V
iolence and bloodshed are integral to politics; the meek and faint-hearted should stick to social work. This comes from Rudraneel Ghosh, a moderately-successful Bengali actor who is a card-carrying member of the CPI(M). Now consider this: Ghosh spoke out against the March 14, 2007, massacre at Nandigram because, as he says, the victims were poor farmers. He would have remained silent or even clapped in approval if the victims had been activists of the Congress, the Trinamool, or the BJP or 'class enemies' and 'reactionary elements' like the capitalists, the bourgeois or the elite.
The reason I quote Ghosh, who I had this conversation with very recently, is that he personifies the Marxist/Communist in India in more ways than one. And it is this sinister justification of political violence that explains whatever has happened in Bengal over the past few weeks.