They used to say what Bengal thinks today, the rest of the country will wake up to later. Did my past tense usage offend someone? Ok, some Bengali friends would still want to cling to the adage. I don't intend to hurt anyone's 'sentiments'.
'Sentiments' are easy to hurt in our part of the world. But all creative expressions are a potential assault on 'sentiments' of a person or a group. So what do you do? Ban creative expression, apparently.
A film apparently critical of Mamata Banerjee must not be viewed in West Bengal. 'War Cry of the Poor', a film by Suman Mukhopadhyay, based on a book written by eminent litterateur Mahasweta Devi's son Nabarun Bhattacharya, has been denied clearance by the regional censor board. Their objection: the film 'lampoons' Mamata's swearing-in ceremony and the Singur movement.
This is not a one-off incident. Governments - both at the Centre and the states - have been in the banning business for long.
But this business of bans and throttling of any dissent has now become a norm in Mamata's West Bengal. Email a CM's cartoon, go to jail. Didn't report to work on the day of a bandh called by Left, you ear will be chopped off. What girl, you cried rape? It's a CPM conspiracy. Newspapers are all conspiring against Ma, Mati and Manush. They don't deserve to be in libraries.
What's wrong with you Didi? Why are you so paranoid? Why are you letting the state down, that celebrated you as Durga for slaying the 'Red Demon'?
Your party workers have turned law unto themselves. Your party has turned into a rampaging mob. Did someone say Didi's
dadas?
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