Are Trinamool MPs harbouring Bangladeshi terrorists in WB?

February 12, 2014 15:36 IST

Rediff.com  » News » Are Trinamool MPs harbouring Bangladeshi terrorists in WB?

Several politicians from West Bengal are under scrutiny for sheltering Jammat-e-Islami and Chaatra Shibir operatives, says a Intelligence Bureau note to the Home Ministry. Vicky Nanjappa reports

An Intelligence Bureau note to Minister of State for Home, R P N Singh, states that terrorist groups plan to bring in arms and ammunition to India across the porous Bangladesh border. The consignment is expected to land in West Bengal.

This information is significant as several leaders from the Trinamool Congress face allegations of sheltering Jammat-e-Islami and Chaatra Shibir operatives. 

IB officials say that members of these outfits are being driven out of Bangladesh and are taking refuge in West Bengal. Several politicians from the state are under scrutiny for sheltering these operatives. The IB is monitoring these links and a couple of names, including one who was recently elected to the Rajya Sabha, have surfaced.

The IB says that some MP’s who have had close links with the SIMI are shielding the Jamaat militants in India, who have local support.

Nearly 40 militants, who fled Bangladesh, are hiding in West Bengal, says the IB.

Like in Bihar, the agencies have found it extremely hard to track down militants of the Jamaat in West Bengal. While in Bihar it was the Indian Mujahideen, in West Bengal it is the Jamaat and the SIMI that is a cause of worry.

They land in West Bengal and are then whisked away to remote areas of the state. Even the local police do not appear to be doing much. Often it has been found that the police are deliberately tightlipped due to pressure from the top, an officer with the IB said.

The TMC has often been accused of patronising the politics of religious fundamentalism. Biman Bose of the Left Front had said that the TMC was shielding Islamic fundamentalists who have been rejected by Bangladesh.

“When Bangladesh police operate in Satkhira, and Jamaat cadres have to flee, they get shelter from the Trinamool MP in Basirhat,” Biman Bose had alleged.

Bose also made an allegation against Ahmed Hassan, who was sent to the Rajya Sabha and said that he was close to the Jamaat and was a correspondent of the Jamaat’s newspaper, Naya Diganta.

He feels that this is an attempt deliberately made to disrupt a drive undertaken by Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

A few days ago Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim, a member of the Awami League in Bangladesh, had raised the same issue. He made a request to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to hand over Jamaat-e-Islami terrorists who had taken shelter in India.

Selim urged India not to harbour these terrorists, who he said fled to the neighbouring country during the joint force's recent operation in Satkhira.

Security agencies say that the situation appears to be going from bad to worse and there are clear instructions to put anyone supporting Bangladeshi militants on the radar.

The SIMI which has taken refuge in Bangladesh has already shown what it is capable of. The operations of the Indian Mujahideen, thanks to Amir Reza Khan, were largely witnessed in Bangladesh.

The protecting of Jamaat operatives who naturally ally with the radical wing of the SIMI only adds to the problem.

The Home Ministry says that West Bengal is the easiest route for Bangladeshi militants to smuggle in arms and ammunition. The radical SIMI on the other hand will aide this as they have a lot of benefit and are looking to carry out strikes in India.

There is a sizeable SIMI cadre that relies on political support as a result of which the Bangladesh militants issue has blown out of proportion, Intelligence Bureau officials point out.

It is important for India to share a good rapport with Bangladesh since we face a common terrorism problem. Bangladesh expects us to hand over these militants and also cooperate to expect the same from them, IB officials also point out. 

Vicky Nanjappa in Bengaluru

http://www.rediff.com/news/report/are-trinamool-mps-harbouring-bangladeshi-terrorists-in-wb/20140212.htm?sc_cid=fbshare

In West Bengal, CPI(M) attempts course correction - The Hindu

By SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

The party comes out with an assessment of 34 years of Left Front rule

In an attempt at course correction and to reach out to the people, the State committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has come out with a draft report assessing the 34 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal.

The 34-page document, which has a fair amount of criticism of the Left Front government, has been put on the party’s website for public response before the final draft is approved.

The document described the attempts at land acquisition at Singur and Nandigram as an “exception,” and said they called forth an “adverse reaction” from the people. At Nandigram, the “proactiveness of some CPI(M) leaders turned the people against us,” it said. And 82.82 per cent of farmers of Singur in Hooghly district were willingly gave their land for the Tata Motor’s car factory.

On the violence in the Jangalmahal region, the document said Maoists, helped by the Trinamool Congress, extended their influence in the region where the party had a strong influence once. The party got isolated from the people, despite political and administrative efforts, it said.

The document said that though the Left Front government promoted primary education in a significant way, there were questions about the standard. The Left Front put an end to the anarchy in higher education caused by the Congress government, but there were unwarranted political interference in some higher educational institutions. “There is no need for a party-based election in the governing bodies [of educational institutions],” it said.

The document said the number of people living below the poverty line had consistently decreased during the Left Front government, and West Bengal stood second in poverty alleviation, after Kerala. The Left Front government was the first to create reservation in government employment for Muslims, as recommended by the Ranganath Mishra Commission. And it was the first to take up decentralisation of power by creating rural bodies even before the 73rd Amendment to the Constitution established the three-tier panchayat system.

In West Bengal, CPI(M) attempts course correction - The Hindu

Mamata and her fresh war with the media

IANS  |  Kolkata  

January 18, 2014 Last Updated at 16:06 IST

Known to share a love-hate relation with the media, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has now courted a new controversy with her government restricting free movement of mediapersons to various departments at Nabanna, the new secretariat in neighbouring Howrah.

The administration has issued an order - Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in official jargon - that is being seen as an attempt to confine mediapersons to the press corner on the first floor of the 14-storey building, which now serves as the seat of governance with the permanent secretariat "Writers' Buildings" under renovation.

The order makes it clear that journalists will not be allowed to enter any of the government departments without prior permission of the authorities concerned.

While access to the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) was already restricted, the latest curb has created resentment among the journalists who, using the accreditation cards issued by the state, enjoyed full access to the secretariat so long.

The order, which lays down the SOP regarding movement of mediapersons inside the secretariat, comes in the form of a missive to the information and cultural affairs department from A K Biswas, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Reserve Force), which handles security of Nabanna. It was circulated among the mediapersons earlier this week.

"Mediamen are supposed to remain only at the press corner on the first floor... until and unless they are informed or allowed by competent authority to go to any of the department at Nabanna for a photo session or a press briefing," the order says.

In what is being construed as a form of warning, the order claims any entry of mediamen to any other part of Nabanna without approval of the competent authority for the purpose of media coverage is "literally breach of the SOP and also prejudicial to security of the VIPs and official secrecy of various departments of the government".

The order comes days after three journalists, covering an official programme of Governor M.K. Narayanan and the chief minister in front of Nabanna, were beaten up by the police, leading to one of them being hospitalised with a head injury.

The incident occurred while a photo session was on during the unveiling of the state's administrative calendar by Narayanan.

Even though Narayanan ordered senior police officers to look into the matter, the twin incidents have created resentment among the media, a section of which has been the target of continuous barbs by the administration, led by the chief minister herself.

Often censuring the media for "spreading canards" against her government, Banerjee at times has even accused a part of the media of hatching a conspiracy to eliminate her in collusion with the Maoists and the opposition.

Not surprisingly, reporters have opposed the order, terming it as an "atrocious attempt to gag the media and make it paralytic".

"Indian democracy has always unequivocally rejected attempts of press censorship and there shall be no exception in this case as well. No stone will be left unturned to ensure survival and smooth functioning of the fourth estate," Kolkata Press Club president Sudipta Sengupta and secretary Anindya Sengupta said in a statement.

Besides revocation of the order, the Press Club has also sought apology for suggesting journalist were a threat to VIPs.

"The insinuation suggested in the notification that journalists are a threat to VIPs is grossly insulting to the media community. Press Club, Kolkata, demands that appropriate authorities in the government apologise for the insult heaped on media persons and assure not to repeat this in future," the statement read.

The Banerjee government had earlier kicked up a storm after its decision to ban leading dailies including all English newspapers, except eight Bengali and Hindi newspapers, in state-funded libraries to promote "free thinking".

Opposition parties and members of civil society as well as a section of the intelligentsia had come down hard on the decision.

(Anurag Dey can be contacted at anurag.d@ians.in)

Mamata and her fresh war with the media (West Bengal Newsletter) | Business Standard

Zero tolerance

By SUHRID SANKAR CHATTOPADHYAY

FRONTLINE, Volume 29 - Issue 17 :: Aug. 25-Sep. 07, 2012

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s absolute intolerance of criticism resurfaces with the arrest of a farmer.

Mamata Banerjee. Her apparent paranoia has made her overdependent on the police.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has made it very clear that she will not tolerate dissent, criticism and jokes against her government and that police action will be initiated against her critics. First came the arrest of a professor who forwarded an innocuous cartoon of her by e-mail; then came the branding of a college student who asked her an uncomfortable question on a private television channel’s chat show as a Maoist; and now an indigent farmer has been detained for voicing his grievances to the Chief Minister at a public meeting.

All Shiladitya Chowdhury, a farmer from Binpur, did was to point out to Mamata Banerjee at a rally at Belpahari in Pashchim Medinipur district that the rise in fertilizer prices was ruining farmers. But that was enough for the angry Chief Minister to label him a “Maoist” and have him arrested under non-bailable sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

On August 8, like thousands of others in the region, Shiladitya had gone to attend Mamata Banerjee’s rally at Belpahari. The area was until recently a known Maoist belt, and so the Chief Minister’s rally was taking place amid heavy security. Shiladitya, who was sitting in the front row beyond the security cordon, got up in between and loudly said that farmers were dying and were not getting proper prices for their produce, that fertilizer prices were increasing, and that the government was not doing enough to redress farmers’ grievances.

Mamata Banerjee reacted aggressively, pointing him out in the crowd and ordering the police to catch him. As he was being led away, she referred to him as a Maoist who had sneaked into the rally ground to create disturbance. Upon questioning Shiladitya, the police found that he had no links with the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist) and allowed him to return home. But later, the Jhargram Superintendent of Police, Bharati Ghosh, reportedly claimed that Shiladitya had “escaped” before the interrogation was completed – a feat that is difficult if not impossible given the heavy security at the venue.

After his “escape”, Shiladitya went straight home to Nayagram, but the police waited two whole days before picking him up again on the night of August 10. This time he was arrested under Sections 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from his duty, a non-bailable offence), 353 (assault or use of criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty, non-bailable), 447 (criminal trespass, bailable) and 506 (criminal intimidation, bailable). The following morning he was produced before a district court and remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.

The arrest raised a storm of protest from a cross section of the media and civil society. Political parties, both allies of the Trinamool Congress and those in the opposition, spoke out in one voice against the arrest. Communist Party of India (Marxist) Member of Parliament Nilotpal Basu said the arrest was tantamount to “autocracy” while West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee general secretary Om Prakash Mishra called it a “bizarre case of heightened intolerance”.

Ambikesh Mahapatra, the Jadavpur University professor who was arrested in the cartoon case. The West Bengal Human Rights Commission has recommended that the State government compensate him.

The strongest criticism came from an unexpected source – Chairman of the Press Council of India and former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju, who had, months earlier, showered praise on Mamata Banerjee for her integrity and uprightness. “Her action is most undemocratic, to say the least. I had earlier given a statement in favour of Mamata Banerjee…. But now I have changed my opinion and believe she is totally undeserving to be a political leader in a democratic country like India…,” he reportedly said. He also warned officials carrying out her orders that they could face a situation similar to those sentenced in the Nuremberg trials.

Even in her days in the opposition when she was heading the violent agitation in Singur that led to the departure of Tata Motors’ small car project from the State, she reacted angrily to any question she perceived to be critical of her movement. The term “Tata’s agent” was attributed to anyone asking her an uncomfortable question. But after assuming charge as the Chief Minister of West Bengal in 2011, her threshold for tolerance of any perceived criticism has been diminishing at an alarming rate.

Apart from Ambikesh Mahapatra, a Jadavpur University professor of chemistry, Subrata Sengupta, septuagenarian retired engineer, was arrested for forwarding by e-mail a month-old cartoon relating to Mamata Banerjee’s insistence on removing the then Union Railway Minister, Dinesh Trivedi, from the Cabinet and replacing him with present Railway Minister, Mukul Roy. Her branding of young students who asked her uncomfortable questions on a television chat show as “Maoists” came a month later. As she stormed off the set, she asked the police to take photographs of those who had posed difficult questions to her.

There are many who feel that Mamata Banerjee appears to be constantly looking over her shoulder for unseen enemies. This apparent paranoia, say others, perhaps explains her overdependence on the police. “Apart from the intolerance and undue haste that characterises the present government so far, there appears to be a more-than-necessary dependence on the police. This may be harmful in the long run for any democratic polity,” a senior government official told Frontline. Despite all the criticism, the Mamata Banerjee government has remained unapologetic. On each occasion she and her party leaders defiantly justify their stance, no matter how illogical their justifications may appear.

In the cartoon case, the government and the party’s interpretations of the innocuous mail ranged from being “lewd and obscene” to indicating a sinister plot to kill Mamata Banerjee. The farmer’s voicing of his grievances was interpreted as a dangerous bid to breach security and cause mayhem. Mukul Roy, who was present at that meeting, claimed that Shiladitya was drunk and pushed the police personnel and women around him, although video recordings of the incident show no evidence of such action. Shiladitya, who hails from a family of policemen, had been selected for a training programme at the Central Reserve Police Force camp at Binpur.

As with the previous incidents, this time, too, the Trinamool leaders’ excuses serve only to diminish the credibility of the ruling party. “It is not what he said but how he said it that was offensive,” a Trinamool Congress source told Frontline.

HRC Report

In a development that has caused much embarrassment to the State government, the West Bengal Human Rights Commission’s report on the cartoon incident has recommended that the State government compensate both Mahapatra and Sengupta by paying them Rs.50,000 each for the manner in which they were arrested and detained and take action against the policemen responsible for the arrest. The report states: “Citizens who are expressing or airing a critical opinion about the ruling party cannot be picked up from their residence by the police at the instance of an agitated mob whose members are unhappy with the critical views of those two persons. If this is allowed to continue, then not only the human rights of the dissenters will perish but free speech, which is the life blood of our democracy, will be gagged. Constitutional provisions will be reduced to parchment promises and we will be heading towards a totalitarian regime in complete negation of democratic values….” The Commission also made it clear that “no one can attribute even remotely any suggestion which is lewd or indecent and slang” in respect of the cartoon that was forwarded.

Though it is not binding upon the State government to follow the recommendations, according to political analysts, governments normally abide by such suggestions. What remains to be seen is whether the present report will prompt the Mamata Banerjee government to avoid such embarrassments in the future. 

West Bengal gets a controversy a day

An issue a day keeps boredom at bay ” this could well be the guiding principle of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee these days.

MID-DAY, April 16 07:35:58, 2012

KOLKATA, Agencies

How else does one explain her government regularly dishing out controversies on a platter to her political opponents? The baton charging of women protesting eviction from a slum by male police, the arrest of those agitating against the assault, muscle flexing by ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) men vis-a-vis a small but feisty human rights group close to Banerjee’s Kalighat residence — the unending chain of events in a short span of time has triggered much condemnation from across society.

You’re joking! Ambikesh Mahapatra, who allegedly forwarded the Mamata cartoons,  was booked for outraging the modesty of a woman, defamation, and hacking

However, the midnight arrest of a Jadavpur University professor and a septuagenarian retired engineer in connection with the online circulation of a cartoon strip which the authorities saw as defaming Banerjee, or ‘Didi’ as she is popularly known, was the icing on the cake. The collage of cartoons allegedly forwarded by physical chemistry professor Ambikesh Mahapatra included the photographs of Banerjee and Railway Minister Mukul Roy and used some dialogues of filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s Bengali detective masterpiece Sonar Kella.

It showed the two TMC leaders discussing how to get rid of party leader Dinesh Trivedi. Subrata Sengupta, a former Public Works Department engineer, was taken into custody, as Mahapatra had sent the cartoons from the registered e-mail id of the housing cooperative of which Sengupta was secretary. The mail account had been opened in Sengupta’s name.

But what was more laughable were the charges. The duo was booked for outraging the modesty of a woman, defamation and hacking. Though the professor and the retired engineer got bail from the court, there was a distinct similarity in the modus operandi in their case as also that involving the attack on the human rights group.

The Association for Protection of Democratic Rights (APDR) activists, intending to take out a pre-announced procession, were first roughed up by youths allegedly close to TMC. Within minutes, police, instead of taking action against the culprits, arrested the APDR people. Mahapatra was also first allegedly beaten up by TMC men and forced to write out a signed statement that he had circulated the cartoon “motivatedly” as he was a CPI-Marxist activist. And then police swung into action based on a complaint by someone who does not even have an e-mail account to take the professor and the retired, ailing engineer into custody.

After their release, Mahapatra filed a counter complaint, and buckling under the storm of protests, four of the youths were arrested. But they were bailed out within hours. Now there is a fresh angle to the story. It has been reported that those who attacked Mahapatra were members of a building material suppliers’ syndicate with links to the TMC. It is being said that bills worth Rs 17 lakh submitted by suppliers were being withheld by the housing society which doubted how genuine these were. Mahapatra is assistant secretary of the cooperative. Meanwhile Banerjee appears unfazed. While she defended the arrests, a source close to her said, “This will not have any impact on her support base, as very few people are bothered with Facebook and Twitter.” 

One year on, an outraged Bhadralok divests from Didi

Smita Gupta

The Hindu, April 19, 2012 01:02 IST

In the summer of 2001, it was evident as I travelled through West Bengal that fatigue had set in with the Left Front government. Earlier, in end-2000, anticipating the public mood, Communist Party of India (Marxist) veteran Jyoti Basu had stepped down as Chief Minister, paving the way for Buddhadeb Bhattacharya. This ensured the Left victories in 2001 and 2006.

The Left extended its life by a decade not merely because Mr. Bhattacharya gave it a new look but also because the only option before the people was Mamata Banerjee. Ms Banerjee leading her three-year-old Trinamool Congress, didn't seem capable of serious governance. I recall many conversations in Kolkata: yes, Bengal needs a change, but Didi simply can't be trusted to govern the State. If her trajectory as an opposition leader is clearly the stuff legends are made of, her forays into government — as Minister of State for Youth and Sports in the P.V. Narasimha Rao government (1991-93) and as Union Minister for Railways in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government (1999-2001) — had been less than inspiring.

That scepticism turned into burning impatience with the Left government a year after it returned to power in 2006. If the anti-land acquisition agitations in Nandigram and Singur saw a rural uprising against the Left Front, the latter's inability to contain the situation and the human rights violations ensured that Kolkata's vocal middle class, from club-going boxwallas to jhola-carrying intellectuals, all signed up for poriborton.

Censorship, arrest

But today, a month short of celebrating a year in power, Ms Banerjee's honeymoon with the opinion-making middle class is over, the shroud of censorship she has flung across the State proving to be the last straw. The watershed moment was the arrest of a Jadavpur University chemistry professor Ambikesh Mahapatra on charges of violating the modesty of a woman, spreading social ill will and disrupting social harmony, merely for sharing a cartoon online. Later, it transpired that Dr. Mahapatra, as assistant secretary of the New Garia Development Cooperative Housing Society — where he lives — had blocked the Trinamool-backed syndicate's contracts to supply building materials, earning the wrath of the party's goon squads.

This episode has galvanised the middle class, especially the intellectuals who had jumped the Left Front ship for the Trinamool. Result: a Twitter campaign, “Arrest me if you dare, Mamata Bannerjee,” and an online petition on Facebook mobilising support against the government's actions. R.K. Laxman's “The Common Man,” mouth sealed with two strips of bandage, and a graphic of a male face, hands covering the eyes and mouth, adorn these accounts. Unfazed, the State CID has asked Facebook to delete morphed images of Ms Banerjee, after a Trinamool supporter complained that “objectionable comments” were flooding social networking sites. Since then, a group of intellectuals has written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh condemning the Mahapatra episode that came on the heels of another arrest — that of molecular biologist Partha Sarathi Ray who had in April joined a protest against the eviction of slum dwellers in east Kolkata. The signatories include Noam Chomsky, Mriganka Sur and Abha Sur of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, top scientists from the IITs and institutions in Denmark, Singapore and Sweden, as well as activists like Aruna Roy and Nikhil Dey.

Unperturbed

But Ms Banerjee remains unperturbed: for her, in an odd reversal of the State's politics, these are her “class enemies” — the elitist English speaking middle class, whom she referred to in an interview she gave last month to NDTV; those who, she said, have contempt for her humble origins.

As Chief Minister, she has made it clear she will not tolerate a differing view, much less dissent, within her party or government — or, indeed, far more troubling, in the State. If Mr. Dinesh Trivedi was unceremoniously sacked as Union Railway Minister for not toeing her line on the Union Railway budget, Damayanti Sen, the feisty, young Joint Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, who cracked the Park Street rape case, was shunted out to an obscure job for proving Ms Banerjee wrong: her first response to the rape charge and, indeed, news of infant cradle deaths, was that they had been “manufactured to malign her government.”

Newspaper issue

Now that intolerance has spread to the wider world: last month, government libraries were told to purchase only eight newspapers — those taken off the list were those critical of her actions and policies, as they prevented “freethinking” among readers. In future, she said, she might even ask people to stop buying certain newspapers “because a conspiracy is going on against us.” The newspapers that offended her included the top-selling Ananda Bazaar Patrika,The Telegraph and Bartaman: interestingly, Bartaman, whose strident anti-Left stance played a leading role in bringing the Trinamool to power, is now running stories highly critical of Ms Banerjee. Later, under pressure, five newspapers — a Nepali daily, two Bengali dailies, and The Times of India — were restored to the “government” list. An embarrassed Library Services Minister Abdul Karim Chowdhary said the government had not imposed censorship or banned the big papers, it only wished to promote small newspapers.

But to the “freethinking” reading public, it is more than apparent that those that made the cut in the first list were all pro-government: one such Bengali newspaper is owned by a Trinamool Rajya Sabha MP, whose associate editor, Kunal Ghosh, is among the three journalists recently elected to the upper house of Parliament on the party ticket. For Ms Banerjee, the switch from goddess-status to a daily scrutiny of her actions has been a rude shock, as all through her opposition years, she depended heavily on media support. Today, it's well-known in Kolkata's political circles that she looks to a chosen group of journalists, including the new Rajya Sabha MPs, rather than her political colleagues, for advice on all issues.

Unfortunately, for her, some of these “advisers” are now coming under the scanner as one of them works for a chain of media outfits backed by a chit fund, the subject of an ongoing controversy. Last September, Trinamool MP Somen Mitra wrote to Dr. Singh, urging action against chit funds channelling money into real estate, film production, the hotel business — and the media. He also alleged that these chit funds were prospering, thanks to political patronage, with some owners even in Parliament. Last month, Congress MP A.H. Khan Chowdhury wrote a similar letter to Dr. Singh, asking for an investigation into the activities of these chit funds. Indeed, the link between hot money and media organisations backing Ms Banerjee's government is now an open secret in Kolkata.

In the dying days of the Left Front government in West Bengal, the CPI (M)'sharmad sena, or goon squads rampaging through its villages, came to symbolise its 34 years. Today, those goon squads have switched political allegiance to her Trinamool. If the violence continues unabated — with the Left now at the receiving end — intolerance of any criticism of the new government has added a fresh dimension to the State's politics. “Harmad theke unmad (from unmitigated violence to untempered madness”) is the despairing phrase most used on Kolkata's streets to describe the prevailing situation in Bengal.

The middle class that turned the tide of public opinion in the Trinamool's favour is angry.

Writer Mahasweta Devi, among those who had backed Ms Banerjee, recently said: “Dictatorship has never worked. It has neither worked in Hitler's Germany nor did it work in Mussolini's Italy.” Ms Banerjee needs to heed those words: for even if her popularity is still intact in rural Bengal, recent events represent the thin end of the wedge.

smita.g@thehindu.co.in

Journalism in Mamata land

Its not clear whether ‘Didi’, who had portrayed herself as a champion of democracy, approves of such behavior but it is obvious to the field reporters in Kolkata that the media is on its knees.

AJITHA MENON’s tales of the new media regime


www.thehoot.org, Posted Wednesday, Jun 08 22:09:25, 2011


West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently opened a new chapter in the media-government relationship when she publicly declared that she will “compensate” a news channel with a substitute story if they miss something. This was her official response to a question on why the State Higher Secondary Examination results were leaked by the concerned government department to a private news channel (Star Ananda), known for its close affiliation to the Trinamool Congress, ahead of the formal announcement.

The entire media fraternity gathered at Writers’ Building, the state secretariat, responded to the statement with scattered laughter, almost condoning the fact that the government will play favourites with the media on official matters – even at the cost of institutional breach of trust - and in case of objection from someone, there will be “compensation” in the form of another story. First your turn, then my turn – wait for the handouts.

The more serious issue of betrayal of trust by an institution reposed with the charge of conducting these examinations without bias and ensuring formal publication of results to the satisfaction of lakhs of students, their teachers and guardians, was ignored by the mainstream media almost as one.

As any professional journalist will vouch – an exclusive will be carried if the source is credible and the facts verifiable. So, the channel which carried the results ahead of schedule can hardly be blamed for “scooping” their rivals. However, the responsibility for the leak should have been fixed on the government department responsible for the examinations – in this case the Bengal Higher Secondary Education Council. Not because the results were handed out ahead of time – though one doubts that a similar media compliance would be witnessed if the UPSC results were given to one particular channel before the merit list is officially posted – but because of the breach in security of the entire process of conducting exams, correcting answer sheets, tallying the marks, preparing the merit list and publishing the results.

Interestingly, the Council President, Omkarsadhan Adhikary, when pushed to the wall on the issue admitted, “everything was done in accordance with the instructions of the state government”. He was mum on who in the state government ordered the disclosure.

If a breach can happen in this case, why then not for influencing results, adding or deducting marks of certain candidates, for even changing the merit list? Since the weak link in the department is already exposed – a link which is susceptible to media glamour or political interference, whatever it maybe in this case - why can’t the weak link be exploited for perpetration of more nefarious designs? Or for that matter, why should this remain restricted to one government department only? After all, the Chief Minister herself has sanctioned the weak link now, refusing to order an enquiry into the matter!

A pro-Left channel (Choubis Ghanta – Bengali) picked up the issue only to be categorically dismissed by the Chief Minister in the following words – “What can I do if a certain channel gets information. I can’t order an enquiry into what channels are doing. Choubis Ghanta is CPI(M)’ s channel. They are always saying bad things about me. Maybe they are sad that they missed the story. Don’t worry, I will give them another story to ‘compensate’.”

A case of missing the forest, as well as the trees and offering bribes to media to boot? The denizens of the fourth pillar of democracy in Bengal seemed extremely subdued on the matter. ‘The Bengal Post’ story with the headline “HS council ‘fails’ as channel leaks results”, had some teeth, while the Kolkata edition of ‘The Hindu’ had a small paragraph on the matter. The CPI(M) mouthpiece ‘Ganashakti’ of course went to town about it and the Bengali ‘Bartaman’ also had a story stating the Chief Minister had refused to order an enquiry into the leak.

It may be recalled that a similar leak of Secondary Board exam results ahead of the formal announcement had occurred in 2007 and the then government was forced to order an enquiry which led to the dismissal of the then President of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education, Ujjwal Basu.

The low key response from mainstream media this time is worrying in the context that a new era of total media obeisance to both the Chief Minister and her council of ministers has been ushered into the state post Assembly elections.

That Mamata Banerjee has a select coterie of favourite journalists is common knowledge and acceptable in India where most politicians cultivate media persons to suit their ends, where journalists are more often than not “cultivable” and where “paid news” is norm. However, it is dangerous territory for democracy when journalists outside this coterie are not even allowed to ask questions – not just to any politician but even to the democratically elected Chief Minister in office.

A young agency reporter, who had the “ temerity” to ask Bimal Gurung, the Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) leader “Have you dropped the demand for a separate Gorkhaland?”, after his first meeting with the new Chief Minister, was shot down by the Chief Minister who did not allow Gurung to reply and instead said “don’t insist, that may deteriorate the situation ”! However, the matter was tolerable till after the press conference, when a trio of senior reporters converged on the rookie and demanded to know “why did you ask such a question? ‘Didi’ was offended”.

The message was, don’t ask unpleasant questions, only ask what ‘didi’ wants to be asked, please her and her ministers at any cost. The media should in no way anger ‘didi’. Its not clear whether ‘didi’, who had portrayed herself as a champion of democracy, approves of such behavior but its obvious to the field reporters in Kolkata that the media is on its knees.

Notably, when Mamata Banerjee finally announced a tentative agreement with the GJMM on Tuesday (June 7), she repeatedly said the “Darjeeling” problem has been settled. The media obliged, and the word “Gorkhaland” was not even whispered, and the GJMM representatives were not asked anything about their long pending demand for a separate state – it was as though it never existed!

While giving an interview, Partha Chatterjee, the new industry minister, took it upon himself to order the ETV cameraman in the Assembly, “Keep us in two-frame” (meaning the newly elected Speaker Biman Banerjee and himself). When he realised that the cameraman had not kept a “two-frame”, zooming in to his own face alone, Chatterjee actually threatened “you think just because you hold the camera in your hand, you also hold your job? You think Hyderabad is far away? Don’t think that its that far”.

In another instance, a young reporter with NE Bangla channel angered the Mayor Shovan Chattopadhyay, who was criticizing the condition of Subhas Sarovar Lake a few days after the new government took charge, by asking “but this lake comes under Kolkata Corporation, which has been with TMC for over two years now, so why hasn’t something been done yet?” . The Mayor walked off in a huff without replying, while other journalists from R Plus Channel and Mahua TV charged her with, “why do you ask such things. You angered him and we lost our chance. Because of you we could not ask our questions”.

As the angry young reporter said, “their questions were, of course, of paramount importance as usual - how many bulbs will be put up to light the lake area and which other lake will you visit? This is what journalism has come to in Kolkata”!

Television viewers across the country saw the lead anchor of a 24-hour Bengali news channel sitting behind Mamata Banerjee on the day the election results were announced, while she was giving an interview to Barkha Dutt of NDTV. Even, Dutt, a journalist of some stature, had not dared to ask the “in-coterie celebrity anchor” to move out of her frame!

For young reporters working for the pro-Trinamool Channel 10, a nightmare is unfolding. One of them asked a question to the Mayor, which the later did not like. He picked up the phone and called the channel editor and complained. It was made clear to the hapless scribe, by his boss, that asking difficult questions to Trinamool leaders or ministers was a strict no-no. “Keep them happy. Anyway such stories will not be carried on our channel and you will surely lose your job”, the young reporter quoted his boss as saying. Most reporters of this channel admit that they are afraid of losing their jobs if Trinamool leaders complain to the editor.

Mamata’s coterie journalists belonging to Star Ananda, The Telegraph, etc., also interface between her and other media persons. A reporter from Indiavision Channel, Kerala details his experience outside Mamata Banerjee’s house - “I waited for six hours for a sound bite from her. She came out and called one journalist inside. He came out after sometime and showed us all an sms on his mobile from her which said “I will not talk to any reporters today, please ask them all to leave!”.

A Sahara TV reporter, who was desperately trying for a one-to-one interview with Mamata Banerjee on the day of the election results but categorically refused was told by a Star Ananda reporter, “You should have come to me. I would have fixed it up with her for you”. A broker?

The Indiavision reporter’s final comment on the matter - “I had also tried for an interview when she visited West Midnapore. I waited outside for almost four hours and sent in messages through the security personal and other Trinamool leaders. She refused to talk to us but journalists from Star Ananda and some Bengali papers were with her throughout. How can a politician be selectively accessible? Aren’t we part of a democracy? If it is like this now, I wonder what will be situation when she becomes Chief Minister” - is currently echoing down the powers of corridor in Bengal!

Besides interference in free and fair discharge of journalistic duties, stories of political leaders filling petrol/diesel for the cars owned by reporters, throwing parties for them and even paying EMI for their flats are doing the rounds now. A whole lot of journalists are also flexing their muscle now - showing off their closeness to ministers and the ability to save one from traffic fines, get a railway reservation at the nth hour, arrange school and college admissions, sanction the plan for a new house or extension, a government/railway job, a transfer to the preferred place of posting, a place on a committee etc – all with a mere telephone call.

This culture is new to Bengal. Is it more power to journalists at the cost of democracy?

A bastion stormed

By SUHRID SANKAR CHATTOPADHYAY

FRONTLINE, Volume 28 - Issue 11 :: May. 21-Jun. 03, 2011

The Trinamool Congress-led alliance scores a historic victory in West Bengal to end 34 years of Left Front rule.

IN what turned out to be a historic Assembly election in West Bengal, the Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front was swept out of power after a record seven consecutive terms in office by an alliance led by the Trinamool Congress and comprising the Congress and the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI). Of the 294 seats, the Trinamool Congress alliance won 227 and the Left Front only 62. Five seats went to others.

Riding a wave of anti-incumbency sentiment, Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress won 184 seats (contested: 227). The Congress won 42 (contested: 65) and the SUCI one (contested: two). The CPI(M) could win only 40 seats, as against 176 in 2006. Of the 34 Ministers who contested, 26 lost, including Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Industries Minister and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Nirupam Sen, Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta, Housing Minister Gautam Deb, Municipal Affairs Minister and party strongman from North Bengal Ashok Bhattacharya, and Information Technology Minister Debesh Das.

Dedicating her victory to “Ma, Maati, Manush” (Mother, Earth and Humanity, the Trinamool Congress' slogan) Mamata Banerjee said: “People have been waiting for 35 years for this. It is like a freedom struggle…. It is the people who are the winners here.” Mamata herself did not contest in the elections, choosing instead to make a delayed entry into the Assembly once her party came to power.

As the trend became clear by the afternoon of May 13, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Biman Bose, CPI(M) State secretary and Left Front chairman, sent a joint statement to the press. It said: “The Left Front has humbly accepted the verdict of the people and will play the role of a constructive Opposition… and continue to strive to protect the rights of the people.”

Later in the day, Biman Bose, addressing a press conference, said: “We did not expect this kind of a result.” Until the day before the result, the Left Front was hopeful that it would be able to form the government, albeit with a greatly reduced majority. However, its progressive electoral decline in the past three elections had indicated otherwise. Though the enormity of the defeat may have come as a shock to many, the defeat itself was not unexpected, except perhaps to certain sections of the Left.

Since the 2008 panchayat elections the Left has rapidly lost ground to the Trinamool Congress, while its vote share has declined since the 2006 Assembly elections. According to CPI(M) sources, it dropped from 50.18 per cent in 2006 to 43.3 per cent in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, and preliminary estimates show it to be below 37 per cent in 2011.

On the other hand, the Trinamool Congress' political resurgence, through its violent agitations over land acquisition in Singur (2006) and Nandigram (2007) and its alliance with the Congress, led to an increase in its vote share from 45.96 per cent in 2009 to over 53 per cent in 2011.

The 2009 general elections also made it clear that it would be an uphill task for the Left Front in the Assembly election, given the fact that it could win only 15 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the State, as against 35 it won in 2004. A miserable performance by the Left Front in the municipal elections the following year, in which the Congress and the Trinamool Congress were not in alliance, indicated a further weakening of its position.

Another factor for the Left's loss has been its inability to win back its minority vote base, which has eroded over the years. The three main reasons cited for the Muslim voter's disenchantment with the Left Front government are: The land acquisition drive to set up industries; the revelation in the Sachar Committee report that the lot of Muslims in the State leaves much to be desired; and the mysterious death of Rizwanur Rahman, a computer graphics teacher, in Kolkata, which caused a huge public outcry and culminated in the transfer of top police officers.

The 2011 results put paid to the Left's insistence, all through the election process, that through intense personal contact with the masses at the grass-root level it had managed to retrieve most of the ground lost to the opposition. In fact, the Left has lost further ground, with its bastions in Bardhaman, Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia and Pashchim Medinipur broken. In Bardhaman the Trinamool Congress-led alliance won 16 of the 25 seats; in Birbhum eight out of 11; in Bankura nine out of 12; in Purulia seven out of nine; and in Pashchim Medinipur 10 out of 19. These districts were red citadels that no anti-incumbency wave, however strong, could penetrate for the past 34 years.

The desire for paribartan (change), Mamata's clarion call, was strong in Kolkata, too; the Left Front drew a blank in the 11 seats in the State capital. It could not win a single seat in the districts of Darjeeling, Purbo Medinipur and Howrah either. “It was a wave that just overwhelmed us completely. There was really nothing we could do about it. We can now only introspect and rectify,” a CPI(M) source said. The Left's attempt to ward off this “wind of change” by fielding 151 new faces failed, as only 27 of them managed to win.

The failure of the Left Front to gauge properly the ground situation is indicative of the growing disconnect between the leadership on Alimuddin Street and the cadre. “Clearly, our leaders have not been receiving the right information from the districts and villages. Our situation turned out to be far worse than we could even dream of,” a CPI(M) district leader said.

When the election results became clear by the afternoon of May 13, parts of Kolkata literally turned green (the Trinamool Congress' official colour) as thousands took to the streets with green abir (powder) all over them. The milling crowd outside Mamata Banerjee's house on a narrow lane in Kalighat spilled over to the main road. People came in waves, blowing conches and clanging bells, distributing sweets to announce the Trinamool Congress' victory, and eager to catch a glimpse of “Didi”. Mamata kept emerging from her house to acknowledge their cheers. “It is hot. Go home now,” she repeatedly told the crowd.

On the streets, Trinamool Congress supporters showed remarkable restraint on Mamata's specific instruction and kept the celebrations within reasonable limits of sound and exuberance. They would gently apply the colour on passersby only if they were permitted, otherwise they kept the greetings to a simple handshake or a friendly pat.

The CPI(M) State headquarters on Alimuddin Street had an air of defeat. The red abir, the motorbike processions, the exultant crowd that one was so used to seeing outside the party office after every election were all absent. Instead, Trinamool Congress supporters paraded up and down the narrow street twice, as if in mockery.

HUGE SOCIAL CHANGE

For the people across the State it was a strange feeling with a 34-year-old government going out of power. People under the age of 40 could not recall having seen a government other than the Left Front's. “The Left Front has been synonymous with government for the entirety of my life. Hence this change, albeit a welcome one, is nevertheless something new and strange for me. However, it's not very healthy for any State to have a single party in power for over three decades. At least in this case change for the sake of change was not just desirable but important,” said 30-year-old Arjun Sengupta, assistant professor of English in a Kolkata college.


However, there are those who are sceptical of the paribartan. “Having not seen any party other than the Left Front in power, the excitement is undermining the usual cynicism. The enthusiasm that the prospect of change has generated is hard to ignore. But the proof of the pudding lies in the eating. Let's see whether this is a real change or just a change in political leadership,” said 26-year-old Sucharita Ghosh, who works as editor, Niyogi Books.

It is not just the young but also the elderly who have welcomed the change. “At last Bengal has regained its lost freedom,” said Deepak Bhattacharjee, 70.

However, there are many who feel that the CPI(M)'s departure spells disaster for the State. “Trinamool is a ruthless, directionless party that has associations with ruffians and Maoists. I do not know what kind of administration we can look forward to here. The streets will not be safe any more,” said Debasis Das (name changed), a resident of Kalighat and a long-time supporter of the CPI(M).

ROLLER-COASTER RIDE

For Mamata Banerjee, who will be the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal, it has been a roller-coaster ride that has seen her ascend the heights of power and political glory and also plunge the depths of defeat and redundancy. But she has always managed to bounce back, and from being the eternal adversary she has finally emerged the champion. Whatever objections one may have to her brand of politics and style of functioning, there is no denying her steadfast and resolute opposition to the CPI(M) and her never-say-die spirit.

When she parted with the Congress in December 1997 and formed the Trinamool Congress in 1998, many political observers saw it as the beginning of the end of her political career. She proved them wrong by soon establishing herself as the principal opposition to the Left Front. In 2004, after several political somersaults that saw her leaving the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA), tying up with the Congress in West Bengal, and then going back to the NDA fold, her career had reached its lowest point. She was perceived as whimsical and petulant and opportunistic, and in the general elections that year she alone won from her party. Her downward slide continued with the party losing control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation in 2005 and winning only 29 seats in the 2006 Assembly polls, down from 60 in 2001.

THE RETURN

Just when it seemed that her political career was all but over, Mamata found a way to bounce back – this time with her agitation against the acquisition of farmland for industry. This once again brought her into direct confrontation with the Left Front and its industrialisation drive.


Her violent agitation in Singur, which forced Tata Motors to shift its prestigious small car project – a showcase project of the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government – from the State, and the bloody turf war in Nandigram in the garb of protesting against land acquisition, gave her a new lease of political life. She came to be seen as a protector of poor farmers even though it affected the industrial development of West Bengal and provided a foothold in the State for leftwing extremists, who claimed to be her ally during the Nandigram battles.

With this new image and the new slogan of “Ma, Maati, Manush” she staged her political comeback. She severed all ties with the NDA and joined forces with the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance. She was once again given the Railways portfolio – an opportunity she utilised fully to make inroads into the nooks and crannies of the State. Now, when the people have given her the chance to rule the State, the challenge for her and the Trinamool Congress will be to deliver on the promises made.

West Bengal on way to forming eighth Left Front government: Buddhadeb

By Special Correspondent

THE HINDU, May 5, 2011 01:31 IST

The people of West Bengal are well on their way to forming the eighth Left Front government in the State, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Wednesday.

Four phases of the on-going Assembly polls in the State have been held in which victory for the Left Front is certain. That victory for the Left Front is “inevitable” has been made clear in the polling held so far, he said in a press release.

The final two phases of the elections in the State are due on May 7 and 10.

It is in this situation that propaganda is being carried out in various ways to break the morale of Left workers. The setting up of an “imaginary Trinamool Congress ministry” is being publicised to influence a section of the electorate in the next two phases of the polls, the Chief Minister observed.

Such attempts were made by those opposed to the Left in the past too, but they proved futile. “It is our firm belief that this time around also, the people of West Bengal will break through this web of lies and ensure victory for the Left Front which is inevitable,” Mr. Bhattacharjee added.

His press release came on a day when a Bengali daily printed a lead story saying that a “confident” Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress chief, has even considered a list of probable Ministers of the next government with herself as Chief Minister.

There is also mention in the news report of not just who is to be the next Speaker of the State Assembly and Chairman of the Vidhan Parishad once it is set up, but also of who is take over as the next Railway Minister. It even mentions Ms. Banerjee's choice of the venue and date for the swearing in of her Ministry.

Asked by a local Bengali television channel whether she thinks that the Trinamool Congress may have got the required number of seats to form a government, now that polling in four phases was over, Ms. Banerjee said that given the spontaneity evident during polling, it was her belief that the people had hope and faith in her party.

Though she was prepared to accept the democratic verdict of the people and that there had been elections in the past where her party had lost, Ms. Banerjee said that any decision on who would be in her Ministry, in the event of the Trinamool Congress coming to power this time around, would be decided only “after the elections are over.” “Our party is very disciplined”, she added.

A media bubble called Mamata?

Every other day we have Mamata eulogies camouflaged as news. She is the mainstream media’s candidate and she is also the industry’s favourite as the next chief minister. R UMA MAHESHWARI, traces the blatant projection of Mamata Banerjee by a motivated media

THE HOOT, Posted Friday, Apr 22 16:04:36, 2011

The Left Front in West Bengal could not have had it this bad in 34 years of its rule – in terms of the full-fledged, adverse media campaign against it (mainstream English and regional language media, almost all of it). Some of the print media has taken this to almost bizarre limits. For instance, one English paper (Telegraph, which has appointed itself the election manager of Mamata Banerjee / Trinamool) carried nearly banner sized front page headlines on a “tsunami” called Mamata while describing the speed with which she walks, covering more kilometers on foot than Buddhadeb Bhattacharya does in his jeep; and what she eats in order to walk that much – and her entire day’s diet is mentioned. Mamata seems more like a media candidate than that of a party. The mainstream media here seems to have put her up as the Chief Minister candidate; or the industry lobby working through the media. One candidate occupies front page banner-size headlines, and several pages within one single newspaper, including its city supplement pages. In any other state, such ‘news’ would have been sent to the election commission as a petition on charges of a total media sell-out. It did not happen here for whatever reason. And there are inane, almost nonsensical and definitely apolitical (in tone and critical engagement) columns by obviously apolitical, urbane socialites (especially two of them, one Mr Ruchir Joshi, and another by name of Suhel Seth) who describe the Trinamool padayatras as first-person accounts (carefully mentioning how they take time out to actually get to the streets of Kolkata with the candidates, or without them, and the sense of how they are actually getting out on the streets, is important). Their accounts are focused on the inane - how a certain candidate waves his / her hands; takes sweets, flowers, etc from the crowd, how a certain candidate has given up on his board-room suits (he is an industrialist-turned politician) for a simple white dhoti kurta attire and is equally comfortable in tradition and modernity - in the board room and on the streets. Every other day we have Mamata eulogies camouflaged as news – “she walks, he (Buddhadeb) wades on wheels.” (April 10th, 2011, Telegraph). This print media also supplements the newspaper business with ‘art’ exhibitions; and gives huge coverage to an art exhibition by one particular artiste named Shuvoprasanno who uses his brush to critique the Left showing their left arms amputated in one of his paintings. Then there is huge celebratory coverage for Mamata’s art exhibition and each of her paintings is reported to have been sold for more than a lakh. Her exhibition, meanwhile, is attended by certain well-known names in the artist fraternity. This whole affair is fairly interesting, more than elections in my home state AP ever has been – of course, in AP, many contemporary artistes prefer to stay away from politics, for most part. The point is not about what a certain artiste is painting, but the time of his exhibition and his proximity to Mamata. One would not be surprised if there was some other motive behind Telegraph’s ‘scoop’ on an exhibition of ‘fake’ Tagore paintings – the matter is being investigated now. The electoral discourse in West Bengal is shallow today, and there is no constructive, critically engaging opposition. The opposition is only for the Communist ideology, or ‘vamvad’, as a single-point, negative agenda, which is troubling. And it speaks for the failure of the Left Front as much as it does for failure of the sense with which media needs to distance itself from political power play. Mamata’s ma, mati manush propaganda, seems to be an eyewash for the real change that she aims to bring in, or will be forced to bring in, with Congress at her neck once it comes to power. But there is no serious discussion happening on this. This opposition to the Left and Left Front might have been significant, had there been a discourse on poverty and distress itself, with some fine research and substantiation; it would have been better still to have just people on the streets, or in villages give their opinions or even if there was a critique of seeming double-standards if it were about the gradually mushrooming shopping mall culture in Kolkata under the Left Front rule. But none of this is present in the media hate campaign not just against the Left Front, but Communist ideology itself. Of course the same papers once in a while do give space to op-eds by Left intellectuals, to probably give a semblance of being neutral, but in truth neutral they certainly are not, and it cannot be missed on whose side they have pitched themselves. In terms of issues, only Nandigram figures occasionally, as an event, and not a process, but in Kolkata, the talk has been persistently about “change” which actually is not a change for the poor or the marginalised but for the middle classes who are looking at certain kinds of industry and benefits from fundamentalist market-ism that has swept across states such as AP, Gujarat and Bangalore. They are looking at certain kinds of job markets which, even in order to maintain a chimera of ideology (if it is seen in that sense) the Left Front rule cannot provide for them. Hence the backing for Mamata and gang comes from the section of the wealthy and urban middle classes, and the ma, maati, manush slogan here does not seem to mean the poor, marginalised of the state, because they do not figure even in candidates’ speeches (one has heard a few in Kolkata) which concentrate on Left-bashing alone. There is not yet a blueprint for the nature of development and change promised – is it in terms of moratorium on land acquisition from farmers for industries and real estate? It does not seem so. Is it about agricultural reforms – to bring back food crops in place of commercial cropping? It does not seem so. In what way would distress migration be curbed? One does not hear about it. Most speeches of the Trinamool candidates refer to West Bengal being the most backward (even behind Bihar) in education and industry. The media added to this with the census figures stating that the state had produced fewer children in the last few years than other states. The mainstream English media linked this too to 34 years of misrule which led to migration of ‘fertile’ population from West Bengal to other states, and lack of opportunities which prevented people from having children. Left Front in West Bengal is probably seeking reasons for such a massive sweep in favour of Mamata and her party. Is it merely her ‘street politics’ that has managed to sway almost the entire media in her favour? Was Nandigram her only and best weapon to emerge Jayalalithaa-like? If people on both the Left and other sides are reading it this way, they are perhaps mistaken. Today the poll battle is not merely, as I see it, about Mamata and the Left, per se, but a fight between different forms of economic and ideological developments. It is a concerted effort made by a section of media, supported by a certain class, against Communism. If the Left Front loses West Bengal this time, which is looking unlikely as initial reports from the ground suggest, it will take it several years to make a comeback. If it does lose we shall witness an economic change based on principles of unequal competition in an unequal global market and Kolkata will be the Hyderabad of West Bengal, developed to the liking of an increasing mass of urban upper or upwardly mobile middle class. But it does not seem like the Left Front is going to lose in a major way as it is being predicted in most media. And it is possible that Mamata could just be a bubble built up by the media. In fact, it now seems like the bubble will burst after all.