Post-mortem: A report on why one is dead (and it makes news)
Atig. A Ghosh †
The city is in tumult. The time-honored duchess-and-the-gamekeeper plot has ultimately stepped out of reel into real life. And the Tolly- and Bolly-watchers know exactly how to act. They have been trained for long in that cinematic sociology. To Rizwanur’s unfortunate death and the more unfortunate circumstances of the same, add the religious angle and the honest rage of the city folks stands more than justified. We have marched, sloganeered, demonstrated, campaigned for signatures and held up more than just a candle to Todi’s multi-million prowess. Ranging from the sanctimonious to the scabrous, battles have raged in many theaters. For once the opposition in West Bengal is united in the general outrage while the villain seems many-headed: the police, big business and the now-humble servant of big business — CPIM. If we were to say that these heads are one and the same — that state, police and capital form an organic whole, then European history of the last century has a term to describe the political situation in West Bengal and an unsavory one at that.
The details of the tragedy, which has been thrust upon Rizwanur’s family and Priyanka, do not need a rehearsal. They are too well-publicized. In any case, the ramifications of investigation and journalism have been many and have successfully resisted any concrete hypothesis. They have remained heuristic in the way AIl people understand it — the thing’s gonna get smarter. However, the ethical impetus that galvanizes people into activism today is admirable and let us wish for its unflagging and energetic life.
Trying a different tack, then, let me contexualize the politics that frames the murder, suicide or the murderous suicide of Rizwanur Rahman. The heavily mediatized renderings of the tragedy have saturated the front pages of most newspapers for quite some time now. The ed and op-ed pages too have been mostly dedicated to Rizwanur. A few days back, a wizened writer of political travelogues for Nepal and China had bounced back to home turf only to bleat out the monumental importance of the event given its ‘non-political’ character. It is not political so it is the most important mass movement in decades.
Oh, shut it. Rizwanur’s case is not political only in the sense that most political parties, outfits, fronts, etc. operating in the region have not been able to arrogate partisan benefits from it, at least not overwhelmingly. And, oh dear, isn’t the agitation successful! However, the act of endowing it with paramount importance itself has a politics ensconced in it: A politics better known as apolitics. All the traditional cliches are chillingly apt for West Bengal at the moment: the countryside’s bleeding, it’s up in flames, in a state of war, a politzeistaat. Land is being grabbed, fertile lands. People are being dispossessed for the future-hope which assures mostly those who are agitating for Rizwanur that they’ll ride a car into the glorious sunset. The Ration kelenkari has seen CPIM offices set on fire in Bardhaman — the much-trumpeted fortress of the Left Front. And of course media moguls must brush all that under the carpet to make way for front-page photographs of Dharmendra & Sons with Todi Bros. Now we can see why the Rizwanur Case has to be the most important movement while at the same time not being political. It must hog the headlines while equally, if not more, important political developments can be kept penumbral, while democracy is pounded to pieces that disappear. The government is playing foul and the media is deliberately playing into the foulness. “Even if a hundred people die”, says the characteristically cavalier Jyoti Basu, commenting on the situation in Midnapur, “we cannot kowtow to the Trinamool demand for all people becoming the members of their party to be able to live in Nandigram”. The demand doubtless is preposterous, if it has really been made (and Trinamool could bloody well have). However, the point here is that hundred or hundreds of farmers can fall victim to organized political killing without making the partisan egos and political mileage calculations adjust an inch. And the single death of Rizwanur is of capping importance. Admirable sentiments, eh!
If this is a polemical outburst insofar as it expresses anger, then so be it. One does not exactly need to delve into the curlicues of philosophy to justify polemics over rational speech at a time when the CPIM top-brass is baying for the application of Dumdum Dawai to her chief political opposition and Central Forces to Nandigram. This is surely not the best time to mouth well-rounded justifications. These are surely not the best of times.
† The author is a Doctoral student at El colegio de Mexico, Mexico City.
