West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has done something his friends and colleagues in the political spectrum, especially on the Left, should have done long back.
Here is what he said at a meeting of Assocham in Kolkata yesterday: ”I’m against bandhs. Unfortunately I belong to a party which calls bandhs. I have kept quiet. But from now on I will not keep quiet… Gherao is illegal and immoral. It’s our cotribution to the English language. It will not be allowed in the state.”
A stunning and commendable declaration that cast him on the side of progressive, development-oriented, peace-loving citizens. The party might see him as a new rebel after Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. But the large majority of common Indians will see him as one among them.
Even methods of protests have to change
I was once an ardent suppporter of the Left, almost a blind supporter. I still believe capitalism has its pitfalls and needs to checked and counterbalanced. But what has upset me are the methods the Leftists have been adopting to counter the capitalists. Everything has to change with time, even methods of protest.
Peaceful shutdowns themselves have achieved nothing. Violence has only been counterproductive. It’s suicidal, akin to the man who cut the branch on which he was sitting. Countless accounts of hardship that bandhs have caused, mainly in Kerala and West Bengal, have been well chronicled.
Learn from China
China itself has changed and is still changing. It’s not by chance China has reached a position that scares even the US. If there is one country that make the US dance to its tune it’s China. Even the US knows that. That’s why CPM general secretary Prakash Karat’s opposition to the Indo-US nuclear deal carried no weight. The merits of his argument couldn’t be carried as our nation wasn’t strong. Remember China got all that they wanted in their nuclear deal.
Buddhadeb needs all the support of the country’s people for gathering guts to publicly acknowledge what he always thought, that bandhs are bad. If our country has to progress we need to shake off the inertia of the 60 odd years. Dumping violence and bandhs could be the first step.
Enemy is within
Pity that the CPM and people like Kerala chief minister V S Achuthanandan chose to criticise Buddhadeb. If the Left parties were waiting for someone to take the first step, here it was. Pity the initiative was not seized. Pity we lost a chance to make a beginning.
Remember if we are being attacked and held hostage by anti-national forces, it’s because we are weak. We are just letting ourselves to be run over. There no point in blaming anyone. The enemies — like supporters of bandh — are within.
Pradeep, nice read, and we need more like him!
(Check the sp. in the title)
Nice post, I am in agrement with your views. Raji
Thanks Indrani for the correction.
Thank God that these mature and seasoned leaders have started to see sense. Someone tell them to show some sense to Karat Uncle too.
Yes, Pradeep, Budhadeb has to be congratulated. The CPM hangs on to an archaic dogma and outmoded methods that have not succeeded anywhere in the long run.
In my opinion, what we have in China today is not communism as projected by our Leftists. One should ask the Comrades here how many ‘bandhs’ China has every month.
In Kerala, CPM has moved into business – retailing, amusement parks and so on.