You don`t say!
Darius Nakhoonwala
When editors sup with the politicians - at the low table, of course - in the hope of a crumb or two their flunkeys, the leader writers, have to inflict bilge on the reader. So even as Nandigram erupted and the Communists stood exposed without their customary cloak of sanctimony, the Hindu was bowing and scraping.
"The anti-Left Front alliance spearheaded by the Trinamool Congress, in which Naxalites, the Jamiat ulema-e-Hind, and other extremist elements have made common cause, was protesting (against) the proposal to create a Special Economic Zone in the area…" Then it gratuitously added, "Land acquisition may not have been the real cause of the ugly situation that developed in Nandigram." Really, sir? What was it then? A protest against Saurav Ganguly?
This is not all. The paper went on to say that the governor, Gopal Gandhi, should have kept his counsel. "Under the Indian Constitution, it is surely not the job of a Governor to offer public judgments on how an elected government should have handled a tricky situation." True, but remember that this was the paper that always lauded President K R Narayanan for speaking out against the BJP. To be fair, though, it did ask how the CPM government things had allowed things to deteriorate so much. But that was almost an afterthought.
The Pioneer, on the other hand, was pleased as punch that the Commies had been hoist with their own petard, namely, popular agitation that turns violent. It castigated Marxist MPs for saying that law and order is a State subject and "hence beyond the purview of any discussion in either the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha." Really? And what about the Gujarat riots, then? Did you not support a similar stand by BJP MPs in 2002?
It had a field day with abuse and vituperation. The first six sentences had the following words:"Balderdash", "horrendous bloodbath", "Marxist terror", "gross abuse of state power", "Marxist hoodlums" "blood on their hands", "sullied fingers", "murder" "Joseph Stalin`s admirers", "Marxist mayhem". You get the drift, no? Would all this apply to the Gujarat government?
There was more. "marauders of Nandigram", "trigger-happy police", "emasculated Government headed by an effete Prime Minister", "loathsome", "sinners of West Bengal", "spilling of blood", "monstrous lies" and "the murderous CPI(M)".
But it got it absolutely right when it said "We need not elaborate on the silence of the Congress president who, it would be in order to recall, lost no time in rushing to Kalinga Nagar in Orissa after 12 tribals were killed in police firing."
Then there was The Telegraph. As befits a Calcutta paper, it wrote twice on the topic. As befits a Bengali bhadralok paper, it invoked Shakespeare, comparing the blood spilt to Othello contemplating the murder of Desdemona. But in spite of being a local paper, it had nothing new to say which would leave the reader better informed. It did launch into the Communists, though and lament the signal the incident was sending out to potential investors.
"What prevails in West Bengal are the aims and the interests of the ruling party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist). The priorities of governance are invariably made subordinate to the political interests of the party. There is no denying that, in Nandigram, the CPI(M) has suffered a political defeat. It has lost control over that turf. It tried to win it back through cadre power in January and it failed. On Wednesday, it tried through police action and failed again."
The Indian Express went off at a valid tangent about incentives. "Just like in Singur, there is a difference in response between those who have clear land titles and those who are legally unrecognised long-standing land users. The first set looks at attractive monetary compensation. The second set risks getting nothing." Good point. But who are these latter? Will someone have the courage to tell us, please?
The Deccan Herald was its usual anodyne self. But remember that it supported violent demonstrations against the Cauvery award last month.
Contact: Darius.Nakhoonwala@gmail.com