West Bengal is an Indian state in the eastern part of the country, and the only one in India with an incumbent woman Chief Minister — Mamata Banerjee.
The region, which was the political heart of the Bengal Presidency during British Rule, was divided into East and West Bengal in 1947. Bengal was a hotbed of the Indian Independence movement and has remained one of the country’s great artistic and intellectual centres, being home to Nobel laureates Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa, Amartya Sen and Abhijit Banerjee as well as freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose and Oscar winner Satyajit Ray.
Geographically, the state is happily situated with the Himalayas in the north and the Sundarbans in the south. It shares a roughly 2,200-sqkm border with Bangladesh (East Bengal at the time of Partition).
For the first 30 years, the Congress ruled Bengal, but made way for Left domination for the next 34 years. In 2011, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress — a breakaway from the Congress — came to power.
This is WW III we are fighting and Winston Churchill painted well but he did so preceding and post the WWII of which he was an ideal leader for UK, almost same geographical and demographic size (with English, Muslims, Hindus mixture) as West Bengal incidentally.
Are all our State and Central Leaders the right Leaders at this time? Is the Media cracking the right stories to sustain spirits of citizens? Is the Media right? Is it the Indian Media appropriate Message, Massage and Mass Age of these critical times? Or are they tools of the larger, more vicious force?
These times and period are also no pass-over, so to speak. Like whether history will accept the opinions and comments shared in this article of the writer on the artistic capabilities of the Bengal CM remains to be seen in January 2021 or thereabouts. We are in WWIII and the journalist has heightened a not too critical issue that makes one feel these are no exceptional times. It is almost an insult to Ms. Banerjee!
People are dying, separated from homes and families by 500 more miles than necessary! Laborers are stranded, no shelter, eating off thrown away bananas in crematoriums. Bureaucrats are losing jobs, being penalized for not making that extra effort. Citizens in towns and cities are apprehensive of the future. And your article speaks of a CM writing poems and painting? It is like Marie Antoinette and her urge to eat cakes in the late 18th century!
Parroting hackneyed and worn out leadership traits courtesy media in such times as King Corona is dangerous for the PM, CM, and all others in Parliament and Legislative Assemblies. It is a sin. The writer of this article has displayed opportunistic and juvenile skills without linking the content to the more serious concerns of the millions of lives of children, elderly and others who are at the receiving end of the situation now. Could the occasion have demanded more sense than writing upon literary talents of assembling poems and paining by leaders? Is this not demeaning the person even more and is PRINT having such indecent objectives? Journalism, like human emotion, is very elusive indeed! Weren’t more substantive observations relating to the CM be more relevant?.
We all hope greatness comes to Ms. Banerjee and her followers. We all hope for the same goodness for our PM, MPs, MLAs also. But will they be able to steer the ship out of this Corona karuna is more important. 10000s, may be millions, are not having food in metros-workers from unorganized/ organized sectors are tottering on the brink of hunger and shelter today. Even governments are incapable at times of providing all assistance. And you write on poems and paintings? Mr. Kaushik Sen, the artist, has commented very judiciously indeed.
There are other worries. Can the government, if its nuts are totally loose, tilt toward the License Raj form of government and if so, what will our PM, CM, MLAs and MPs do, if they do anything at all excepts silently accept and “bray” in Parliament post Sept 2020? Is this time for a State vs Central feud as is happening? What is wrong or right with the Governor in the State of WB? Cannot our Leaders unite even once or are they so comprador in their elements that they only think of personal revenue improvement programs only and never general revenue improvement programs for , by and of the peoples of India?
Will the Bengal CM now quieten down from her allegations of Federal mismanagement against the Center and ask her soldiers to focus on the critical issues or will she do both to keep the media happy with somethings as trivial as her poems to write upon?? Can the CM use this moment to bring in self discipline and community discipline (herd mentality?) along with the much needed herd immunity in Calcutta?
We are more worried on such issues. At least a good number of poor, uneducated, middle class and educated and even unconsciously incompetent Bengali citizens are seriously thinking if they will live…..and intellectuals in Bengal, dissected from reality, can comment on the CM’s artistic gifts which make no sense at all? Crazy man. We read of Donald Trump’s madness, Johnson’s’ carelessness, XiJipeng’s brutality but this is the first time we are reading upon a leader’s artistic talents even as her people suffer and possibly, tomorrow die en masse.
Do I make sense? And I am a well wisher of PRINT. Total
Well Said Mr Partha ?
There should be some sense used, rather than reporting on the ground realities of the common man during such hard times, this article seems to be a campaign to make Ms Banerjee a literature great!