Gory tradition of politics over the dead

KOLKATA: The politics over Saifunnesa Begum's death wasn't the first in Bengal. Nor will it be the last. A few days after CPM's bloody recapture' of Nandigram in November 2007, the body of Haren Pramanik was found in a roadside pit in Maheshpur village. As police went looking forsomeone to identify the corpse, three women came forward claiming to his wife.CPM claimed the body was that of its supporter Chanchal Middya. In a couple ofdays the "impostors" left. Their identify was never established.With the politics of body count raging in Bengal, no political partyis willing to leave any corpse unstamped. Not only the dead, the same has been going on with the likes of Narayan Chandra Das, Aditya Bera and Subal Majhi, who are missing since the Nandigram carnage of 2007. No public meeting goes without the mention of these names. The irony was evenmore evident in the deaths of Haradhan Majhi and Sushen Santra in Singur in2007-2008. The warring CPM and Trinamool took diametrically opposite stands onthe cause of the death. Both had committed suicide. On October 23, 2009, afour-year-old, who died in a hospital in Burdwan's Katwa, was paraded around thetown by Trinamool workers as a mark of protest'. "Hemanta Basu'smurder was the most sensational political killing in the '70s, which changed theface of state's politics," says CPM leader Rabin Deb. In the dark era' of '60sand '70s, the deaths of Naxalite leaders Saroj Dutta and Sushital Roychowdhurytriggered a political storm between the ruling Congress and CPM, then in theOpposition. Leader of the Opposition Partha Chattopadhyay deniesbeing involved in politics over bodies. "If we start counting the number ofTrinamool supporters who have been killed, we will get nowhere. It is CPM whichindulges in such politics," Chatterjee said. But there are voicesthat feel that the blame lies equally with both the sides."This isworse than jungle raj. Politics of attack, counterattack, violence,counter-violence is alien to democracy. Unfortunately, no political partybothers to maintain the culture of democracy. Political affiliation has becomethe identity of people. No one is willing to listen to the voice of the civilsociety," rues writer Saibal Mitra. Congress leader Arunava Ghoshfeels rabble-rousers have taken to the forefront in all parties and areindulging in the politics of force. "Those who can incite passion are callingthe shots in all parties. Rational thinkers have taken the backseat. Leftistsbelieve that power flows from the barrel of the gun. This has been picked up byother parties. Unfortunately, poor people with hardly any political ambition arebecoming the victims of a violent political game," Ghosh said. CPIstate secretary Manju Mazumdar blames the Opposition. "There is nothing wrong ifthe Opposition claims that they will come to power in the next elections. Butwhy are they in such a hurry to prepone it? If they have to come to powerthey'll have to do it democratically. In the 60s and 70s people were killed inthe name of class enemies. People of Bengal didn't accept this politics ofkilling then," Mazumdar said.