December 6, 1992. Precisely the day that triggered a curfew across many places in India, including Kolkata. Right now myself sitting in 1 of the 6 curfewed police station areas in Central Kolkata, witnessed a glimpse of those horrific days once again. Approximately 2 hours have passed into the 8 hour curfew imposed to put a leash on the vandalism and the dirtiest form of people-manipulation being carried on under the aegis of RELIGION, MINORITIES (so called!), COMMUNALISM, COMMUNISM and what not.
Churchill had said – Democracy is the mechanism to ensure that people get governed by a government no better than what they deserve. But unfortunately in India, and more specifically, in West Bengal & Kolkata, the same holds true other way round too. With people so glad to be puppeteered by the power-mongering parasites camouflaging as politicians, added to the fact that illiteracy, poverty, blind faith and lack of respect for humanity take precedence over civic sense, humanity and self-respect, no force in the world can bring about an atmosphere of civilisation. If you widen your eyes and push back your chairs to ask me if ain’t what we live in, is civilisation, I’d say – NO. Not by the farthest stretch of imagination.
Had it been, I wouldn’t have been writing this in the first place. Now, cutting on the
prelude, let’s take a look at what happened. An Islamic organisation called All India Minority Forum (in India, the word minority = Muslims) , which is not even known by people (i.e. minorities) in Kolkata itself, let alone ALL INDIA (as its name suggests), decided to organise a CHAKKA JAM (Road Blockade) between 9 AM – 12 Noon in Central Kolkata, which is the nerve center of the city with many arterial roads leading to schools, offices etc.
This protest was against the Communist West Bengal State Government for allowing Taslima Nasreen to stay in Kolkata. Here there are few things worth mentioning, which are the crux of the matter.
1) It is a prerogative of the Central Union Government and NOT the West Bengal State Government to decide who is going to stay in the country and who not
2) It’s not been that Taslima came into Kolkata recently, in fact she has made Kolkata her home since long time back, so why the protests now?
3) By parading a rowdy group of people which consisted mostly of teenagers and people who don’t even know what the dynamics of the situation are, what could have been achieved in the matter, if anything at all?
Incidentally these areas of central Kolkata also house a vast density of minorities in various pockets. After a couple of hours of peaceful protests, no matter how much trouble they cause to general public at large, violence started erupting suddenly as mobs starting chanting slogans laced with religious sentiments and started to pelt stones at shops, vehicles, and whatever they could see. In fact, more than 15 vehicles, including 4 Media vans, were set ablaze, more than 200 vehicles smashed and damaged and many journalists beaten up. They tried their best to prevent the media from covering the deadly dance of chauvinism and the rampage only increased.
Without any valid cause, people were barred from moving around, kids stuck up at schools and colleges, shops looted and hooliganism portrayed throughout the day. After the police could not control the situation, para military forces were brought which fired tear gas bullets and lathicharged, but even that couldn’t sort the menace out. So the last resort had to be taken in the form of Army which staged a flag march to dampen the ill spirits of the demonstrators and reinstated peace to some extent.
Night curfew has been imposed in the 6 affected localities of Central Kolkata – Entally, Beniapukur, Karaya, Topsia, Park Sreet and Tiljala.
Under the guise of Nandigram, Rizwanur and Taslima, a handful of people today carried out the wishes of unscrupulous anti-social elements, whose intention to de-stabilize the state government seem to be getting larger and larger. Already the state of West Bengal is cursed with a government which in its reign of 30 years has done nothing but hammering nails in the coffin of the state’s fate and that of its people, complemented by an even worse opposition political culture where the only wise activity seems to be rallies, bandh, protests, agitations and every other anti-people activity which take us further down the barrel.
What is more appalling is that the majority of people of West Bengal, be it Hindus, Muslims, Communists or whatever, have imbibed this culture so deeply and religiously, that any attempt to awaken them is futile. The world is moving at the speed of light, so are West Bengal and its people, but in the opposite direction.
Leaving REAL ISSUES aside, like those of poverty, agriculture, industry, unemployment, terrorism, population etc. the masses deem it fit enough to cast their support in favour either the so-called people-oriented government, or the good-for-nothing except bocking roads and organising rallies, political oppositions, both of them having only one motive: continue making a fool out of the junta and taking the state as far away from civilisation as possible.
Where the Shahi Imam himself says after such horrendous acts as of today – “This was no violence, this was raising of our voices against anti-Islamic forces”, and where another leading religious leader proudly gives the government 2 days of time for corrective action, else warns of dire consequences, where the most inconsequential temporary immigration of a foreign author takes centre stage beating back the more serious concerns like health, wealth and hygiene of one’s own people, and where widespread violence and vandalism is followed by its justification as a means to CLEANSE the society – WE ARE LIVING IN SUCH A STATE.
SHAME.
Whoever wanted DEMOCRACY in this country…….
