A small piece on Singur and Nandigram protests

When Singur and Nandigram was steaming, more in the minds of the middleclass Bengali intelligentsia, various celebrities and political groups were busy fishing in the murky water. Watching from a distance it was unlikely to track the events accurately. The internet played a vital role to negate the difficulty.

The awesome and loud protest by the devi’s and babu’s termed as ‘sushil’ was rather extraordinary. Also it was surprising to watch the hardcore self proclaimed underground rebels joining hands with reactionaries, theorizing and justifying their stand in their various inscriptions and dialogues. Almost every of these were documented in the newly discovered net sphere by enthusiastic cyber volunteers where they were published and republished. Whichever side one belongs to, it is undisputed now that these volunteers were basically honest, sensitive to voice their concern over an important socio-political issue of their time. Emotions were running high with obvious support from a big chunk of the sarcastic bhadrolok society. Also the protests were a relatively trouble-free one sided act as their enemy number one were defensive from the very beginning. Without any real backlash from the tactfully low key opponent the hullabaloo went on in full swing. Lot of imaginative forecasts and rumors were floating in the hot wind and it was pathetic to see, there were actually no difference between an illiterate, superstitious village folk and a high educated, rational, city dweller buddhijibi on this matter.

From the background the nefarious authorities were down to business. They were invisible as always, wearing different masks at different time but purposely promoting the welfare farce. If that clicks, well. If not, no problem; they were not loosing anything. There will come plenty of opportunities in the drastically changing scene of Bengal.

The only difference may be that this surge of activism by the intelligentsia will not repeat in the same manner. By its very nature they can’t sustain a particular emotion for a long time.