Kolkata Korner

Defying Adversity

The worst nightmare of all fun-loving Bengalis came true last week: theskies opened up during the biggest festival of Durga Puja. It rained onalmost all the four days of the Pujas and, as usually happens when it rainsin Kolkata, the streets were flooded in no time. But for tens of thousandsof revelers, the downpour and waterlogged streets proved to be no deterrentat all. Wading through even knee-deep water and struggling for shelter undertheir umbrellas, lakhs traversed from one pandal to another. The weather gods, for once, couldn’t dampen Bengalis’ festive spirits. That’spraiseworthy, I guess, but I wonder why most Bengalis don’t display the same zeal forwork. Come to think of it, very few Bengalis would wade through waterloggedstreets to reach their offices. Till that happens, Bengal would continue tobe a laggard.

A Messy Affair

The lack of environmental awareness and civic sense among those who organizethe community Durga Pujas in this city is appalling. These people take suchenormous care and expend such a lot of energy and resources in the idols,the décor and ambience of their puja pandals, but seem utterly careless andcallous once the Pujas get over. A look at the Ganges (or the Hooghly, as it's called here) would be revealing: the river is now choked with idols,straw, bamboo, decorative items and puja paraphernalia, all of which havejust been dumped into it in the name of immersion. Despite warnings from thepollution control board, the environment department, the cops and themunicipal authorities, Puja organizers in and around Kolkata dumped (orimmersed) the idols and all the decorative gear, including portions of thepandals, into the river and never bothered to clean up the mess. Thanks tothe tides, the ugly, rotting mess hasn’t been swept away by the flowingwaters as the Puja organizers would have expected. Since the Puja organizerscan’t be expected to do the clean-up act, it’s thus high time that theauthorities ban immersions in the river. Perhaps, the Puja organizers couldbe asked to dismantle the clay idols and dispose off other items in asystematic and scientific manner? Failing which, severe penalties likewithholding permission to hold any more Pujas could be imposed on them.

Smart Move

Some Puja committees (that is, organizers of the community Pujas) have beenquite smart. Defying the usual practice of dismantling the pandals (whichare usually very elegant and showpieces of unusual creativity, like thosemade of terracotta articles, toys etc or one where thousands of hand-craftedcombs were used to make beautiful decorative panels) and throwing it allaway into the Hooghly, a few of the organizers came up with the idea ofselling parts of their pandals. The response has been fantastic this yearand many Puja committees have not only recouped the money they spend on thepandals—and, in some cases, even the idols that have been purchased todecorate homes and establishments—but also made tidy profits. It all startedthree years ago with a community Durga Puja at Behala selling the terracottaidol of the Devi to a star hotel, but the idea picked up this year.Hopefully, this will motivate Puja organizers in the coming years to becomemore creative and decorate their pandals with items that can be re-soldafter the Pujas.

Unbecoming Rant

CPI(M) state secretary Biman Bose is well-known for his intemperateoutbursts that only prove his lack of tolerance and attest to hisauthoritarian streak (he’s, after all, a commie). This was in evidence onceagain last week when, in response to the opposition to the governmentacquiring farmland for the Tatas’ small-car project by the TrinamoolCongress and the Congress, he told reporters that his political rivalsshould be dragged by their hair and thrown out of Bengal. Quick to realisethe damage that such ranting can cause, a few senior Ministers and partyfunctionaries apologized to Congress and Trinamool leaders and requestedthat Bose’s remarks be ignored. They have been, but Bose runs the risk ofhaving all his remarks ignored from now on. He was privately rebuked by partypatriarch Jyoti Basu, but it’s only a matter of time before Bose shoots offhis mouth once again.

Caught In A Bind

Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool’s mercurial chief, seems to have bitten off muchmore than she can chew. She dramatically announced a few weeks ago that shewould oppose the government’s move to acquire fertile croplands from poorfarmers for the Tata project. She launched a sit-in at Singur, the placewhere the Tata car factory is to come up, but was soon evicted by thepolice. She then launched a dharna at the foot of Mahatma Gandhi’s statue inKolkata. The agitation was going nowhere and, as if on cue, she fell ill andgot herself admitted to a plush suite at a private hospital in the city. She’s said to be recuperating from vague ailments, but the cause she espousedwith such apparent passion a few days ago is floundering. The ‘poor’ farmershave started queuing up to sell their lands and receive hefty compensationcheques. Mamata’s aides told her Kolkata’s middle classes were gettingalienated as she was seen opposing the Tata project and, hence, the state’sindustrialisation that’ll obviously benefit the middle classes (who’rewaiting in eager anticipation of the Rs one lakh car to roll out). TheTrinamool chief has, thus, been forced to tone down her shrill rhetoric andshe’s now stuck with an issue she can’t abandon without losing face and can’t espouse without alienating the very people who are her last vote bank.Quite a dilemma for the firebrand ‘Didi’.

Not Again

And so Mamata does what out-of-ideas politicians always do—she has called aBengal bandh on October 9. To protest, as she says, displacement of farmersfrom their lands and forcible acquisition of farmlands by the Left Frontgovernment. The Congress, which is doing the very same in states like Punjaband Haryana it is in power, has decided to support the Trinamool bandh. I’msure I’ll be speaking on behalf of most of Bengal’s populace when I say thatthis bandh should be called off. It’ll serve no purpose, save for causinghuge losses and disrupting normal life, besides, of course, trampling oncountless mute and hapless citizens’ constitutionally-guaranteed fundamentalright to go about their work or business unhindered and move about freely.Hoodlums and rogues will double up as Trinamool and Congress activists andworkers, enforce the bandh, perhaps damaging some property and vehicles,disrupting road, rail and air traffic and bringing everything to a completehalt. At the end of the 12 hours (lost unnecessarily), Mamata will tellreporters the bandh was a success and go on to thank the people of Bengalfor supporting the bandh (what audacity). This has been taking place withsickening regularity. But there’s nothing we can do about it, save forpraying that better sense dawns on our politicians.

Buddha Smiles

Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has emerged taller from this farmlandacquisition controversy. First, he kept on explaining patiently to all andsundry that agricultural land, even fertile and multi-crop land, would haveto be acquired to set up industries. Industrialists cannot be asked to setup units in faraway barren lands or in swamps and wastelands. He explainedthe benefits of industrialisation to all, including the hardliners in hisown party and partners in the Left Front. Next, when Mamata Banerjee wasevicted by the police from the siege she had laid around a government officeat Singur and started demanding a public apology from the CM for allegedpolice highhandedness, Bhattacharjee issued a statesman-like regret sayingthe police action could have been avoided. Even though Mamata’s own actionin laying siege around a government office at Singur and holding officialsinside it hostage for many hours was indefensible, the CM then convened anall-party meet to discuss the issue. Mamata didn’t attend or send anyrepresentative, perhaps because the Trinamool would be hard-pressed toexplain its blind opposition to the Tata project. And now, Bhattacharjee hasappealed to the Trinamool to call off the October 9 bandh. Through all theseactions, Bhattacharjee has only reinforced his image of a mature, sincere,balanced, wise and pragmatic person. As opposed to a mercurial,unpredictable, indiscreet and immature Mamata Banerjee who seems to have novision at all.

Chinese Mission

This one is on the CPI(M). Obviously peeved over this party’s openlyenthusiastic (and, some would say, unpatriotic) espousal of Chinese businessinterests in India, one of Kolkata’s denizens pasted a few posters at theentrance to Alimuddin Street (which houses the CPI-M’s state headquarters, Muzzafar Ahmed Bhawan) that proclaimed "Way to Chinese Consulate"with an arrow pointing to the party office. The posters were detected a fewmornings ago and, needless to say, were hastily torn down by the cops. Butthey were enough to leave party apparatchiks red-faced. Wonder how PrakashKarat would react if someone was to refer to the A.K.Gopalan Bhawan in NewDelhi as the "actual" Chinese embassy in India? As a wag commented, going by the manner in whichhe is speaking up for Chinese businesses, one can’t be blamed for labeling‘Komrade’ Karat as China’s best advocate in India. And the CPI(M) as‘Chinese Party of India (Marxist)’!