Bantul creator rues missing `class' in politics

HOWRAH: As the entire state goes gaga over elections, one man sits on his ancient perch and watches all the fun. At 91, he is as active as ever with his now legendary comic strips, which are often a take on political fisticuffs. He chuckles all the way as he tells you that it's a big circus out there and he is happily watching the acrobatics. He doesn't take poll actors too seriously , after all they are cut out of the same fabric and dyed in different colours. Though country's senior-most cartoonist Narayan Debnath is not into politics, he's not entirely out of it either. His Bantul the Great is Bengal's poll mascot this year. Bantul was created during the Indo-Pak war. He is basically an invincible character who can fight tanks and bullets and come out unscratched ­ a personification of India, according to the cartoonist. “It felt wonderful, you see! Finally , Bantul has been used for the country .

I always intended him to be that way ,“ he grins. Ask him how has politics changed over the years and he says: “You think anything has changed? There is a tendency to worship times that are bygone, but I belong to an era when day after day we read about Subhas Bose wronged by the party he first called his own? Why was Gandhi silent then?

It was Nehru's wrong decision to call off the war in Kashmir that still fes ters like cancer in India...those were far bigger mistakes than our leaders are making now,“ he said, rather sadly.

But class and finesse are missing in today's politics, Debnath felt.“There is lack of depth and education in our leaders today. How shamelessly they ask for votes! If you've worked, people will know, you will not have to advertise yourself. Take the Congress Left combine for example. It's like asking oil and water to mix up. They are of two different ideologies, who have survived by fighting. How can they come together and why do they think that people will accept the alliance to be innocent? It's a politics of personal growth now. The rhetoric is one of naked greed,“ Debnath sounded angry .

What about Sarada-Narada and the Vivekananda Road flyover collapse? Is Trinamool not to be blamed?

“I cannot deny that. People brought Mamata in with a lot of hope and much of that has crashed, but I personally believe that she is honest, though she is surrounded by dishonest people, whom she cannot ignore.It's a catch-22 situation for her,“ he agreed. He is a bit sad that Mamata is being painted a villain.

So will he vote? “Yes, I will. I always have.“ He gets back to unfinished work...there's a deadline to meet. He's working on three comic strips that are published every month in popular Bengali children's magazines.