Judhajit Senmazumdar
Bengal once the epicenter of India’s spiritual enlightenment and the land of Swami Vivekananda, Rishi Aurobindo and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose to Rabindranath Tagore, today is fighting its battle to save democracy and reclaim the past glory.
34 years of left rule has made it a barren land for industries and the last 10 years of TMC rule almost turned the state in to a battlefield! Be it jihadi terrorism, blind appeasement or political violence, the great land of West Bengal and it’s immensely talented populace is reeling under a pathetic autocracy! As many says, is it a “Democracy” or Democrazy”!
Things got even worse, when couple of days back a local journalist and founder of an immensely popular news media platform “The Bengal Owl”, Subho Sengupta, was arrested for protesting another social media post, which was hailing “Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy”, infamously known as “Killer of Bengal” and mastermind behind deadly “Direct Action Day”! Subho’s only fault was being righteous and criticize those who were trying to morph the history and glorify someone who is against the basic ethos of what the city of Kolkata stands for, “Live and Let Live”! Subho is not the only one but there is a group of educated Bengali youth who are honest, steadfast and has the courage to come out of the threat from state machinery to call “a spade a spade”! Sadly, though, Bengal which was once known for freedom of expression and liberalism, now is driven by fear psychosis and known for shutting down any voice of dissent, by political muscle power and the innocent victims are Subhos of the world!
Attack on media is multi-pronged though and interestingly, on the same day, one of the Members of Parliament from ruling party TMC, Mohan Mitra, went ahead to insult the media with a sweeping statement by saying “value of 2 cents”! That raises more eyebrows, as many are connecting the dots and fearing, if we are going to witness more attacks on the 4th pillar of democracy and arrest/harassment of any media house that dares to dissent, as in Bengal’s own “Arnab Goswami Episode”, which was criticized globally by all the responsible citizens.
One way, when the state is seeing plethora of political violence, killing, jihadi riots, Hindu human right violations added with school service commission scam and allegation of “Cut money” in every sphere; this new paradigm of attack on media houses just rang that panic bell like never before! Subho’s incidence is not stand-alone but the same day, Bengal also witnessed the killing of a BJP’s Rajbangshi member from Siliguri, Sh. Ulen Roy. Many believe he has succumbed to splinter injuries caused by country bombs the police threw, as echoed by BJP’s National observer Sh. Kailash Vijayvargiya Ji and national president, BJP Yuva Morcha, Tejasvi Surya, and demanded a CBI enquiry. Interestingly though WB Police has come up with a story of BJP’s infighting to justify the killing, which has been categorically discarded by locals and BJP leadership.
No wonder, like the people of West Bengal, even the Global Bengali Diaspora is deeply concerned and while talking to us Founders of “Nris4Bengal” and FOG Bengal Chair, Silicon Valley Based Technology Entrepreneur Judhajit Senmazumdar, has echoed the same sentiment”. We all are concerned and deeply hurt, the way democracy is being hijacked. Every voice of dissent is being harassed, arrested or killed, as if you just can’t protest! The “Nris4Bengal” campaign is to connect all nationalistic NRI Bengalis from across the globe, some of those are scientists, doctors, lawyers, professors, who are committed to rebuild Bengal and it’s really sad to hear their concern and fears almost every other day. Is that the Bengal we all dream for!”
Speaking to many other Bengali NRIs like Somanjana Chatterjee another California based media personality, Souptik Mukherjee, Florida based scientist, Abhishek Ray, London based investment banker or Aniruddha Chatterjee, management consultant from Australia, the same emotions and concerns were palpable.
With election coming early next year and rapid surge in political and human rights violence where even top leaders like Kailash Vijayvargiya, Dilip Ghosh and Mukul Roy are not spared, general populace who has the guts to call out the shortcomings of current government are really scared that they might come under the chopper block! No wonder, for many, come 2021, it’s not a mere election but a second “Freedom Movement” to save West Bengal from anarchy, blind appeasement, cut money, insecurity and violence… as they say,”Aar Noi Annay” , we will rebuild our motherland and “Save Bengal”.
