Nandigram leaves Bengal intellegentsia divided

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Kolkata, Mar 28: If Nandigram kicked up a huge controversy drawing political battle lines, the aftermath of the March 14 police firing left Bengal' s intellegentsia sharply divided.

Academics, writers, singers, artists, actors, who had long been together sharing a common belief in Left philosophy, suddenly found themselves walk under different banners and hurl jibes at one another from opposite camps.

The list of such elites joining the fray is long: from Gnyanpeeth award winning writer and social activist Mahasweta Devi to celebrated actor Soumitra Chatterjee, from film maker Aparna Sen to author Sunil Gangopadhyay.

A few of them have even chosen to share dais with political leaders to air voice against 'state terrorism'.

While almost all of them condemned the police firing that killed at least 14 people, what left a yawning rift among the once comrades -in-arm was not only the government's land acquisition policy but also the Opposition's role that allegedly triggered unrest in Nandigram.

Amid the heat of a strident campaign against taking over of agricultural land, launched by the Trinamool Congress-led Krishi Jami Raksha Committee, a galaxy of luminaries from various fields grouped together under the 'Forum of Artists, Cultural Activists and Intellectuals' and held a convention much before the March 14 incident. Present among those who accused the Left Government of coercing farmers and gagging the voice of dissent were Medha Patkar, Aparna Sen, historian Sumit Sarkar, theatre personality Saoli Mitra, poet Tarun Sanyal, singer Kabir Suman, educationist Sunando Sanyal and former GSI Director Subrata Sinha.

In her column in a Bengali daily, Mahasweta Devi, who has been in the forefront of the intellecutals' movement, continued tirade against the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Government, while leading a number of processions and speaking at street meetings, often organized with the active support of the National Alliance for People's Movement(NAPM), an organization of which Ms.Patkar is a member and various other groups with avowed radical left leaning.

However, what happened after March 14 was a virtual slide in the support of the pro-Left elite, going hunky-dory with the Chief Minister till the other day: Manoj Mitra, Ashok Mukhopadhyay, Bibhash Chakraborty, Kaushik Sen, Meghnad Bhattacharya and Bratto Basu, few names that Bengali theatre takes pride of resigned en masse from "Paschim Banga Natya Academy" while veteran poet Sankha Ghosh and academic Sukumari Bhattacharyay stepped down as members of "Bangla Academy", an organization set up by the West Bengal Government for the promotion of Bengali language and literature.

Falling from the crest of adoration that the Bengali intellectuals used to heap on the Bengal's poster boy, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee found some most bitter critics who had campaigned for the ruling Left Front even before the last Assembly elections and now demanding his ouster.

Giving bytes to electronic media, Mr Bibhash Chakraborty, a veteran stage director and actor, said the Chief Minister's hands were smeared with blood, and like Lady Macbeth, he would not be able to wash it off.

Expressing anger at the killing of villagers, poet Joy Goswami compared Mr Bhattacharjee with Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi while painter Suva Prasanna was more ruthless in his criticism.

While the other half of intellectuals tried to put up a stand in favour of the Government or remained neutral, mud was slung in abundance from both camps against each other. Some of them were accused of being Government cronies while the tag of opportunists were put on some others.

Forming another platform, 'Santi O Sanghati Mancha (Platform for peace and integrity)', a sizeable section of intellectuals strongly denounced the March 14 killings by police and "miscreants", while condemning the violence, allegedly triggered by the Opposition parties putting the state into flames and stalling the process of industrialisation.

In a resolution, the Mancha called for exemplary punishment of the guilty police officials and the 'armed forces' responsible for the incident while demanding that the people who burnt CPI(M) offices and drove out party workers from Nandigram on the "pretext" of a movement, be dealt with strongly.

Seeking to maintain a balance in a volatile situation, the Mancha held the Chief Minister morally responsible for the police firing, but alleged that "reactionary" forces were out to disallow an elected Government to act and stop the state's development.

''We are pained that writers, artistes and intellectuals of Bengal, who had been long united on many issues now stand divided.

The situation will damage the prospects of agricultural growth and industrialization. There are always scopes for dialogues to resolve any crisis,'' writer Debesh Roy said at a press conference of the Mancha.

''We are open to talks to our breatherens. As the head of the Government the Chief Minister should take the moral responsibility of what has happened. But like others we do not think that he should resign "we can not ask for his head", author Sunil Gangopadhyay said.

The signatories to a statement, issued by the Mancha, included novelists Dibyendu Palit, Bani Basu and Suchitra Bhattacharyay, poets Joydeb Basu, Mallika Sengupta and Samarendra Sengupta, actors Soumitra Chattopadhyay, Sabitri Chattopadhyay, Dipankar De and Sabyasachi Sengupta, film makers Raja Sen and Subrata Sen, Singers Usha Uthup and Srikanta Acharya and a host of others from different fields.

UNI

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