Existing as a Bengali these days has become a source of embarrassment and wretchedness. The eminently intellectual and cultured West Bengal is now being compared with its more iniquitous neighbour - Bihar. At face value it does not emerge as an innocuous but an absurd thought. We as Bengalis who think of us as culturally supremacist, if not subtly racist, demean, scorn and denigrate Biharis, this indeed is a bizarre thought!
The CPM as per media reports seemed to have raised a heavily armed private army. There was carnage in the village of Netai. The Maoist thanked TMC for supporting their cause. All these have been confirmed by the Intelligence agency.
Binayak Sen was imprisoned for his association with the Maoist. The Maoist thanked Mamata Banerjee against land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram. Should Mamata be smacked with the same charges that put Binayak behind bars? Who should the voter vote for, considering that both sides have hooligans patronizing the party and being patronized in return? Do the voters have preferences, considering that both the CPM and the TMC seem to incline on criminal violence to settle disputes which should be decided legally, democratically and in an electoral manner? The questions are difficult but elementary.
Going forward, there might be a change of guard at the Writers Building but nothing much will change for the mass. The politics in West Bengal will remain more or less the same, no matter how much we Bengalis consider ourselves to be more civilized than our neighbours. No matter how much we deny it, West Bengal seems to have a history of organized violence and we apparently are doing nothing to dismantle it.
So now how can we get rid of these monsters and have some other alternative to lead us?
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