Why I’m An Estranged Leftist

A government must submit to questions by its citizens. That is democracy’s basic premise.
APARNA SENFilmmaker
NEITHER I, nor my family, have ever been card-carrying members of the party but, in a sense, I grew up living and breathing the Left. As part of Utpal Dutt’s group, we put up plays celebrating workers’ revolts and singing the ‘Internationale’ on stage. Later, I sympathised with the Naxals and admired their selfless passion which was ready to face death for a cause, even though at heart I felt it was a misguided movement. And I rued the fall of the USSR.As I grew older, I began to realise that communism was, in a sense, against human nature. The personal and profit motive is a fundamental impulse of human life: we are not built like bees and ants to subsume ourselves completely for the good of the collective. This is one reason why I welcomed the economic initiatives of Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. The second was that I, like any other intelligent person, recognised that industry was essential for the future of Bengal. But I continued to lean to the Left because I saw it as a powerful force of opposition against the excesses of capitalism.Today that sense of a protective bulwark is lost. I feel completely estranged from West Bengal’s Left Front government. The CPM’s mask has slipped. It has exposed itself as a fascist, anti-people party. Granted Bengal needed to industrialise. Granted you need land to industrialise. But why did the government have to play the middleman for corporations? Why did it not build cooperatives, and take farmers and villagers into confidence? Why did it not choose non-arable sites for factories? After all, there has been no outcry in Salboni where the Jindals have a project and where they have chosen the more painstaking but democratic path of consulting locals. Is there nothing to learn from this?I became involved in Singur and Nandigram by slow degrees. At a protest rally in Kolkata, I met many women from Singur and Nandigram and was horrified by what I heard. Things began to precipitate in my head: Tapasi Malik’s horrific murder; an attack on my friends’ car as they tried to enter Nandigram; the massacre of March 14. As the editor of Sananda years earlier, I had carried a story about post-poll violence in which CPM cadres had cut off the hands of people who had voted for the Hand, which was Congress’ electoral symbol. At the time, I had not given it much thought, I didn’t think it was a widespread phenomenon. But now, a terrible disillusionment began to set in.This disillusionment and estrangement has deepened since March 14. It is true that the CPM leader Shankar Samanta was hacked to death in Nandigram by BUPC supporters. I don’t condone that, regardless of the fact that Samanta was considered a criminal. Still, there is a distinction. One is a violence born of simmering anger, fear and distrust. A violence in the defence of land, armed with rustic one-shoters. The other is a violence perpetrated and defended by the State. A violence armed with bombs and sophisticated SLRS. A violence that has reportedly used people as human shields and displaced thousands of others. People are starting to compare Nandigram with Gujarat. And why not?IT IS not just the physical violence. Equally disturbing is the debased rhetoric and remorseless brazenness that has accompanied it. Leaders like Benoy Konar, Biman Bose and Deepak Sarkar have not left the government any ground to stand on. Sadly, this includes someone like Brinda Karat who talks of ‘Dum Dum Dawai’! They have stopped at nothing: according to them the Governor, the judiciary, the media, civil society — anyone opposed to their terror tactics is a Trinamooli. How outrageous can they be? Every elected government must submit to questions from its citizens. That is the fundamental premise of democracy. This government simply refuses to recognise that.Nandigram has raised too many unanswered questions. Why did the government not state its intention to shift the proposed chemical hub in writing, when it is so obvious that a formal government notice needs a counter notice from the government to negate it? Why was the CRPF not called in earlier? Why could the police not enter Nandigram if the CPM cadres could? Why has Buddhadeb stooped to the language of payback? the cheap language of tit for tat? All of this has catalysed a new mood. 60,000 people took to the streets in Kolkata. It was exhilarating. This was not an organised protest. People just kept pouring in. As we walked, others joined in.Many stood showering flowers from their balconies.The CPM has effectively silenced any voice of protest from among the people of Nandigram. Sad indeed for a government that proclaims to be the “Left”. But I draw hope from civil society. None of us know what lies ahead. There is no credible political alternative, but I am certain something will reveal itself. A new model, a renewed morality.
From Tehelka Magazine, Vol 4, Issue 46, Dated Dec 01, 2007