In the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections of 2009, giant hoardings — designed like film posters — of West Bengal's intellectuals dominated street corners here, exhorting passers-by with two simple words, “Poriborton chai” (We want change). Now, with the State on the brink of that change, those hoardings are gone, and the intellectual and cultural community, which had lent ballast to Mamata Banerjee's battle against the Left Front are divided, with some uncomfortable at being seen to be lending support to a political party — the Trinamool. The hoardings are gone, and though one of the most vocal members of the pro-change intelligentsia, theatre director Bratya Basu, is contesting on a Trinamool ticket, the rest are maintaining a low profile.
Joint statement
Four days ago, when these intellectuals issued a joint statement announcing their support to the Trinamool in the coming Assembly elections, not all those who were on the “Poriborton Chai” posters were there. While those like writer Mahasweta Devi, retired civil servant Debabrata Bandopadhyay and academic Sunanda Sanyal were there, others like actress-turned-director Aparna Sen or actor Kaushik Sen were conspicuous by their absence.
Mr. Bandopadhyay, who played a signal role in ‘Operation Barga', West Bengal's s land reforms movement under the Left rule, played down the differences, telling The Hindu , “The focus does not have to be on us anymore. We are not stage performers: in 2009, we said, ‘Poriborton Chai', now we say, ‘Poriborton Aasche' [change is coming].” Asked why Ms. Sen and others were not backing the Trinamool, he said, “They have gone back to the CPI(M).” Indeed, Ms. Sen — who had even travelled to Lalgarh to met the People's Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA)'s Chattradhar Mahato, now in jail — and theatre personality Kaushik Sen have now decided to adopt a neutral position.
For Ms. Banerjee, the backing of these intellectuals — most of whom were once associated with the Left parties, many of them friends of Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee — especially during the anti-land acquisition movement in Nandigram, and then again when many of them travelled to Lalgarh to meet members of the anti-Left (PCAPA), a Maoist front, gave her not just the credibility she needed with Bengal's educated middle class which had, for long, been sceptical about her, but an effective weapon with which to fight her political rivals. When Left Front officials said some of those who had gone to Lalgarh might be questioned by the police for possible Maoist links, Ms. Banerjee had thrown her weight behind them, thundering on a TV channel, “If you even touch their hair, the people of Bengal won't spare you.”
Think tank
After the Lok Sabha elections, Suvaprasanna, the well-known painter, who set up a pro-Trinamool TV channel, which has since shut down, had even thrown a party for this group. A decision was taken to form a think tank to handle core areas like education, health and culture, and to advise the new MPs on what could be done to root out corruption and nepotism. The group also advised Ms. Banerjee not to take up a ministerial position but to concentrate on Bengal. But they also added that though their support was spontaneous, that shouldn't be taken for granted, with some like Mr. Kaushik Sen saying they would retain the freedom to criticise the Trinamool if it repeated the same mistakes. Ms. Banerjee, on her part, appointed many of these intellectuals to railway committees, and the Railway Ministry honoured others with awards.
Open letter
In the midst of this, Leftist journalist and writer Sumanta Bannerjee wrote an open letter to these intellectuals, expressing his “trepidation and misgiving” at the support extended to the Trinamool, saying that it had “sinister implications” that would “ bode ill for West Bengal politics.” “One expects Bengali intellectuals of your stature to have the courage to chart out an independent course of action and form an alternative platform [committed to the values of socialism, democracy and secularism] that would restore morality in Bengali politics, and be free of control of an unscrupulous and opportunist politician like Mamata,” he wrote, stressing that he felt that the Left Front needed not only “to be ousted from power in West Bengal, but politically exposed on the national scene as a party that does not deserve to be called Leftist any more.”
Now, The Hindu learns that Ms. Banerjee plans to revive the Legislative Council to accommodate many of the intellectual friends who have stood by her.
