People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No.
20
May 24, 2009
|
Vol. XXXIII
No.
20 May 24, 2009 |
DHAR Bagan in Rajabazaar in the
heart of the
metropolis of Kolkata was the scene of Trinamuli rampage during the
night/morning of May 19-20, 2009. Fayez Ali a CPI(M) worker went in the
morning
of May 19 to the residential tenement house of his uncle to collect a
blood
donation card for his ailing cousin.
His uncle Ala-ud din is a member
of the Sealdah east
local committee of the CPI(M). On seeing Fayez, a whole lot of drug
peddlers
who double as the local Trinamul �leadership,� led by a history-sheeter
named
�Billy� Raju, rushed at him with large switch-knives.
Fayez ran for his life. He was soon caught up, tripped to the ground,
beaten up, stabbed, and left for dead, with multiple bleeding injuries. When Ala-ud din�s wife came out to prevent
further blows from raining down on the prostrate and groaning young
man, she
was caught hold of and flung to the ground, and then kicked. It was
only the
resistance of the local populace that ultimately made the attackers
flee, threatening,
and flinging abuses all the time as they ran.
We are told that northern parts
of the city have been
made especial targets of the Trinamuli attacks � from the Pathuriaghata
Street
in �old Kolkata,� to the more recent Beliaghata bustee, and the
Narkeldanga
locality, attacks are being mounted on CPI(M) workers and sympathisers
in a
systematic manner. Ganashakti boards
have been pulled down, ripped apart, and set fire to with impunity at
several
places here.
Attack
in the
suburbs
continue
The attacks continue in the
suburbs. At Maheshtala, a mufussil
township in south 24 Parganas, variety goods stalls of
three CPI(M) supporters, Prasanta Haldar, Doodhkumar Mondal, and Ananda
Dolui
were looted, wrecked completely, and then the remains set on fire,
pauperising
the three small traders completely.
At the Daudpur gram panchayat
area in Barasat in north
24 Parganas, bombs and crackers were thrown at a school building,
making the
students run panic-struck. Another feature here is the extortion of
sums of
money from CPI(M) workers and their relatives � the amounts ranging
from five
thousand rupees up to a lakh or two. Any negation meets with severe
beating and
worse, come night time. Staying in Barasat, the Trinamulis looted
houses of a
dozen-odd CPI(M) workers and made off with all their life savings,
wrecking
their hutments as well.
Role
of
the
media
The corporate media has
intensified its anti-Communist
role. They print photos of CPI(M)
workers grieving and caption them as �some man/ some woman� as having
been
beaten up by �CPM� -- and the shameless charade goes on and on. Elsewhere the �Sushil Samaj,�
consisting of self-acclaimed anti-Communist
�intellectuals,� met the Trinamuli chief at a bash they had organised,
and
urged upon her to �advance the dates for the assembly elections to
which the
chieftain cheerily agreed, before flying off to the capital for a t�te-�-t�te with the central Congress
leadership.
(BP)
