not a day passes when one state BJP leader or the other is seen venting his criticism of the ruling dispensation of the state in the television news channels. Yet it took Shah to earmark the topic which is to be the spearhead of the outreach campaign.

Shah’s prescription of campaign game plan to his state party leaders indicate their half hearted preparation for the coming rural polls. It’s results would indicate which way the wind is blowing for the next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

State BJP’s preparation for the next year’s parliamentary elections is nothing to write home about yet. Winning 35 seats on the basis of such campaign preparation is farfetched prediction to say the least.

What was Shah’s provocation to give such a call? Apparently, he was relying on the age old saying that he who aims at the sky shoots higher than he who aims at the tree. If the results of 2019 Lok Sabha polls are anything to go by, there are 18 seats in BJP’s kitty. Given the haphazard state of party organisation, the saffron camp activists would be hard put to retain them let alone adding to the tally. Shah’s call is aimed to make the leaders as well as the rank and file put in best effort. Only then can a semblance of a political struggle be waged against the Trinamool.

The pitiable state of the state party organisation is clear to Shah. His call is aimed to revive the state unit and throw a smoke screen around it for sometime lest the Trinamool Congress zeroes in on to its weakness.

Given the angry reaction of the ruling dispensation, Shah’s game plan has worked. For it sought that Trinamool Congress would overestimate BJP’s political strength and stature. The flab in the state saffron camp organisation is visible to Shah. But he managed to portray it as muscle. Mamata Banerjee has asked the Trinamool workers   to work hard  for winning all the 42 seats from Bengal meaning defeating  the BJP in its present 18 seats. Whatever be the final outcome in 2024 polls, one thing is clear, Shah has to eat his words once again just like he faced after the 2021 assembly elections. At that time, TMC got 213 seats defying Shah’s constant clamour during the campaign that the BJP will get 200 seats throwing out the Mamata government. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge is walking a tightrope in trying to amicably resolve an intra-party feud between veteran Ashok Gehlot and young Turk Sachin Pilot in  Rajasthan. Working out a compromise formula by Kharge seems to be asking for the moon as both the feuding  leaders seem to possess a winner takes all  mindset.

Whatever be the outcome of Kharge’s intervention, one faction will remain unsatisfied. Apprehensions gnawing the national leadership are the dissatisfied group splitting to form a new outfit, joining BJP or remaining less than active in this poll bound state.

Gehlot and Pilot have been at loggerheads since 2018 over distribution of party nomination following which the tussle shifted to becoming chief minister. Things have come to such a pass that the party leadership is almost pushed to a corner to decide whether to go to the polls with rebel Pilot or chief minister Gehlot.

Both have their advantages and drawbacks. Gehlot is 71 and is seeking a last chance to be  the chief minister though Rajasthan has a history of alternating in government and it is BJP’s turn this time.

Dropping Gehlot is risky for the Congress for though ageing, the chief minister has shown that he is the man in control with an outreach in the BJP camp as seen with the help of the saffron outfit he swung  the vote of confidence  in his favour. He is an important leader from the OBC community and dropping him as helmsman would carry a wrong message to his community.

Gehlot has some significant minuses. He lacks charisma and indulges in factionalism. Pilot, on the other hand is a charismatic leader who is close to Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. Fighting corruption has been one of Rahul Gandhi’s declared missions while Pilot is on a dharna against the Gehlot government accusing it of inaction in Lalit Modi affidavit case, excise mafia, land grabbing cases and last but not the least of Gehlot dispensation’s reluctance to act against Vasundhara Raje government’s alleged corruption.

Articulate and sophisticated though Pilot is, he has shown his impatience by rebelling in 2020 and 2022. On the first occasion, he had the support of 20 party MLAs and the month long political crisis was concluded with an assurance from the party leadership to look into the matter.

In September 2022, the national leadership again intervened when Pilot made a bid for chief ministership. To upset this plan, 90 MLAs of Gehlot camp offered to resign. As things stand now, Pilot is in a hurry. He feels if he lets go now, the next opportunity will come to him in 2028 and he is loath to wait.

If Kharge awaits the results of Karnataka election which the Congress feels it has chances of winning, it would be a sign of dithering. Keeping the crisis in Rajasthan unattended would not only worsen it but may affect the situation in Karnataka for the worse.

Keeping the Punjab debacle in mind, the Congress high command must play its cards carefully lest it back the wrong horse. And it is here that the behind the scene forces in the party read Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra troika will come to play.

It is to be seen whether they give Kharge a long rope or rein him in. It is a fair guess that Rahul’s personal equation will Pilot will do the trick. Offering Pilot a shift to the national Capital with greater involvement in organisational matters especially in the matter of Rajasthan polls is an option. But the young rebel is unwilling to shift base.

With few young leaders left in its ranks, Pilot’s departure before the elections or the inactivity of his supporters would affect the party’s poll prospects. Rubbing Gehlot the wrong way would deprive the Congress of a veteran campaigner well versed in the ways of election and governance.

A victory in Rajasthan will widen the lifeline of Congress survival in national politics. The Grand Old Party is in a Catch-22 situation in which a mistake will markedly reduce its already emaciated sphere of influence. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Any activist and leader of West Bengal unit of CPI(M) will face strong disciplinary action in the event of any understanding with BJP in the panchayat elections The riot act being read out at the recently concluded state committee meeting of the CPI(M) is a clear pointer to the growing murmurs in support of red brigade activists joining forces with the followers of the saffron camp to take on Trinamool Congress in panchayat elections.

Every political party goes by an ideology of its own. Otherwise, it would be an unprincipled outfit. It does not suit a political organisation to be labelled sans principles or with loose ones. It is the last thing sought by a political party which takes part in elections seeking to give the people a better life.

The CPI(M) is no exception. Yet its policies in the past have not turned out to be inflexible. Rigidity of principles did not dictate CPI(M)’s decisions when it formed United Front government and first tasted power in 1967 when it tied up with Bangla Congress, an outfit which was as dissimilar to it as chalk is to cheese. Even though irreconcilable differences broke up the UF government, a beginning was made.

It was a pioneer of a coalition government formation. It was a precedent too of ideologically divergent outfits shedding inhibitions which saw Gandhian idealism and Marxist concern for people’s welfare sharing a common platform of pragmatism.

A decade later, processions sans party flags were taken out against Indira Gandhi-led Congress. Both the BJP and the Congress(O) supporters along with the CPI(M) took part The infamous Emergency was over and tom end it, CPI(M) activists and many erstwhile followers of the Congress joined forces to fling an authoritarian regime to the garbage heap of history. The CPI(M) was the beneficiary of the people’s anger against the emergency and the 1977 elections brought the CPI(M) led Left Front government to power in Bengal which lasted long 34 years till May 2011.

After the continuing surge of the Trinamool Congress winning three consecutive assembly elections and the CPI(M) denied of any single legislator in the new state assembly, the CPI(M) cadres in the districts have become desperate and most of them want to join with any anti-Trinamool component including the BJP. BJP is now the largest and the only opposition party in the assembly in the real sense. Congress just got its lone seat after Sagardighi by elections a few weeks ago.

Many CPI(M) cadres at the districts level are encouraged by the Sagardighi model under which the Congress candidate of the Congress-Left combine got elected defeating the Trinamool nominee by a huge margin with tacit support from a good number of BJP members and RSS cadres. This is not being denied by the BJP leaders also. Following Sagardighi victory, in many cooperative elections in Midnapore district, the Congress-Left nominees got elected, in some cases with BJP support.

While the base level CPI(M) cadres are enthused at the Sagardighi model , the CPI(M) state leadership is worried that the current stance of many of the district level cadres is against the party policy of having no truck with the BJP at any level. The warning given at the two day state committee meeting of the CPI(M) attended by the party general secretary Sitaram Yechury was meant to show the central leadership that the state leadership is serious in dealing with any move at the lower level to make common cause with the BJP to defeat the Trinamool Congress. The panchayat elections are due next month and so, this stern warning was needed, the state leadership felt.

Holding high a tee shirt which has “No vote to Mamata” written on it, leader of the Opposition, Suvendu Adhikari is the chief proponent of an informal unpublicized understanding with CPI(M).to defeat Trinamool in the panchayat elections. On the other hand, CPI(M) state secretary,. Md Salim has stated that the party will oppose both Trinamool and BJP. This may look as politically correct but the ground situation in West Bengal in such that just the front of the Left and the Congress can together barely get 25 per cent of the votes and this front alone can not be in a position to defeat the TMC in the crucial panchayat elections.

Adhikari’s rival in the party BJP national vice-president Dilip Ghosh is advocating a go it alone line in the rural polls. But then his opposition to line of action of the leader of the Opposition Adhikari is predictably taking into account their long standing feud between turncoats and original RSS. State president Sukanta Majumder who has risen from the RSS rank, is in favour of giving selective support to the Left-Congress candidates where the BJP is weak and the Left has a better chance.

The CPI(M) state leadership is thus in a big dilemmas as the panchayat elections are approaching. The party on its own is not in position to field candidates even in fifty per cent of the constituencies with any winning probability. The Congress with its present support base is of little use in ensuring win. The only option which can lead to the increase in CPI(M) seats is to work for an anti-TMC front with support of all anti-TMC forces including BJP. Much will depend on whether after this leadership warning, the CPI(M) workers in the districts abide by party discipline and keep no touch with BJP support base or they silently follow their own model of uniting maximum anti-TMC forces including the BJP support base, to take on the Trinamool candidates. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

No stranger to intra-party squabbles, BJP leaders of West Bengal unit have often differed over internal matters of the party. But fissures are now discernible in the state saffron camp leadership over actions of governor, CV Anand Bose in the recent communal violence which erupted in the state.

Disagreement between leader of the Opposition and Nandigram MLA Subhendu Adhikari and state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar whose rank has been swelled by the party’s national vice president Dilip Ghosh is out in the open. No attempt is being made to paper over the cracks even as panchayat elections are inching closer.

Memories may be refreshed about the backgrounds of the members of the dissenting factions in the BJP’s state unit. While Majumdar and Ghosh are veterans, Adhikari, a former minister in Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool Congress state government has changed sides before 2021 Assembly elections.

It was learnt from party sources that Adhikari is peeved at not receiving the same degree of proximity from Bose which the former met with when the present incumbent’s predecessor, Jagdeep Dhankhar was the principal resident of Raj Bhavan. Ruling dispensation’s leaders to endorse this view.

Bose is to all intents and purposes a proactive governor prone to go by what meets his eyes rather than what he is told .His cutting short a tour of north Bengal and returning to Kolkata to take stock of the riot situation at Howrah and Hooghly that had marred the Ram Navami celebrations is a pointer to it.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had earlier voiced her apprehension of trouble breaking out during Hanuman Jayanti. Three companies of central para military forces had been deployed in the state following a direction of Calcutta High Court to prevent any untoward incident during the Hanuman Jayanti celebrations.

To cap it all, the citizens were pleasantly surprised at the sight of governor Bose moving around the streets on the Hanuman Jayanti day. Cutting across party lines and the religious divide, the people were reassured no end when they saw the first citizen of the state playing a hands on role

For it is a rare and a welcome sight as well. There ought to have been no quarrel on this matter. But a discordant note was heard from the saffron camp. On the other hand, no aspersion of bias was raised by the ruling dispensation Trinamool Congress,

The jarring note was sounded by the leader of the Opposition Adhikari who said that the governor visited only those spots the police escorted him to. In other words, gubernatorial footfall was conspicuous by its absence in any potential trouble spot.

Continuing in a critical vein, Adhikari said that there were no Hanuman Jayanti functions at the spots where the governor’s motorcade rolled into. Bose went to the places where city police chief Vineet Goel took him to, he said underscoring his point.

If the contention of the leader of the Opposition seeking to label the governor’s dropping in at different points in the city as merely symbolic gestures, the faction opposed to him had other ideas. Both Sukanta Majumdar and Dilip Ghosh welcomed the governor being out in the city streets on the day of Hanuman Jayanti.

This is not the solitary instance of the leader of the Opposition’s criticism of the governor. When Bose visited riot scarred Rishra, Adhikari felt that instead of going places, the governor should send a report of the situation to the Union home ministry and exercise his constitutional rights thereafter.

Reactions were unavailable from Raj Bhavan about the governor’s take on the suggestions of the leader of the Opposition. But if the governor’s actions during Hanuman Jayanti are anything to go by Adhikari’s words have been brushed aside.

Moreover, Adhikari lost face as both Majumdar and Ghosh had lauded the governor’s spot visits. Taking his criticism of the leader of the Opposition a step ahead, Ghosh commented that it has almost become a convention in the state to criticise the governor.

This take of Ghosh, a former state BJP chief is a broadside fired at Adhikari. For be it Dharma Veera in the late ’60s or Gopal Krishna Gandhi in the last few years of Left regime, the governor came in for sharp criticism from the ruling dispensation.

After Trinamool Congress replaced Left Front regime, the ruling party had several run ins with governor Jagdeep Dhankhar. Incidentally, Adhikari was a frequent visitor to Raj Bhavan to update Dhankar on the different issues in the news and the Governor responded.

Apparently, Ghosh seems to have equated Adhikari’s criticism of the governor Bose with the fusillades fired in the direction of Raj Bhavan during the tenures of Gandhi and Dhankhar. In doing so, if Ghosh has drawn comparison between Adhikari with CPI(M) and Trinamool Congress, both ideological opponents of the saffron camp, the former state BJP chief could not care less. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Confusion is setting in among a section of Trinamool Congress activists at the double face of the leadership towards scam tainted leaders even as party supremo Mamata Banerjee have asked them not to despair. They should walk along puffing up their chests, she further advised.

The barrage of criticism can be sourced to the cash for teaching jobs scam coupled charges of cattle, coal and sand smuggling by some senior leaders. Several of them are in custody but the party leadership have suspended one, expelled two but is yet to initiate any action against another duo.

Sections of the lower echelons of TMC are unable to make a head or tail at the suspension of party secretary general and education minister Partha Chatterjee and expulsions of party leaders from Hooghly Kuntal Ghosh and Santanu Banerjee accused in similar .scams while no action have been taken against Birbhum district chief Anubrata Mondal and School Service Commission chief Manik Bhattacharya though all the four are now behind the bars. No explanations of this pick and choose policy have been forthcoming from the party leadership which went into a brainstorming session at party chief Banerjee’s Kalighat residence recently to chalk out a game plan for the forthcoming rural polls.

After Enforcement Directorate had arrested Chatterjee last July for his alleged involvement in the cash for teaching jobs scam, the TMC leadership had lost no time in distancing itself from him. He was relieved of his ministerial responsibility and later suspended.

A worse fate awaited Kuntal Ghosh and Santanu Banerjee who were expelled from the party following their arrest by CBI in the cash for teaching jobs scam. Even as the trio cools their heels behind the bars, instead of disciplinary action TMC leadership made no secret of its support towards Birbhum unit chief Anubrata Mondal arrested by CBI last August on charges of cattle smuggling.

None other than party supremo Banerjee accused the central probe agency for their *selective targetting of BJP’s political rivals”. The party rank and file have been called upon to give him a “hero’s welcome” on his release.

The questions at the top of the activists mind is that what sets Mondal apart from Chatterjee. The latter is far more senior in the party hierarchy while the former is a mere district chief.

After all, there is no discernible reason to welcome back Mondal while maintaining a studied silence in the case of the former secretary general. The rank and file are puzzled as being accused in different scams is the only common point between the two.

The leadership is not welcoming any questions on this issue. But the fact remains that long before Mondal was hauled up for his involvement in cattle smuggling the party supremo had expressed her concern about the health of the Birbhum district chief aka Keshto.

Sometimes oxygen does not flow to Keshto’s head, Banerjee had diagnosed. Obviously, Mondal has qualities which has made him closer to his leader than Chatterjee.

As if on cue, a senior TMC leader requesting anonymity said that Mondal is one of our seniormost organisers of the party. He does not seek nomination to contest an election nor does he crave for a .ministerial berth and these traits have endeared him to the party supremo, he added

The chief minister thought that Mondal would be released soon, the TMC leader said. She has started distancing herself from him but will not take disciplinary action lest there is a fallout in the forthcoming rural polls, he said. Mondal happens to be the Birbhum strongman. Post brainstorming session, Banerjee that responsibility of rural polls for Birbhum including candidate selection would be looked after by her is a pointer to Mondal’s clout.

But the leadership and rank and file are clueless about the reason of no action being taken against SSC chairman Manik Bhattacharya. The Palashilpara legislator has been arrested in the cash for teaching jobs scam.

Large quantities of currency notes have been recovered from Bhattacharya. As the sight of such unaccounted cash recovered by central probe agencies have a negative effect on the people, the party distances itself from that person, a senior leader said

But Bhattacharya stands out as an exception while it is the rank and file who have to turn a deaf ear at the preferential treatment of Bhattacharya. Seeking to take the battle to the camp of her political opponents, Banerjee has asked education minister .Bratya Basu to make a list of those whose names were written on chits and given jobs in his department from 1990 till 2011, the Left Front regime.

A sound tactic on paper though it remains to be seen whether it washes. The Opposition has labelled the chief minister’s stand as “deceitful”.

Even as the campaign for the rural polls gets rolling, the TMC leadership seems to have handed over ammunition to be used against the ruling party candidates. Campaigners would find it hard to explain to the voters the reason behind the plain and simple double standard in a scam involving crores found in the home some of the leaders of the ruling dispensation.

The rural polls are a litmus test if popularity of the TMC which finds itself facing fresh embarrassment almost on a daily basis. As one leader confessed that the optics are bad read sight of the piles of currency notes which augurs ill for the morale of the TMC rank and file and the party’s political fortunes. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

The Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal seems to be in a minefield of troubles after sweeping to power in the summer of 2021 for the third time in succession. Now, it is confronted with the demand to hold students union elections, which comes in the wake of the cash-for-teaching-jobs scam, which has seen some of the TMC leaders making their way behind the bars, coupled with state government employees’ demand for increased dearness allowance at par with that of their central government counterparts.

The students’ union elections have not been held for years. It is not that if they are held now, the student wings of the opposition parties would defeat the nominees of Trinamool Congress in the colleges and universities, thereby enabling their parent bodies to get a toehold.

Be it CPI(M)’s SFI, Chhatra Parishad of the Congress, or BJP’s Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, they all lack the organisational muscle to defeat Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad in the students’ union election. Barring a few exceptions, the students tend to support the representatives of the students wing of the ruling party of the state.

This trend was perceptible during the previous Left Front regime and is subsequently evident during the ongoing Trinamool tenure. Faculties in Jadavpur University and Presidency University have stood out as exceptions.

What has triggered the clamour for students’ union elections then? Moreover, without a single Left Front MLA in the Assembly, why are the SFI activists’ voices being heard at the top of this chorus?

It would seem that the sole aim of the SFI-led agitation is to catch the Trinamool government in the wrong foot. The more-than-convincing 2021 Assembly election victory notwithstanding, the ruling dispensation in the state is on a back-foot.

The unexpected defeat of Trinamool nominee Debasis Banerjee in the Sagardighi by-poll has set the alarm bells ringing in the Trinamool camp. Embarrassed as it is by the cash-for-teaching-jobs scam and the demand for DA, even a handful of reverses in the students union polls will sink the morale of the TMC rank and file to a new low which augurs ill for the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Small wonder then, that the decision-makers in the ruling dispensation are in no hurry to announce the dates of the students’ elections. There is no reason to boost the confidence of the Opposition activists, even if it means reverses in a few students’ union elections.

The student wing of the Trinamool, the TMCP, however, does not share the political wisdom of their party elders. Not seeing any further than their nose, the TMCP is also seeking the elections.

A long procession of SFI activists had marched right upto a gate of Legislative Assembly on 10 March in support of their demand for elections. State education minister Bratya Basu has said that the student union elections will be held after the rural polls.

The minister said that the election across campuses would be held on separate days. He had earlier said he expects a “free and fair” election to be held in which student wings of the Opposition parties can participate.

The dates of the rural polls are yet to be announced. There is a thinking in ruling party circles of capitalising on electoral success in the rural polls and surging ahead of its rivals in the student body elections, thereafter riding the crest of the victory wave.

The ruling dispensation is seeking to buy time. It all depends onthe panchayat election results, and whether rural polls are indeed held soon after.

Another reason for holding off the student union elections until after the rural polls, which the minister left unsaid, is the requirement of a large number of police personnel to be deployed in the rural polls, that will be also be necessary in the student union election to ensure it is held in a “free and fair” manner and without episodes of violence. Trouble is expected in it as the Opposition bodies have accused TMCP of intruding into the democratic space of their political opponents and rival students unions thus attempting to intimidate them.

Right from the 1960s, student politics and violence have gone hand in hand in West Bengal. Left Front chairman Biman Bose and former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee,  Congress leaders Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, Subrata Mukherjee and Somen Mitra, Naxalite leader Asim Chatterjee, and last but not the least, Mamata Banerjee, had all their baptism by fire in students elections which often turned violent.

Chief Minister Banerjee is less than pleased with the existing state of affairs. Though she has risen from student politics, she has often voiced her admiration for the “St. Xaviers model”, in which an apolitical union looks after the students’ grievances.

The tradition of violence spilling over in students’ election continues. In February 2013 at a college students’ election in Garden Reach, a policeman was shot dead making the state government suspend statewide students’ election for six months.

After the Trinamool came to power in 2011, students’ union elections were held regularly while the complexion of these students’ bodies changed. Irregularities seeped in after 2013, and when the process was getting back to the rails in 2019, with beginning of elections in four standalone universities, the process was interrupted by onset of COVID-19.

Intimidation of opponents followed by violence has become a part and parcel of students’ union elections in the state. One looks forward to a refreshing change ushering in a quiet campus when the curtains go up for the students elections in a few months time. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

The victory of Congress Left combine at Sagardighi constituency by poll in West Bengal lets the seven year old poll alliance taste electoral success after a long time. For after 2021 Assembly election debacle, bitter taste of failure was its constant companion.

The results of Sagardighi has triggered the ringing of alarm bells more loudly in the Trinamool Congress camp than the reverses in three North eastern states of Tripura, Nagaland and Meghalaya. For it is nearer home in Murshidabad, a one-time Congress bastion

Not only does it marks the return of a sole Congress MLA Bayran Biswas to the Assembly after 2021 elections, the victory augurs ill for the Trinamool. Even if one goes by the adage that one swallow does not make summer, the Trinamool leadership has perceived a danger it poses to its political fortunes.

The reverses in the north eastern states are a pointer that the TMC was short on organisational strength and expected the charisma of its chief Mamata Banerjee to see its candidates emerge victorious. Though Sagardighi is a Trinamool bastion and a cakewalk was expected, the 11-year long regime had overlooked a rising anti-incumbency factor which helped BJP get 18 MPs from West Bengal in 2019 Lok Sabha polls together with a plethora of corruption charges on the cash for teaching jobs scam.

The defeat in the home turf is a resurgence of the anti-incumbency factor. It is a boon to the Congress-Left combine while it has given a worried feeling to the TMC camp.

The poll reverses have put on hold TMC’s endeavour of shopping for allies. Indeed back of the beyond Sagardighi was not far from chief minister and party supremo Mamata Banerjee’s mind when she was announcing that her party would go it alone in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The Trinamool supremo has not been enthusiastic about a poll alliance with Congress in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The victory of Congress nominee Bayran Biswas at Sagardighi by-poll arguably helped her make up her mind.

Unknowingly the Sagardighi victory and the architects of the alliance which helped snatch it have made their place in the backdrop of 2024 Lok Sabha elections. It remains to be seen whether there are repeat performances.

Several issues will vex the TMC leaders Banerjee including when they sit down to ascertain the reasons leading to their losses. The same issues are being seized by  the Opposition as Sagardighi bypoll result is an ominous signal to TMC of its minority community voter base being dented.

The votes of this minority community dominated constituency have been a sure shot in the Trinamool vote bank and it’s nominee Subrata Saha having won on three successive occasions. It is time to pause and ponder on the causes which made such committed voters overnight switch their loyalities to Congress despite claims of the benefits of the social welfare schemes started by the chief minister herself..

A massive scam tainting the education sector in the state is before the court with ED and CBI unearthing loads of cash and gold and education minister and TMC secretary general Partha Chatterjee behind the bars has considerably eroded the credibility of the ruling dispensation of West Bengal. A brainstorming session needs to be convened by the Congress-Left combine to devise a way to make the cash for teaching jobs scam a burning poll issue next year so that the ruling dispensation cannot face the voters with a clean slate in Lok Sabha elections.

The TMC camp knows it in its heart of hearts that the scam eroded it’s vote bank. For cash for teaching jobs have been shelled out for the rural populace like those inhabiting this Murshidabad constituency.

Reverting to the poll reverses in the north eastern states one need not read between the to fathom the causes of defeat. The big crowds flocking to chief minister Banerjee’s rallies was more a sign of curiosity value than allegiance to her party and its policies.

A similar phenomena was witnessed in West Bengal elections which were won by the ruling dispensation. For the crowds knew that the chief minister seeking their support will usher in developmental projects to their constituencies sooner or later.

This perception was markedly lacking in the mindset of the voters of Tripura and Nagaland, both the states where TMC has drawn a blank. Obviously their presence turned out to be big rally but it did not transform itself into votes into Trinamool ballot boxes.

Tripura and Nagaland voters felt that the Trinamool leaders will shoot and scoot. The need of the hour was to create an impression of staying put electoral success or failure notwithstanding but it was conspicuously absent.

But that rationale does not apply to Sagardighi. It is a green flag to the return of Congress influence to its lost bastion.

Now the most daunting task before the Trinamool leadership is cleansing it’s image whose soiling is in no small measure responsible for the Sagardighi reverse which provides an chance to the Opposition to dig in its heels and fire broadsides at the ruling party. The recruitment scam hangs around  the neck of the TMC leadership like an albatross with not only education minister Partha Chatterjee and his close associate Arpita Mukherjee are in prison, piles of cash being recovered from her home.

The Congress Left combine have a raft of poll issues on a platter. And more are pouring in and if Sagardighi victory was the main course, others are following. For Sagardighi victory has united an Opposition which seemed in disarray but showing signs of coming together. It’s significance lies as the chief .minister has accusing Congress ,Left and BJP of an “immoral alliance”. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

West Bengal unit of BJP finds itself between a rock and a hard place over the renewal of separate statehood demand of some of its north Bengal legislators. Trinamool Congress may not find this. emotive issue of another partition issue a handy tool to berate the saffron camp in the panchayat polls this year, it would assume a different dimension to take on BJP in next year’s Lok Sabha election.

As a resolution against creation of another state was passed in West Bengal Assembly, leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari made it clear that his party does not subscribe to the formation of another state. But even before the ink had dried on the resolution, Kurseong resounded with protests against it.

1. bandh call has been given by Gorkha Jan Morcha and Hamro Party on 23 February in support of the separate statehood demand only to be suspended The BJP despite its leader’s dissociation protestation in the Assembly had not opposed it.

It is the first agitation of its kind since the 2017 when the statehood demand call saw a 104 day shutdown. The battlelines have been drawn as chief minister, Mamata Banerjee touring north Bengal has warned of stern measures against the sponsors of the bandh.

With the statewide Madhyamik examination beginning on February 22, apprehension of examinees being inconvenienced was perhaps the reason of keeping it on hold. Yet the chief minister’s tough talk had earned her more sympathy from the local people than the bandh sponsors.

Reading between the lines reveal a strong possibility of Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool riding the crest of a wave of sympathy and support in next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

Banerjee and her party leaders hitting the campaign trail next year espousing the cause of an united West Bengal will be closer to the head and heart of Bengali voters. The BJP leaders, on the other hand, have moved away from the voters’ minds owing to the silence of their leaders on the issue of separate statehood.

Having won 18 Lok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal in 2019 Lok Sabha election, the possibility of a significant slump in the number of seats owing to the backfiring of the statehood demand looms large before.BJP.

For apart from being a part a tourist destination, the cool bracing climate of north Bengal with Darjeeling the focal point of attraction has other tired with the rest of the state. Small wonder, the idea of Gorkhaland being carved out and made into a separate entity is an anathema to the people of the state.

Apart from its natural beauty, this part of West Bengal is dotted with spots associated with the memories of persons who were political and cultural icons of the state. Deshbandhu Vidya Ranjan Das breathed his last in Darjeeling and so did Sister Nivedita, none of whom need any introduction.

Rabindranath Tagore had stayed at Mongpu. Satyajit Ray had shot his first colour film Kanchenjungha in Darjeeling.

Economic significance of north Bengal cannot be overlooked. Tea and timber are the principal components whose sale add much needed funds to the state coffers.

The BJP leadership may rejoice in its heart of hearts at the discomfiture of the Trinamool government even as the hills resonate with statehood demand. But its tacit support for the proposed statehood will cost it dear in the 2024 poll battle given the cultural and economic ties of north Bengal with the rest of the state.

The stand of BJP on separate statehood would not only give Trinamool greater connect with the voters even before the poll campaign has started, the ruling party of the state will get unexpected perquisites too. Enlarging on a conspiracy theory to divide the state, the ruling party’s campaigners will get an opportunity to cover up the shortcomings of its regime.

From exodus of youth in search of jobs to other states to introducing politics of dole the list of Trinamool regime’s drawbacks is long. But what could have been campaign ammunition to the saffron camp to pin down TMC with will be swept under the carpet by the statehood demand.

Opposition to the statehood demand and taking tough stands against bandh supporters have already brushed up the image of chief minister, Mamata Banerjee. In no time, the Trinamool cosign managers will portray her as a rallying point against any move against bifurcation of the state.

The separate statehood demand has put the saffron in the coming Lok Sabha elections. With south Bengal having more seats than northern part of the state, the Trinamool with its claim to keep the state will have an upper hand among voters of more constituencies, a reminder to the fact that elections are a game of numbers at the end of the day.

Come Lok Sabha polls, the BJP leadership will find dissociating itself from the *bifurcation plot” to be an uphill task. It’s task will not be made easier as it’s leading campaigners like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister, Amit Shah being busy in other states will be devoting lesser time and attention to West Bengal than they did in 2021 Assembly elections.

The state BJP is not in a position to come out openly against separate statehood demand. It’s north Bengal rank and file together with some of its MLAs will not tow this line.

Feeble protests of having nothing to do with statehood demand like one voiced by leader of the Opposition Adhikari will not add to its credibility In sum, the state saffron camp has handed over its arch political opponent Trinamool a lethal political weapon on a platter. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Come February 27, Meghalaya will witness a curious electoral battle. Erstwhile allies are taking on each other and possibility of horse trading run high after the results are announced on March 2.

Other curiosities mark the Assembly election in the “Abode of the Clouds”. Espousing divergent political ideologies, Union home minister, Amit Shah and Trinamool Congress leader Abhishek Banerjee are never known to speak in one voice.

Yet the duo is doing so as their political interests coalesce. Small wonder, they have trained their guns and fired broadsides at the same political opponent -chief minister, Conrad K. Sangma accusing him of corruption.

As Shah vollied charges of corruption against the CM, it is a case of erstwhile political allies turning against each other in the electoral clash. For National People’s Party (NPP) to which Sangma belongs  along with BJP made up Meghalaya Democratic Alliance which ran the government of this hilly state together with United Democratic Party, People’s Democratic Party, Hill State People’s Democratic Party and an independent legislator.

Banerjee on the other hand has accused chief minister, Sangma of being chary of CBI and ED for having allegedly  enriching his family at the expense of the state exchequer. The Trinamool leader is one of the leading campaigners for his party which is the principal Opposition outfit in this state.

Even as BJP hurls corruption charges at NPP, it is forgetful of a fact which ought to have made it have second thoughts. How come it overlooked such shenanigans of NPP or what prevented it from walking out of the alliance earlier.

As one comes down to the nitty gritty of the coming elections, the NPP has the advantage of being the principal coalition partner as it hit the campaign trail. The BJP is contesting in all the 60 seats. Once a formidable political entity in the state, Congress is also contesting in 60 seats. Though Trinamool is the principal Opposition party, its candidates are contesting in 56 constituencies.

Seeking to emerge as the main political player in Meghalaya, the BJP has corruption charges hurled against Conrad Sangma. It is coupled with   lack of development of the state during his chief ministerial tenure.

If a Reserve Bank of India report is anything to go by, Meghalaya is developing at the slowest space in the country, Shah has contended. But it again focuses on his party’s role in the coalition government it had formed with NPP and others.

Border disputes being a sensitive issue among the north eastern states, BJP’s poll promises include settling border disputes with Assam which has a BJP-led government. Permanent outposts along the border for ensuring safety is in the saffron poll manifesto.

A special task force headed by a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate all cases of corruption is part of the BJP election manifesto. Need to shore up the state’s healthcare system has been pointed out by saffron party campaigners by drawing comparisons with neighbouring Assam where five medical colleges have been built while Meghalaya has no medical colleges for five decades.

Border dispute finds its way in the election manifesto of Trinamool too.  Even as it is busy preventing itself being tagged an outsider by NPP, if voted to power, it has promised to scrap the border pact with Assam.

Illegal coal mining plagues the state. The BJP manifesto promises a task force to check it and introduce scientific coal mining.

Headed by Mukul Sangma, the Meghalaya unit of Trinamool has accused the chief minister Conrad Sangma of being soft and ineffectual. The death of 5 residents of Meghalaya and a Assam forest guard last year in police firing has worsened the situation.

In his election speech, Mukul Sangma has accused the NPP of being remote controlled. He underscored his contention by mentioning that it was seen during the border dispute with Assam that land has been given to it owing to the failure of the state government.

It has a far more serious charge. It alleged that NPP leadership is being dictated from Assam. After all, along with NPP, the BJP had been part of Meghalaya Democratic Alliance. The alleged corruption of NPP to which the BJP turned a blind eye to, is contended by Trinamool to be the pay off.

Rubbishing BJP’s claims, NPP is contesting in 57 seats. It contends to have developed the state in the past five years.  Its human development is claimed to be higher than the other north eastern states and West Bengal, a contention which seeks to catch Abhishek on the wrong foot.

Few political parties in the country are as adept as BJP in mixing religion with politics.  But Meghalaya is a Christian dominated state and BJP is being accused of being against this religion, a charge to which it does not have an answer. (IPA Service)

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By Tirthankar Mitra

Even as Nagaland goes to the state assembly election on February 27, with an eye on the polls, BJP has unfolded its game plan to pre-empt trouble in its sensitive area- eastern Nagaland. Party president, JP Nadda made some promises for its development while releasing the election manifesto. The reason of giving priority to this region is not far to seek. And it is lack of development which is the reason of ear marking it.

Even as one stops short of criticising the BJP which has been in power at the Centre since 2014, a deeper dive into the law and order situation of Nagaland will provide a clue to this belated waking up. Nearly, 40 per cent of the polling booths of the state are “critical”.

As for the genesis of this “generosity” it can be traced back to a resolution passed in August,2022 for abstaining from 2023 Assembly elections. Since it was the influential Eastern Nagaland People’s Organisation which had passed it, the saffron camp was loath to bin it.

For the call of staying away from the polls was given to buttress the demand for a separate state namely Frontier Nagaland which would include six districts of eastern Nagaland. The apex bodies of all the different Eastern Naga tribes resolved to abstain in support of the ENPO resolution.

Seeing a hammer about to be thrown in the works of the functioning of democratic process and a threat to its concept of Akhand Bharat (United India), the Union government administration went into an overdrive. For these resolutions, in many cases, include not allowing election campaign in their territory and making participation in the poll process by filing nomination by community members almost an impossibility.

And the last thing the powers that be seeks to do is to conduct an election overseen by the army. A meeting was held between senior home ministry officials and a ENPO delegation after wheels within wheels moved to avert a confrontation.

The boycott call was withdrawn on February 4But it was based on an assurance of a solution mutually agreed upon will be reached and will be implemented following the completion of the election process.

Six districts which have been demanded to be included in Eastern Nagaland are Kaphire, Longleng, Mon, Noklak, Tuensang and Shamator. Seven tribes including Konyak, Khiamniungan, Chang, Sangtam, Tikhir, Phom and Yimkhiung live here.

Incidentally, these tribes account for 30 per cent of Nagaland’s population. Out of 60 seats in the Assembly, 20 are from this area considerably adding to its political importance. The BJP poll manifesto promised setting up of an Eastern Nagaland Development Board with a special package for its development. Proportioning of budget provisions in keeping with the population of Nagaland was also promised by Nadda.

If one seeks to refresh one’s memory, the demand for Eastern Nagaland has been an longstanding one. The ENPO submitted a memorandum in the Prime Minister’s Office in November 2010 demanding a separate state with special status and provisions.

Development deficit was the rationale for the demand behind the separate state. This deficit is the principal demand among other causes for dissociation. The “lack of administration” is stated to be the cause of disparity in development. The area of the districts was outside the authority of the British administration.

The first Assembly elections were held in Nagaland in 1974. In 1957, it became a part of Naga Hills Tuensang Area. The developmental disparity of this area and the rest of the state was focused upon by Nagaland State Development Board. It was in 2016 and much water has flown under the bridge since then.

The report pointed out a contrast in development of the districts around Kohima and Dimapur with those of Kiphire, Longleng, Mon and Tuengsan. Tuengsan and Mon remain at the bottom of the indices of income and livelihood,

gender issues and poverty alleviation.

Since 2004, the picture has remained unchanged. Nagaland’s average literary rate is 80 per cent while it is 56.99 per cent in Mon. When the state of Nagaland was created in 1963, owing to its backwardness this region was placed under Governor’s Rule for 10 years. It remained under a regional council without a representation in the Assembly.

Mon and Tuensang have the lowest worker participation in Nagaland. In this rural area, agriculture remains at subsistence level even60 years after attaining statehood. It needs no far sight to see that the development process and democratic aspirations of the people of this region were dashed. The demand for a separate state or a special status germinated in the lack of development.

In Nagaland, BJP has an alliance with the main party NPP. In the February 27 polls, out of the 60 assembly seats in the state, the NPP is contesting in 40 seats while the BJP is fighting in the remaining 20 seats as per the pre-poll understanding. In 2018 assembly elections, NPP contested 58 seats and got 26 seats while the BJP got 12 seats by contesting 20 seats. Though the NPP, like  other NE parties is a member of  the BJP led NDA at the centre, both  the BJP  and the NPP are  making  all  efforts  to increase  their  respective  strength in the coming  assembly  polls.

The recent moves by the centre in Nagaland are aimed at helping  the BJP to  get  more seats in Eastern Nagaland  by defeating the other  two regional  parties NDEP and NDPP. Congress has very little influence in the region though once Nagaland was its stronghold. In 2018 elections, the Congress contested 18 seats and got no seat. (IPA Service)

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