'Thirty four years' has a special significance for West Bengal, as it immediately evokes memories of the Left rule (also for 34 years) in the state. For Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Tapas Pal, however, the tables have turned in 34 years insofar as the public perception is concerned.
It was in 1980 that Pal made his debut on the silver screen with Tarun Majumder-directed Dadar Kirti - still a popular movie. Since then Pal has been saddled with the image of the simple-minded Kedar Chatujye, the character he played in the movie. That image was shattered recently with his comments threatening to "kill" his political opponents and unleash "his boys" to rape their women.
This is the same person, who touched the feet of then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee in 2001, while entering the state Assembly for the first time as a Trinamool MLA from Kolkata's Alipore. His gesture was a talking point and was appreciated widely then by the same media, which TMC now thinks is intentionally trying to malign him and the party.
"Although I know Pal for a long time, the person that Pal has become now is poles apart from the person he was then," actress and director Aparna Sen was heard saying on television, suggesting that the ills of politics have consumed him. This is arguable but one thing is clear - the foot-in-mouth statement syndrome displayed by Pal has become a part of the political discourse in Bengal.
Not so long ago, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a pre-election interview to a local news channel compared Bengal with Gujarat in her own inimitable style of argument, saying, "The Bengal model is better than the Gujarat model for the primary reason that Bengal is the cultural capital of not only India but the whole world."
What is more worrying for the state is the government and TMC's so-called action - or rather inaction - in this case. In fact, the chief minister's public comments about the incident range from shocking to bizarre.
"It is a blunder. We have taken whatever steps that are needed to be taken. It is an individual utterance. What do you want? Should I kill him? What can I do? Whatever I can do we can do it through our policy," said Banerjee, in her initial statement.
TMC handed out a show-cause notice to Pal, seeking an unconditional apology and TMC spokeseperson Derek O'Brien declared, "The matter ends here". This was the action taken by Banerjee, the TMC supremo. From Banerjee, the chief minister, there was no action at all. Newspaper editorials, columnists, intellectuals and lawyers pointed out she could have asked the police to enforce Section 23 of the Police Act and Section 115 of the IPC, to start proceedings against Pal for his objectionable statement.
But then Pal is not the only one in the TMC with the propensity to shock. There is TMC MLA Manirul Islam, who was heard boasting at a public rally that he had "trampled over three persons"; there is TMC's leader from Bankura district, Arup Chakrabarty, who was reported to have said: "If anyone forces themselves into your hut, kill them. I will take care of you." This list, of course, is incomplete without TMC strongman from Birbhum, Anubrata Mandal, who reportedly publicly threatened to "chop off the head of a Congress candidate". In another case, during the panchayat elections, Sagar Ghosh, father of independent candidate Hriday Ghosh, was murdered soon after Mandal's public speech to "hurl bombs at the Opposition and set their houses on fire".
In the context of Mandal, Banerjee publicly said she would defend an efficient organiser such as Mandal to the end. Here, TMC is following the tradition of its predecessor. The likes of infamous Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M) leaders in West Midnapore district, Tapan Ghosh and Sukur Ali, who were allegedly involved in bombing a TMC supporter's home, were hailed by the then ruling party.
Pal and Mandal are to Trinamool Congress what Ghosh and Ali were to the CPI(M). It believes public memory is short, hence Pal has been asked not to attend Parliament, so that the controversy dies down. Is the TMC right in its assumption?
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