Lalgarh: The Death of an Ideology as Red Rage boils over

After 32 years of nothingness, as Bengal was left to a state of decrepit rot, with the ruling Communists doing precious little and nothing, the rage in Lalgarh now boils over. Media brands this as a Mao-ist and yet the question that one seeks to answer is: What social conditions would lead tribals and locals to take up such extreme measures as a means of self vindication. This is what 32 years of hunger, unemployment, abject poverty, lack of amenities, corruption, illiteracy, disillusionment and neglect can lead an unassuming mass of poor tribals into. Many brand this as Maoist. To me it is a revolution against the system, governance and bureaucracy.

Consider this:
The Lalgarh-Binpur block in West Midnapore district is only 180 Kms away from the state capital, Kolkata.
For decades, tribals in Lalgarh sat on a powder keg as naxals amassed guns ands bombs, indoctrinated illiterate village boys and fed on the disillusionment with the laid back and corrupt CPM administration
In the last 30 years, the left front has not built roads to connect the far flung villages, with only 1 bus plying between the district headquarters, Jhargram and Belparahai daily.
There have been deaths from Hunger in the nearby villages of Amlasole and Amjhora.These would tantamount to severe lapses in the district administration.
The NREGA has failed to provide any work to the villagers for the mandatory 100 days.
Inhabitants such as Ukil Murmu and his family have only earned Rs.1070 after working for 4 days, and that is all they have to live off for the remaining 361 days of the year till the next time they get some work.
There is no irrigation system and the only work available to majority of people here is tilling the land after the rains.

For years the corrupt Marxists in the left centred, Kolkata Writers Building have been blissfully unaware of the neglect and suffering they have put the state though.West Bengal progressively has lost its sheen post 1970s to upstarts such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The crisis that the Marxists face today is the threat from their own ideological brethren, Maoists, who are more “left” than the Left. Being unable to control the extremist form of their own identity is perhaps the biggest defeat of Communists and Marxists in Bengal.

The Communists in China engineered the brilliant re-surgence of China by following open market policies. That their Human rights records are not exactly the best is another thing altogether.In as far as the Communists of Bengal are concerned they can neither boast of Human developmenet indexes or economic progress indexes. Singrur, Nandigram, Khejuri and now Lalgarh are the shinning examples of the loss of an Idealogy.

There was a movie in 2002, Sanjiv Karambelkar's LAL SALAAM, directed by Gaganvihari Borate which foreboded the uprising in its present form in the Naxal led states. It was an authoritative portrayal of the plight of the tribals in face of Governmental atrocities and naxal pressures.A window to this world, it is a must see.