Recent Rural Restlessness In West Bengal
Within a span of just a couple of weeks, Sept. 28 to Oct. 10, some signs of the expression of the accumulated mistrust, disgust, wrath, etc among the West Bengal rural poor were displayed; and that too in a single Block of a single District.
On Sept. 28, hundreds of villagers of Amarar Garh in the Aush Gram block in the district of Bardhaman flocked and encircled the party cum panchyat leaders, all belonging to the CPI(M). For days they had been asking those leaders to take account of their due BPL rations under the antyodaya and annapurna schemes. They were entitled for such rations but were not getting the same for almost four years. Many of them hadn't even seen their own ration cards. Though these schemes give them a little when at all they get — much less than 300 grams per day per capita, which is well below the 'Indian' nutrition norm; and the quality is ... well, the govt. is giving the poor 'cheaper' rice, isn't it! Almost, or more than 800 village poor stormed the negotiating meeting called by the leaders and pour scorn on with their queries and anger. The leaders couldn't answer anything that could satisfy the village poor. They jeered, and also roughed up a bit the leaders. Some of the latter couldn't stay in the village for several days in shame, and, perhaps, fright too. Whom could they blame! Those villagers were all 'supporters' of their party, in the sense that the majority of them were their party's 'voters'. And they could not and did not portray the incident as 'instigated' by a few fellows or by their opponent parties — it was totally spontaneous. The meeting scheduled by the local party bosses on such a burning issue was the only 'instigation' or the 'first impulse' behind the mass action.
On the 8 th of Oct. another such incident occurred in gonna , a village not far away from the previous one, and situated in the same block. There too the poor ones, in hundreds, thronged and demanded answer from the local bosses of the party and panchyat administration for the same mess up those party-panchyat-ration dealer combine had done. The bosses needed a 'peaceful' meeting and went into a well-fenced place. The people waited for long and when their patience was exhausted they couldn't tolerate silence from those bosses any more. They pushed their way in and taught those bosses some lessons. Leaders fled and the masses booed. The problem and solution was same in both the places; and the incidents showed the trend of the rural masses, and also showed the rural masses the trend, the course of near future.
Then came the dik nagar i ncident, so well known now owing to the media attention it received. Here some hundreds gathered in front of the panchyat office building. But they didn't force an entry; rather they demanded that only ten of them would go inside and talk with the panchyat-prodhan (sarpanch). The arrogant leaders couldn't 'obey orders' of the chasha-labour (chasha is the slang for the toiling peasants); they are not used to such 'audacity' of the latter. So they insisted that only five could be allowed to come inside the office of the babu-logs . While an altercation was going on, behind the scene the CPI(M) had collected some 40-50 loyal cadres forces and that much they could collect! There was also the police force ready. One may wonder why the police came for just a deputation program! Perhaps the top-level ones already knew what was going to happen. Suddenly attack started — batons, tear gas shells, and at last firing too. Later the doctors pulled out the bullets and were astonished to find those not were not bullets used by the police..Some others did the shooting; and later, the villagers in their deputation to the District Magistrate's office (on 15.10.04), claimed that the leader did fire on them from inside the panchyat office building where he was well protected inside the solid steel shuttered fortress. The police arrested scores of the poor villagers including those severely wounded by bullets (one even lost one of the eyes!) instead of the goons and the leader who fired.. Hundreds of people had to abscond for days to avoid being arrested by the police in fabricated charges.
The CPI(M) raised their usual and natural hue and cry of conspiracy; named all possible and thought-up 'opponents' for instigating violence, and evidently not the root cause behind, i.e., their corruption. They wrote in their (locally published) hand-bill that TMC-BJP and 'Naxalites' were trying to reap benefit, to fish in troubled waters, by instigating the otherwise peace-loving villagers. But they had to admit, in just one or two lines at the very end that 'there are some corruptions among a section of ration dealers', in this society, full of so many vices, some sludge might soil some belonging to the party; and the people would have to help the party in the washing! ... ... Well, the party had become more matured in the last 15-20 years; previously they would have started their own terror-machine immediately after the incident; this time they are trying to pull at least some part of those agitated within their fold — be it by frightening or by trying to 'buy-up' by distributing some of them some little govt-relief-kitty... ... their usual way!
One thing they mistook totally! The people had indeed come up to 'wash', in their own way. A 'deputation' type program may seem to be 'hatched up' by somebody, and they may take recourse to shouting 'conspiracy' in the dik nagar case; but what they have to tell regarding the first two incidents? They may shout anything in their own controlled media, they may deceive the urban toiling people by their lies; and the sudden party-govt violence may pull a sudden break to the motion, the trend of the rural toilers for a time being, for a few days or months, etc. But one thing they, as rulers, do not see — ultimately the people will reap. That the three incidents of the aush gram villages show a trend, which may be feeble-but-emerging, was perhaps reaffirmed again by an incident in a nearby block within another fortnight. The issue there was the same. But the village poor are not just unhappy with the corruption in ration distribution — they are unhappy with 'everything going on', the hell-of-a-life which is turning harder and harder each day... .... Revolutionary communists know that they need not 'ignite', need not 'hatch up' or 'plan' 'peoples' movement' from above, 'design a movement' or something like that. The first two incidents clearly showed that. They need to show the toiling masses what these things really mean, which way things are going / trying to go, where the solution lies, and how.
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