People's Democracy

 West Bengal Media: Playing

The Opposition Role

  Prakash Karat

EVER since a judge of the Kolkata High Court delivered the judgement prohibiting rallies from 8 a m to 8 p m on all working days, the bourgeois-run media in West Bengal has been in a state of hyper activity. Day after day, led by the Ananda Bazar’s stable of newspapers, they have been on a crusade to support the judgement and gone into paroxysms of rage against the CPI(M) and the Left Front for refusing to accept this serious attack on democratic rights. The entire episode is a graphic illustration both of the creeping authoritarianism surfacing in the system and the character and role of the media owned by big business. 

For this media, the matter was clear as black and white. That arguments to prohibit rallies and strikes came from a right-wing media was not surprising.  But what was brazen was the inversion of the very concept of democracy and the rights of citizens. Those who backed the judgement prohibiting demonstrations, were supporters of “freedom” and the rights of citizens. Those opposed to the infringement of the right of assembly and protest were enemies of democracy and the people.

In editorials, the CPI(M) was lambasted for stating that rallies have been prohibited; this is termed as a canard.  Rallies are still allowed at certain places and times claim the champions of freedom.  What was not stated was that the judgement delivered by Justice Lala strikes at the root of one of the basic rights of citizens — in a democracy, people assemble and march to protest and to represent their demands to the government, or, the authorities. The judgement by prohibiting demonstrations on working days and allowing them only on Sundays and public holidays when government offices and the administration remain shut, prevents the citizens from collectively expressing their views, or, making demands of the government. Further, by allowing rallies only after 8 p m, there is no way such public representations to the government can be made.  In every democratic country, citizens have the right to assemble, march and rally to the seats of government, whether it be the legislature, or, the executive seats of power.

The other shop-worn argument is that a couple of thousands of people cannot hold the city to ransom or violate the right of individual citizens to free movement. What is deliberately ignored in this argument is that the Indian Constitution and the laws of the country provide for the regulation and imposition of reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right to assemble and protest.  Section 144 of the penal code which disallows more than five people to assemble together in a public place, is one of the most overworked provisions of law in the country.

The bourgeois media of Kolkata is very well aware of how this right is exercised globally. One such instance was the worldwide demonstrations held against the threat of war on Iraq which saw millions of people marching in over 600 cities in 60 countries on February 15 this year.  What is permissible, as a normal democratic right in Washington, London, Paris or Tokyo, should be banned for the people of  Kolkata and West Bengal!

In order to justify this blatantly  anti-democratic posture, the Kolkata media fell back on its traditional resort to anti-Communism.  Ghosts  of Stalinism were evoked.  There was much sanctimonious concern for the judiciary which was being defended from the jackboots of the commissars.  No tactic was beneath use. The death of a seriously ill six month-old  baby was attributed to a demonstration of students and youth defending the right to hold rallies. 

The hypocrisy of this commercially-driven media has been seen through  for a long time by the people of West Bengal.  The main anti-Communist newspapers have sought to promote and build up a “democratic opposition” to the Marxists and the Left for the past 26 years.   Every assembly election during this period has seen the campaign being virtually spearheaded by the rightwing media.  Till recently, their great hope was Mamata Banerjee.  After the last assembly elections, a     despairing  media has now been forced to don the role of the opposition.  With the bourgeois opposition parties in disarray in the state, the reality is that the role of the opposition has now been  taken over by a pack of newspapers and news channels. 

The role of the newspapers of Kolkata are  comparable currently with what we see in Venezuela.  There the entire big business media including the private television stations are engaged in a bitter struggle to  dislodge  the democratically elected President Chavez.  They play the role of opposition, inciter and purveyor of lies and distorted propaganda.  This rightwing media had no qualms in backing the aborted coup against the elected  President in April 2002.  All because his policies threatened the vested interests of the rich, and his independent foreign policy upset the USA.

The same newspapers which expected Buddhadeb Bhattacharya to heed their advice and support the prohibition of rallies have now turned on him for promoting a “lawless Bengal”.  The Ananda Bazar group which pioneered the opening of the Indian media to foreign capital is now in the lead, to sanitise Kolkata from the plague of rallies and demonstrations.  The connection can hardly be missed. It confirms the Marxist dictum that what is freedom for the exploited is poison for the exploiter. 

The endorsement of the  severe restrictions on democratic rights came not only from the Bengal media but also from a substantial section of the    national English language media.  The same newspapers which backed the Supreme Court judgement denying the government employees the right to strike joined the fray in editorially flaying the CPI(M) and the Left for opposing the Kolkata High Court  judgement. 

The judgement by Justice Lala is not an isolated one. In the last few years, more and more, the higher judiciary has come out with hostile views and restrictions on democratic rights. The prohibition of bandhs was followed by the ban on hartals and a host of restrictions on the holding of rallies and demonstrations. The Supreme Court judgement by a two-member bench against the right to strike is the worst of the kind.  What is reflected, both amongst the judiciary and the media, is the prevailing  outlook of the ruling classes. To keep  international finance capital happy and to provide a hospitable environment for them and the Indian big business, it is essential to put curbs on the right of collective protests. 

So, if the Kolkata judge  believed that good citizens should protest only in the night, or, in the early hours of dawn, the Delhi High Court took the  opposite view — demonstrations in Delhi should be held during working hours  between 10 a m and 5 p m which would mean one must forego pay for the day if one wishes to protest. 

Those who pillory the CPI(M) for opposing the High Court judgement and hold  it up as an example of Communist contempt for the judiciary, display a class blindness.  The same newspaper which blamed the Communists, railed against the judgement of the Supreme Court which decreed that  the government of India cannot sell off the HPCL and BPCL oil companies without bypassing Parliament. For The Indian Express, just as the right of citizens to hold demonstrations can be dispensed with,  so also Parliament is an inconvenience, which should not stand in the way of privatising the super-profitable oil companies. 

Some of the media shed crocodile tears that the chief minister of West Bengal and the Left Front government had lost a golden opportunity to prove that Kolkata and West Bengal was amenable to  investments and capital by refusing  to endorse the High Court judgement.  Worse, the Left Front government appealed against the judgement and sought a  review.   There was palpable dismay in these circles when a stay on Justice Lala’s order was given till the petition was disposed off. 

The editor of the Hindustan Times, whose knowledge about the night life in Mumbai and Delhi far    exceeds his expertise of the  national and West Bengal political situation, wrote an entire article devoted to the  CPI(M)’s role in “destroying the once great state of West Bengal”.  All that he could put forth was to propagate the myth that West Bengal has been destroyed by the “culture of disruption and rallies”. 

In all the great cities, large protests are held by tens of thousands of citizens.  During  all such rallies, some people are definitely inconvenienced because of traffic restrictions, snarls and diversions.  It is the duty of the administration to see that such problems are kept to the minimum by  regulating the flow  of demonstrations and rallies through prescribed routes.  The Left Front government had already announced three venues for the  holding of rallies in Kolkata. What is required is to see that there is an agreement to regulate the holding of demonstrations and rallies which would have the democratic consent of not just the political parties but also of society in general.

The CPI(M) is definitely not going to accept any judicial     fiats which seek to sweepingly restrict the right to assemble, the right to protest, or, the right to strike. Succumbing to the demands and pressures of an influential and powerful minority to suppress such rights will be a sure way to promote  authoritarianism in our country.