CPI(M), LIES AND GANASHAKTI

June, 2003: Shakespeare Sarani, Kolkata
I kept looking on as the traffic lights toggled from red to green and back to red. Past 50 minutes, i have been stranded on the same co-ordinates, without moving much. I am in a Bus, in the heart of Kolkata. My ride was heading towards Downtown Kolkata, until we got tangled in this mess of urban traffic. Brine slided past my cheeks. These are not tears of joy, invoked by reunion with my motherland, after a year. I was sweating profusely, trying to keep up with the humidity of the "city of Joy", as Kolkata is often refered to. The sweltering heat, sticky sweat, cluttering of vehicles, the cacophony of honks took its toll on me. I cannot believe, this is where i waited for a year to be in.

With time, news started floating in, as to why this whole gamut of populace was stuck here. The revelation didn't sound new to me. The CPI(M) (The ruling Communist Party) was flouting a procession near Maidan (a Huge Parade ground in the downtown), resulting in this mayhem. Little were they considerate to have thrown the whole traffic out of order. This is not the first time, I am used to these pedestrian theatrics from my very childhood. These people have contributed incessantly towards new name of Kolkata, "Michhil Nogori" or "The city of processions".

"What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow", this bit of text in the history books made me so proud. As a teenager, I used to flaunt being a Bengali, but not any more. The ruling CPI(M) party has done nothing, but to eat up the very base of a heritageous Bengal. Unemployment, Poverty, Illiteracy has become rampant over the past decade. The voice of the Mass Media is under question. Print Media has become mouthpieces of political parties, probably that was the only survival strategy left to them.

I leaned on to the window, thinking of the Bengal my dad would have got as a heritage. I feel sorry that i cannot give my kids, a better one. The inception of politics in educational institutions can only be attributed to the CPI(M). I can still remember, how aimlessly the teenager comrades used to roam around in my school premises. I am not sure, if at that age, anyone has the maturity to understand politics and get in to it. But some of my folks were very much in to it, much like misguided missiles. I have seen my seniors leaving Bengal for a clean, hassle free living. The bureaucracy has smothered every entrepreneur causing job cuts and factory close-downs. At times, people were left with no resort, but to be a vassal to CPI(M). The situation was even worse in the countryside. People saw bread only before elections. No-one ever dared to fight a CPI(M) candidate in an election. The defaulters were outcaste and ripped off their decent living. Ah!! I am sure, so many of us have experienced this before. Someway or the Other. I am amazed to see no opposition to this pilferage. Probably we have accepted this way of living; probably, no intellect is willing to take off their blue collars to ward this dirt off.

I was lost in an abyss of Depression. I broke my trance when something soft caressed my hairs. There was this boy wrapped in old rags, selling the daily "Ganashakti" (Meaning, the strength of the common Man), the mouthpiece of CPI(M). My imminent reflex was to buy one. Not to know what the polit-bureau was trying to voice, but much to help out the desolated boy in his living. I was browsing through the pages randomly, like a kid. All that caught my eyes were pictures of a Golden Bengal, the best state-of-art infrastructure, Dreams. I imagined, how long can people keep their eyes shut to an imminent disaster.

Ganashakti is not a newspaper, its the voice of CPI(M). Any News which is biased or seen through colored glasses is not good to cater. It creates misimpression in minds of the public. And thats what the modus operandi of "Ganashakti" is. Its intended to cripple the minds of CPM cadres who would not be left with the power to think anymore and make themselves available at the beck and call of their Big Ducks. In every page, you will come across news from the CPI(M) fortress properly picked, pickled and spiced up to portray the "Messiah" and "Philanthropist" image of CPI(M), which is a far cry. CPI(M), these days is reduced to a ruthless exploiter who can do anything to meet their selfish needs, and that's what the grim reality is. They have made the population so much crippled with their 26 years of rape of democracy, that no-one has the fist to fight and revolt. The philosophy of Communism which started off with Jyoti Basu taking oath as the Chief Minister, died in a few years and all the steps taken by the CPI(M) government to exercise democracy has only curbed industrial growth and fostered local goons within the cadre fraternity. CPI(M), is far from a sweet dream anymore. They are a nightmare, a barrier in the path of modern Bengal.

If i had to rename Ganashakti, i would happily do it as "Ganashatru" (The enemy of the common Man)
The devil has ruled Bengal for over 26 years now. Intellectuals everywhere have been left stunned about the stagnant mind of Bengalis. Have we compromised with such kind of a living. Or are we all Dead?

--CPI(M) is the Communist party of India, Marxist. They are provincial to the states of West Bengal and Kerala. In West Bengal, they came in to power in 1977, and has remained undefeated till now. The author does not have a bias for any political party.