Kolkata on Fire

The problem with west bengal is that you bangalis are just too full of yourselves...in addition to being intellectually and physically lazy...

But it's a Good write-up... good to see atleast one bong is owning up the self-created problems...

My sympathies to nb.

The communal parties are directly challenging the communists, with the SUCI and Mamta jumping around in the sidelines. This is going to be a very interesting fight. I would really like to see how the commies deal with this (they did quite well in the Gorkhaland crisis). But this fight has come to Cal.! Lets see how it pans out. Do keep us informed Ms. Ghosal.

Re: # 3 GT

who are the communal parties challenging commies?... BJP and allies are almost non-existent in WB...

#4 Posted by mohar11:

It is the All India Minority Forum (but essentially the Jamaat). They have been able to mobilize around Cal. due to Nandigram etc. (you may want to see my write-up in UP). BJP is quite strong in Cal. And both feed off each other ... you know the script. Cal. is interesting because the CPM is not really that strong (relative to other areas in WB). It has been winning elections recently because of the Cong. decline. Muslims who were typically with the Cong. are now being wooed by both the fundoos and the commies.

I think India should pawn her off to europe or america where her presence would not lead to the loss of other peoples lives.

What were the reasons of uprising.

I had previously thought that India should conduct atmospheric neclear tests over Allahabad with Anand Bhavan as the epicenter.

I think all of Waste Bengal should be declared a nuclear free-fire zone. After all tests are completed, the place should be handed over to Bangladesh so that the poor Mozzies can find a dry place to stay in. Really, all of Bangladesh is bound to wash away into the Bay of Bengal some time in the future and those people need some land to live on.

GT,

As far as I know, in India only Hanuds are communalooon, Muslas are seccularoooon.

Regards

No comments from chowk's resident NRI(non-indian resident of india), farzana versey?

This is a slightly modified version of what I had written about Nandigram in UP. I have also put this in my ilog. I am now adding it to FP interacts because I think that this point has to be repeated given that, the media, and now chowk articles, is not reporting on the core issue. I apologise for multiple postings. I put the following facts, along with certain beliefs (which I clearly state when I take recourse to them), for your consideration.

1. The CPM's claim to fame is land reforms. In West Bengal, it meant that, use rights but not property rights were handed over to those who were actually cultivating the land AT THAT TIME. Use rights do not allow the 'owner' of the land to sell the land. However, it allows the cultivator to cultivate the land without any threat of eviction. The land can also pass on to children but it cannot be sold. So, for example, it cannot be used as a collateral to secure a loan. However, since monitoring who actually cultivates the land is difficult, the person who had the land 'registered' in his name did not have to continue cultivating it. For at least a generation this problem did not arise as cultivators remained cultivators.

2. Most cultivators who benifited from land reforms were CPM members (or converted into CPM members).

3. The land around Calcutta has a huge proportion of Muslims (at places above 50%). Most Muslims were traditionally Congress supporters. Hence, they did not benifit from the reforms as the Hindus did. Plus a sizeable proportion of the Muslims was (is) into small time trade and worked in the handicraft and leather sectors.

4. In Nandigram, the land 'owners' are both Hindus and Muslims. They have done well for themselves given the success of commercial cropping. The second generation is largely out of cultivation. So most of the land is no longer owner cultivated, but is cultivated through hired labor and share cropping! But share cropping and working the fields require that the ‘owner’ monitor the workers or the actual amount of harvest. This, I believe, was getting to be difficult with the younger family members of the “owner” migrating to urban areas for ‘babu’ type jobs. I believe that, given such problems of monitoring, most 'land-owners' were happy to ‘sell’ for the SEZ. (Note, the present problem would not have arisen had the “owners” refused to sell. This point will become clearer as we proceed).
5. In point 4, above, "selling" is simply a compensation by the govt. (who always owned the land) to those under whom the land was registered. "Selling", otherwise has no meaning when the owners only have use rights but no property rights.

6. Almost 60 to 70 percent of the hired labor, share-croppers and traders who sell to the workers (like petty shop-keepers) are Muslims. These guys are the ones who lost out when the land was sold. Do note that the Congess was becomming weaker and weaker politically. A political void was created. The people who lost needed political representation for them to be properly compensated. We shall come to who filled this void after a small deviation in 7.
7. With the influx of hardworking but poor illegal, and hence exploited, Bangladeshi immigrants into the North East region as well as the area near Calcutta, a constituency, unaffiliated with any political party, was developing. In the North East they are now, hopefully, being effectively represented by the Jamaat. I believe that, they are also present as share croppers and hired workers in the Nandigram area (I have no idea about the actual proportion). In any case the informal Muslim network was not getting the political support it required. The CPM drunk with power had become lax.

8. The Jamaat stepped in. According to my political understanding it communalized the situation. Others may argue that this is not communalization, but politics according to Islamic ideals. The CPM was caught napping and a sizeable section of the local leadership went over to the Jamaat folds. Mamta and the Naxals also moved in. CPM cadres were driven out of their houses. The CPM woke up, and as usual its cadre of thugs (both Hindus and Muslims) retaliated. And they did retaliate with violence.

7. Idiots ranging from two time jounalists to Romilla Thapar cannot distinguish heads from tails. The issue is that of "use rights" vs. "property rights". The Marxists did not understand it then and do not do so today.
8. The CPM stronghold is extremely strong in the rural areas and relatively weak in Calcutta. So the Jamaat used Nandigram, and that stupid Bangladeshi writer, to mobilize those Muslims in Calcutta who were previously under the protection of the Congress and the Chatra Parishad. The BJP was waiting just for this to happen. It can now dig into the Hindu vote bank of the Congress.
9. Plain and simple, no rocket science. The CPM, being one of the sanest political parties in India, have immediately brought in the army. I predict that it will resort to massive violence over the comming months through its cadre. To allow for this violence it will give the Congess some slack over the nuclear issue. If Pakistanis are a bit confused over the cadre base of the CPM, think MQM.
(P.S. I am not a Bengali and for that matter I am hardly an Indian)

#7 apparently against Taslima Nasreen to start with-she wants her visa to be extended.
The demographics of Calcutta and its surrounds have been changed completely by infilitration over the last several years.
Did the marxists think they could keep doing this, and nothing would happen? Communal riots haven't occurred in Calcutta in my lifetime.

#6 Cliftonbridge, so it's Taslima's responsibility, not that of the rioters?

#12 Posted by nb:

"The demographics of Calcutta and its surrounds have been changed completely by infilitration over the last several years."

It depends on what you mean by "completely". Just after independece these areas had substantial Muslim population. The census figures do not suggest changes which are "abnormal" and hence the migration thesis cannot be statistically justified. However, the BJP is big time playing the game, i.e. saying exactly what you are saying. On my part, I believe, that there has been some migration, but nothing compared to say the percentage in Darrang (Assam) or, from private observation, in the Gokuldham slums of Mumbai.

Modiji - we are yearning for you
by tali on Nov 22, 2007 08:58 AM | Hide replies

Please come to center and build the unfinished Ram temple.You are the bravest Hindu who can destroy the 3000 structures and rebuild temples again on those occupied lands.
BJP some times talks like congress,we need people like you to strengthen BJP in its ideology.

He was a humble Muslim computer programmer living in a Kolkata chawl, she was the daughter of an industrialist worth over Rs 200 crore.
When Rizwan-ur Rehman and Priyanka Todi eloped and married in August, all hell broke lose.

Ashok Todi, Priyanka's father, tried to snatch away his daughter from Rizwan's home. Rizwan with a humble salary of Rs 11,000 was helpless in his fight against the high and mighty. Sadly, Rizwan's misfortune did not end there and he died a few days later in suspicious circumstances.

The Todi family claims it is a case of suicide while Rizwan's family has no doubt that their son was murdered.

It was only after the media took up the issue, that the state government assigned the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation.