Slumdogs and Congress

I am intrigued by the euphoria in Congress on the success of the film “Slumdog Millionaire” (“Congress tries to bask in Slumdog glory” The Statesman 4 February 2009).
According to the Congress party, the success of the film in winning Oscars is a sequel to the government’s ‘governance accomplishments’. I wonder whether the vast slum at Dharabi in Mumbai suburbs is considered an ‘accomplishment’ or a shame to any national government.
Congress wants to showpiece the vast slum area with its filth, muck and widespread deprivations, exploitation and ruthless trampling of human rights as an example of “achieving India”, so much so that the President and the Prime Minister came out in hailing the film.I am glad the film exposes the hypocrisy of the Indian politicians in all its aspects. They will take advantage of everything, from success to failures and convert them to their vote-bank. They are exploiters too, like the ones shown in the picture

CPI(M)'s dichotomy

In his letter ‘Friends of China’ ( The Statesman 18 March 2009), Mr. S. S. Chattopadhyay has expressed surprise that the CPI-M is ‘spewing venom at the USA’, and at the same time the Chief Minister is meeting a 10-member delegation of US-India Business Council to discuss prospects of American business in West Bengal. This only betrays the dichotomy in the CPI-M’s word and action. This is also very obvious when we see that the CPI-M cried itself hoarse when Tata withdrew its Nano works from Singur, blaming it wholly on Mamata Banerjee, but caused the Tata Metalik to withdraw its venture from West Bengal by its apathetic attitude and sloppy work of WBIDC, the CPI-M’s industrial wing. So, on the one hand, the party declares that it wants industrialization in West Bengal, and on the other, it forces industries to leave West Bengal.
Regarding the Party’s preference of China to India, the Party wants to project itself as a socialist (communist) party which it is not. They look up to China as their mentor, but China does not care; it rather helps Pakistan by supplying nuclear bomb technology and materials.
Again, while the CPI-M stresses the right of workers to strike work in factories, they conveniently forget that in China, neither the labour union activities, nor the ‘right to strike work in factories’ exist.
Lastly, the CPI-M has the least interest in the integrity and well-being of India. This is the reason why they are not only silent on the continued occupation of a part of Indian territory by China and its designs on Arunachal Pradesh, but they are also allowing illegal Bangladeshi immigrants to freely settle down in West Bengal, supplying them with Ration Cards and Voter ID Cards; the CPI-M is also actively supporting the increase in the activities of Madrasas so as to inflate its vote-bank. There is neither any place for patriotism, nor is there any moral principle in the CPI-M’s political programme.

Auto-Rickshaws of Calcutta (Kolkata)

March 2009
For the last six months, the West Bengal government has been sitting on its hands over the July 2008 High Court order to ban the two-stroke auto-rickshaws. It wakes up ‘one fine morning’ on January 1, 2009, and fonds that they would have to eliminate sixty-thousand autos at one go. So, the government decides to ‘go slow’. How slow? Well, they seize ninety autos in ten days! That is slow enough, considering that the target is sixty thousand. Does anyone remember our Chief Minister’s slogan “Do it now”? It appears he himself has forgotten his motto.
The fact is that the West Bengal government is not keen on banning the two-stroke autos for the sake of its vote-bank. After all, the ministers and the bureaucrats spend their time in air-conditioned offices and travel by air-conditioned cars. So, they don’t have to breathe in the Kolkata air, rendered carcinogenic by the katatel-fuelled autos. For the ordinary mortals, let them suffer from chest cancer and be damned.

The Transport Minister

The name of Mr. Subhas Chakraborty, the minister in charge of transport and sports is frequently in the limelight, but always for the wrong reasons.
He has been known to be the mentor of the notorious ‘Hatkata Dilip’; he was known for harbouring criminals in the stadium which seems to be his personal fief. He is known as a friend of the building-promoters, particularly those who want to usurp government land and want to fill up water bodies, environment be damned! But he excels in his role as the transport minister.
He is a great friend of the bus-owners and the drivers and conductors. Whenever the price of petrol increases, he agrees to an increase in bus fares, but does not tell his friends to reduce fares when the petrol prices come down. He allows decrepit and dilapidated buses to ply on the streets of Kolkata; he allows buses to exude noxious fumes ( all that hullabaloo about pollution, again, be damned), and does not allow the very old buses in a ramshackle condition to be condemned; he allows the drivers with or without a license to drive buses causing accidents, allows racing and overtaking on the wrong side with devastating effects, like what happened on April 4 on the VIP Road, and plying on the wrong side of the road as shown in the picture on The Statesman( Kolkata Plus) (8 April). One may say that keeping the buses in check and to check that the driver and the passenger have seat-belts on, or that the riders on two-wheelers put on helmets are the duties of the police, but when these offending drivers are supported by the transport minister, the policemen can do precious little. These killer drivers get away with a small fine, and continue their killings. If the police confiscate their licenses, the Regional Transport Authority quickly issues a duplicate license
Last but not the least, all the five transport corporations under him are making losses and are being subsidized by the tax-payers’ money.
His latest feat is the refusal of funds for the restructuring of the loss-making transport corporations. The funds are being provided by the “Department of International Development”. He is opposing restructuring of the transport corporations citing “funds from imperialist forces” . Has anyone heard of anything more disgusting and hypocritical?

P.S. In spite of an High Court Order of July 2008, (i) the unregistered auto-rickshaws, (ii) the two-stroke auto-rickshaws and (iii) the carcinogenic smoke emitting katatel-using auto-rickshaws have not been removed from Kolkata roads. So much for rule of law in West Bengal.