Is it not a matter that should bring down our heads in shame as an independent nation when we see that a 41-year-old farmer commits suicide in front of thousands of people, veteran Parliamentarian and former Speaker of Lok Sabha Somnath Chatterjee said here on Thursday.
Addressing a gathering, Mr Chatterjee said that in the 67 years since Independence many problems of the country could not be solved.
“Can we feel his (the farmer’s) pain? The aspirations and dreams that the freedom has given us, do we see them being realised,” Mr Chatterjee asked.
The veteran Parliamentarian made these observations at an event organised by Save Democracy Forum, a platform from where prominent city residents along with political personalities raised allegations of electoral malpractices by the ruling Trinamool Congress in the recently held municipal polls.
Mr Chatterjee called the people for starting “another struggle for freedom” to ensure their rights, particularly that of exercising their franchise freely, is upheld.
He said that in many polling booths of the city the votes polled have reached 100 per cent and compared the situation to the elections in early 1970’s in West Bengal.
“We see how government officers are being threatened and how officers are turning into party slaves,” Mr Chatterjee said.
Reflecting on the role of the State Election Commissioner S. R. Upadhayay, the former Speaker said the officer’s case is a fit example of how an individual’s behaviour can be influenced by the company he is in.
“Today he (Mr Upadhayay) has to go to Governor and say that no one is listening to him and officers are giving contradictory reports,” he said, adding that he is personally acquainted to the officer and Mr Upadhayay had done good work as a bureaucrat.
Mr Chatterjee called the people to put up a non-violent resistance against any attempts of their rights being usurped by the ruling TMC government.
Speaking on the same lines, Justice (Retd) Asok Kumar Ganguly said that Mr Upadhayay has plenary powers under certain sections of the existing laws which he can use to ensure free polls.
The former chairperson of West Bengal Human Rights Commission said that an atmosphere of fear is prevailing in the State where rights of the people are under attack.
