Despondence galore...

Ok I will break my silence. I am shocked at CPI(M)'s take and handling of the events happening in Nandigram. I am a bit of a communist but am not a Communist. I believe that concentration of power, either with state or corporate entities would almost always lead to sickening results and loss of freedom. I also believe that left thought should work towards a heirarchy less structure with a more equitable distribution of resources. That one of the more sensible groups in the Indian political spectrum is involved in this sickening display of state power to subdue and subjugate the very people, whom it is supposed to represent(more so than in the nonleft states) makes me despondent. That the masses will lose faith in Left thought and what it represents would probably be one of the most disheartening outcome of the whole event. What made me feel worse was the lukewarm response of that most respected and fearless intellectual Noam Chomsky. Even acknowledging the various forces out to damage the Left (of which there are more than plenty) and the global importance of the need to preserve the Left experiment here and elsewhere, the situation still demanded a stronger admonishment of the State machinery from the noted anarchist. Chomsky Sir, I am disappointed, to say the least.

Having said this, the protests of the people and the intelligensia of Bengal is heartening and surely a healthy sign, for where there is no honest dissent, there can be no Left. A case in point, the absolute lack of spine and dissent culture in the land of one of the earliest dissenter, Nakkeeran,be it the ecologically disastrous and economically unviable Sethusamudram (the only protest is on religious grounds supported by a party which believes that displacing people without adequate and proper compensation, submerging forests and destroying natural heritage is the only way towards progress, even while the religion they claim to protect actually condemns such practices very severely.So much for being religious) or the Khusboo issue or the Dinakaran murders.