Bengal is never short of entertainment events. One of the latest is called ' Konkal Kando' or 'Skeletons' Chapter'. In the last three months, villagers have identified, like archaeologists, various small patches of land where they could sniff human skeletons decaying under the ground: they called the Police to start excavation that led to the discovery of skeletons. Soon some local resident would identify some of skeletons as those of their lost relatives (father/son/husband) and lodged a First Information Report complaint to the Police of these relatives were murdered some 8 years ago and buried by around 40 persons mentioning the names and other contact details of the alleged killers.
Incidentally in all these cases, the alleged murders are all members, supporters, leaders and activists of the Communist Party of India -Marxists (CPM). As soon as the first case was taken over by the police for investigations, CPM leader and former Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya, termed this case as attempt of the new ruling party, Trinamool Congress, to falsely implicate the CPM leaders and members as a measure of revenge (PratiHimgsha). Some Bengalis seem to have mastered the art of using the wrong words or language. If there was a revenge, it must have been preceded by some assault on the party taking revenge: PratHingsha can come only if it was preceded by Hingsha. I do not think Buddhadev wanted to admit that the CPM when it was in power adopted Hingsha had earlier assaulted the Trinamool and now that Trinamool has come to power, it is paying the CPM back in the same coin as revenge by adopting PratiHingsha! He had further said that a CPM leaders was being arrested just because some unknown person was killed somewhere. I do not think he wanted to mean that some unknown, unidentified person was killed somewhere: he probably wanted to mean that the person killed was insignificant compared with the status and stature of a CPM leader and former minister being arrested. Maybe he did not mean even that but was just trying to say that how could a tiger be suspected of killing a small mice.
The CPM leaders had also said that it is impossible for relatives to identify the person from the skeleton after 8 years of decay or some clothes found near the skeleton. What they probably meant was that the identification is cooked up: the Trinamool, the Police and those who filed the FIR claiming as relatives of the dead were a closely-knit set of conspirators against the CPM. Unfortunately, the lower and higher courts did not grant bail to the arrested CPM leader: the media says that the Judges had accept the prima facie possibility of a link between the skeleton of the killed and the alleged set of murderers. The claim of the persons who filed the FIR that the person allegedly murdered was their relative was proved by the DNA test.
As more and more skeletons were discovered and FIR filed against killings alleged committed by 30-40 CPM supporters on persons reportedly members/ supporters of Trinamool Party, CPM has given up the theory of revenge. New theories have arisen. First, they questioned why the skeletons of the CPM activists and leaders killed by the Maoists are not being unearthed? This would mean that the Trinamool Government is only telling the police to deal with cases where the CPM can be targeted as source of alleged killers. This is unfair. How is it that people in no village of West Bengal has not sniffed skeletons of murdered CPM members / supporters under the ground?
But the CPM West Bengal Secretary, Biman Bose, has offered the most entertaining theories. First he said that more skeletons can be found all over Bengal because villages bury the people who died because of small pox. The media was quick to embarrass him with the fact that Small Pox disease has been eradicated in India and the lest reported case of small pox was recorded in as far back as in 1975 even before the CPM camt to power in West Bengal. I think Biman Bose meant that he was aware of villages continuing the practice of burying the dead under the ground for various odd reasons like small pox and all skeletons that maybe unearthed cannot be explained as killings by CPM's so-called Harmad bahinis and CPM leaders. How just a slip of the tongue created confusion: small pox should have been small cause - mere faux pas.
But when errors creep in they seem to be difficult to stop. Biman Bose questioned how could a person who cannot even sign but gives thumb impression could recall the names of 40 alleged accused while filing FIR after identifying a skeleton as his/ her father/ husband? The media brought scientists to tell the people of West Bengal that there is no scientific evidence to suggest that those who could not sign have difficulty in recalling large number of names. Biman Bose is embarrassed and will lose credibility. He said something that he did not mean: he wanted to mean this - how come after 8 or 10 years an illiterate and politically inactive lady who cannot even narrate past events in an articulate manner could recall 40 persons names as suspected killer or killing organisers. But he could not say this so bluntly. Everyone knows that it is difficult even for the most articulate and brainy to rattle of forty names for the purpose of registering an FIR. But when a person files an FIR often he/ she gets prepared with all the relevant details. And, the people who have suffered atrocities in public do remember the names of people who had oppressed them and long for some day bringing the culprits to justice.
While everyone would agree that CPM leaders must speak out in their defence, very few would have expected them to contribute to social entertainment at this juncture by fumbling with words and phrases. The sad part of the whole episode is that no one asks how come for 8 to 10 years dead bodies turned to skeletons in so many places and the Government had not been aware of this, though Biman Bose knew that many dead bodies were buried under the ground for small pox!
Bengal has turned herself into a land of entertainment on air with skeletons underground.
Sunday, August 28, 2011
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