Before we get into comrades in Bengal let us understand the comrades in Kerala and their predicament. That will give a better perspective on happenings in Bengal.
Kerala as we know is an incredible success story in social development. Despite the low per capita income and other serious problems, there has been sustained emphasis on health and education. There are many historical culture reasons prominent among them is the contributions of communists. How much of that commitment is shared by contemporary communists in Kerala is questionable. The historical vibrancy of kerala society is now stagnant in the fleapits of mass media, moving from mediocre to crass. Despite all this Kerala was able to capitalize on early Movements towards equitable society (the education bill by Left government regarding private colleges particularly controlled by religion-for-profit is welcomed. It is a brave step. Ordinary people fully support the move). Social mobility in this society has been quite high due to increased capabilities (and choices) of people from different strata of society. The erstwhile rulers and elites have been shown their place, the education helped people to create opportunities particularly in gulf (now Europe). The life expectancy, health facilities and other social indices are comparable to any advanced country. Although Malabar when joined Kerala was a backward place, because of enlighten policies have caught up with the rest of kerala.
Like other mainstream media anywhere people here too are overwhelmed by nonsense (like the obnoxious ‘serials’) despite these the problems faced by common people is given due significance. Each event is analyzed with equitable understanding and participation, wherein the man in the street is found articulating his views in an effective manner (here I am not referring to trash programs like nammal thammil). Unlike some “national” channel there is no bias towards the Marketeers or gloss. The best thing is, like what we see in BBC, most of the discussions are not really hurried. The discussions are not meant for high decibel acts between ads but intend to understand the issue in its entirety, including people who really matter. Not some small time celebrity- marketeers get together. Each channel do have slot for discussing important books, analyzing newspapers, meet the people who make difference and so on. Some of the programs are of very high caliber. It has more to do with the appreciative audience
The Coca Cola –Pepsi issue in Plachimada in this context is path breaking. It is the people in their entirety are involved. The reason why the real issue cannot be sidelined. There is no place for glamour statements. You cannot escape facts here. And since people are aware of the problems, the money sniffing celebrities have to fall in place. No popular kerala actor will dare to come in Coca Cola Pepsi ads. Most ‘celebrities’ in here are quite sane and susceptible to logic and empathy unlike from cow belt where the gap is too big and so the loot has all the impunity. Knowledge, esteem, empathy…. has a making of deadly cocktail which mere literacy, aping the west and so on cannot fathom. Media manufacturing and event managing of issues will not have space here, if ever on the periphery as amusement. Not mainstream occupations.
The banning of Coca Cola- Pepsi and the systematic sidelining of the problems of the people, which they so vociferously supported before the elections is not gone unnoticed by majority of people in here. This is in sync with the new image the comrades are trying to create. The image of Market friendly. Neek pok Vijayan!!. But unlike other part of the country they cannot escape the needs for sustainability and livelihood threat. People in here are very active and can articulate their views quite well, mind you even the poorest of poor. Further the material and intellectual gap between strata’s of society is not very big, majority of people have same socio-cultural context (you could know about Kafka from a bus conductor, carry an intelligent conversation with commonest of people, atleast a decade back….don’t know how much people have become professional in recent times!!)
It is in this milieu that we need to understand the constraints, predicaments and hypocrisies of comrades in Bengal. The comrades find it difficult to question the Coca Cola –Pepsi onslaught, they have got their own goverment which goes against CocaCola-Pepsi. Surely investment. It need to be reminded that there are many cases when indian products have been rejected by Americans asit didn't conform to their standards. There are cases i am aware where the businessmen have suicided because of losses. Offcourse we arent really bothered about standards or no standards in case of Coca Cola Pepsi. We are very concerned about ground water exploitation and livelihood threat by exploitative products for indulgent few. The cola factories I am told has 2 or so bottling plants running spic and span. No problemo!!!!.
Understanding comrades in Bengal…..
The comrades in Bengal have been ruling for almost three decades. Many countries where comrades have ruled for longer period have known to have higher social indices, despite sluggish economical development or lack of sufficient freedom, like erstwhile east Europe or Soviet Union. But Bengal is different, there has been complete lack of social mobility and it seems that they are stuck in some time warp. Whereas neighboring states like Bihar- poor and feudal, have seen cataclysmic changes in last few decades at least in social mobility sense, the lower strata asserting themselves through elections, the comrades are in some quaint world. The world of English poems and cricket. This society is still being dominated by a section which has been traditional elite. I have done some study in last few days and found that it is very much a feudal society much worse than most States in India. The ‘leaders’ mostly belong to a particularly section. Like for instance if you take the example of Lok Sabha members it is dominated by Chatterjees, Banerjees, Mukherjees…..the threaded types. Infact of the 41 members (Malda seat is vacant it seems) elected in the last Lok Sabha there were 6 Chatterjees+Banerjees+Mukherjees+Chakrabortys, 4 chowdharys+ basus or boses. Others who are from elite section include Acharya, Pradhan, Munshi and so on…they could easily be more than 15. I gather from surname…I really don’t know much about caste structure here nor am I concerned. The surnames I gathered from figures in History, who were necessarily from elite section. You see they had the burden of ‘freeing’ us!!. The intention is to find out the elite section, socio-historically elite, the feudal class comrades- representing have-nots!!. The reason why am I pointing to these is to bring out the entrenched bias in representation. The inequity in social development in a State that is being ruled by Communists for almost three decades. They have become quite an embarrassment (read further at http://depalan.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_depalan_archive.html). It is conceivable that the reason why far Right (mostly elites in Hindus) find it difficult to dent Communist fort in Bengal is to do with the fact that most of the elite are having a great time as comrades. Also the porous border from Bangladesh is about their masquerading as secular, the increase in vote bank. This doesn’t extend to Taslima Nasreen, who is being hounded by Mullahs back home. Comrades surely see red!!!.
One can say with much surety that 60-70% of the Lok sabha seats are represented by elite section of the society. This must be true for state assembly or other spheres of the society too. The Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is a threaded type anglicized comrade, so was the previous one who held a record of sort as the longest (ok second longest) chief minister in the country!. So rule the comrades for us people only. Even the ‘opposition leader’ in the State is a Bannerjee. The Union minister from Congress is a Mukherjee. The Lok Sabha speaker is our very own comrade Chatterjee. All threaded types- the traditionally licking class. Not that i am into checking surnames of people but this overlap of class-caste is no coincidence. This could be true of any State(or in Centre) during 50s to 80s but this is 2006 and Comrades ruling the State for three decades!!. The ambivalence of comrades regarding exploitative products is not at all surprising. Unlike comrades in Kerala they have the luxury of going for blatant denial. Not shocking. I have traveled in Bengal many a times and the abject poverty is hear
tbreaking. Mostly people associate poverty in Bengal with slums in Kolkata (City of Joy!!). But it is countryside where things have gone seriously wrong. Few statistics and some ground reality will reveal some truth. The sham of Communists and their image building posturing at Centre.
India ranks a dismal 127 in HDI ranking and among the States in India the position of West Bengal is ‘less than satisfactory’. West Bengal ranked 22nd HDI in 1981 and equally dismal 20th in 1991. West Bengal in the year 1999-2000 had below poverty line 27.02 per cent of its population; higher than the national figure of 26.10 per cent. Whereas the NSS puts the figure at whooping 55%, and 60% belong to SC/STs- the National figure for the same was 19% and 55% (NSS 50th rounds of data on household consumer expenditure). At the national level the very poor in SC population were concentrated in three states UP, Bihar and West Bengal- they together accounted for 63% of very poor SCs in 1999-2000. Also the percentage of chronically poor is above national average in rural areas of West Bengal. Further, it may be noted that these three categories, namely SC, ST and Minorities, together account for more than half the population, and these are also the three poorest groups in rural Bengal. 84 per cent of the absolutely poor population of West Bengal lived in rural areas, compared to 74 per cent in India as a whole. West Bengal has attracted the highest capital; next only to Gujrat, ahead of Maharashtra, UP and Andhra Pradesh. But reveals badly 2.52 per cent jobs against 3.75 in Andhra, 3.92 in UP, 4.05 in Gujrat and 5.60 in Maharashtra respectively. When they are opening for the ultimate investment it need to be kept in mind that in West Bengal only 36.7 per 100 household have electricity connection which is much below the National average of 60.1 (1998-99 figure). Per capita food grain consumption declined from 476 grams per day in 1990 to only 418 grams per day in 2001. The National Sample Survey data also suggest that even aggregate calorific consumption per capita declined from just over 2200 calories per day in 1987-88 to around 2150 in 1999-2000. Meanwhile, declining capital expenditure by the government has been associated with more infrastructural bottlenecks and worsening provision of basic public services.
Data for the year 2000-1 show that 49.6% of children under 5 are under nourished while 56.8% under 5 children are malnourished in this State, much lower than low income States. The U5M (Under 5 Mortality rate) is as high as 67.6 (Kerala has a low of 18.8), 73.4 of which is in rural areas- about 72 per cent of the people live in rural areas. MMR has dropped significantly in last decade but it still remains on the higher side (50% of PHCs surveyed didn’t have labour room equipments). Whereas studies reveal that 57% children belonging to poor household in rural India were stunted (that is chronic under nutrition), in West Bengal the figure was as high as 63% (kerala had a lowest of 32%). The IMR is at a high of 60 in rural Bengal. The difference in life expectancy in rural and urban Bengal is a high of 7 years, a statement on inequitable development. The state has lower ratios of health care centres per population as well as higher ratios of population per hospital bed, than the All-India average. Nutrition indicators are rather poor, with higher incidence of anaemia and iron deficiency especially among women and young children, than for India as a whole. Although the life expectancy marginally above the national rate, there are some district where it is much lower. Districts like Malda have a low life expectancy of as low as 54 years!!!.
West Bengal in the age group 7-14 years were literate in 1991, compared to the All-India proportion of 64 per cent. In the chart of per capita expenditure on health (after correcting the lower base) by the states, West Bengal stands at a dismal 12 in the list of 14 states. The per capita expenditure in social service and rural development by West Bengal government is so low that they stand at 11th place among 15 States, wherein states like Tamil Nadu which has a history of successful struggle for equitable society spend much higher than the comrades. The ‘imminent revolution’ for three decades is waiting. Sure kidding. The UNDP had proposed emphasis on four ratios- the public expenditure ratio, the social allocation ratio, the social priority ratio, the human expenditure ratio. Clearly the priorities of comrades in Bengal are nowhere on these lines. The search for ‘mass opium’ is on!!!. A case for dialectical materialism. Talk of social underdevelopment Marx suckers. Piyo sar utha ke comrades….
