Palash Speaks

As Mountbattens palanned! Brahmins Hold On The Colony!
Palash Biswas
Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com
Persecution of dalit Bengalies continue accross the border even today. The Brahminical Ruling power bought the STATE Power with Lady Mountbatten`s indescent help. Briefly been the last Viceroy and Vicereine of pre-Partition India; after Partition, Lord Mountbatten remained briefly as the first of the two Governors General of India — in 1950 the link with the monarchy was severed and India's governor general was replaced with a non-executive president. During his brief governor generalship Lord Mountbatten was accorded by the Government of India, to all intents and purposes, his former viceregal powers in the circumstances of appalling carnage and disruption attendant upon the Partition. But the politacal manupulation of Mountbatten Couple spelt disaster for millions of underprevileged and enslaved Dalits, tribals and minorities accross the border.
The colony remained colony as Mountbattens palanned!
Radiation monitoring on Indian coast for Nimitz. Ambassador to India David Mulford has said that Nimitz was sent to India at the invitation of Indian government.The USS Nimitz is readying to dock off the Chennai coast on Monday, and its arrival in Indian waters has been strongly opposed by the Left.Mulford also added that the Nimitz is the best ship in terms of technology. The fact that the Nimitz uses nuclear power means that the ship can store almost twice as much aviation fuel as the largest conventional carrier.And also it can keep 50 per cent more ammunition including nuclear weapons if ordered to by the US administration making it quite literally the strongest arm of US foreign policy.In fact, the ship's commanders pride themselves on being combat ready and lethal always.On the other hand,the United States today expressed the hope that the nuclear deal with India would be through "as soon as possible", saying the two countries were set to resume talks later this month on the agreement to operationalize the deal.
"I am confident that the two countries will see it through. Negotiations as you know are very difficult. They are very technical. If it were an easy negotiation, we would have finished a long long time ago," US ambassador David Mulford told a private news channel. He said the two countries were going to have a re-engagement on the deal in the week starting July 16.
"We have a few issues left, that are difficult issues, that need political-level attention. And we hope to work our way through that and complete this thing as soon as possible," he remarked when asked whether he was confident the deal would be finalised by the end of the year.
He denied there was any link between India's plans for buying 126 multi-role fighter aircraft and the progress on the 123 agreement for nuclear deal.

We may not forget the role of Congress leaders including Nehru and Dr Bidhan chandra Roy for refugee persecution. We should not forget the Marxist betrayl too!
And see, Congress as well as the Left express their gratitude for caste Hindu infinite dominance not only in Bengal but all over India. Thanks to Bengali Hindu leaders, the National Dalit movement is wiped out. Thus, we ghave to understand how Nandiogram and Singur Insurrection disturb the psyche of Bhadralok Bengalies.
Dutta and Malik both left the city for Delhi today morning, escorted by CBI officers. Malik, who had already undergone a polygraphy test, has been rescheduled for another with Dutta. The CBI had interrogated the duo yesterday. Meanwhile, the family members of those arrested expressed their confidence in the party and said that the “framed” charges will fall apart sooner or later. Samaresh, elder brother of Suhrid, at their residence in Singur, said, “Party will look after Suhrid. He did everything for the party. There is a conspiracy behind his arrest. Why do you come here to add to our trouble?” However, Tapasi’s family in Singur demanded that the arrested should be hanged. Monoranjan Malik, Tapasi’s father, at their residence in Bajemelia, said, “They have not yet arrested the main culprit. They are roaming free. They all should be hanged. But I am happy that the CBI had made some progress. I knew Debu Malik. But after the incident, my family has severed all connections with him.” Monoranjan feared that his family is under risk, with threats pouring in. “But I will fight till the last,” he added.
POSCO project opponents readying for confrontation

Jagatsinghpur (Orissa): Coming days are looking ominous in strife-torn Patana and Dhinkia villages, the site for the proposed POSCO steel project, with the opponents of the project readying for confrontation with those extending support to it.The POSCO Pratirodh Sangharsh Samiti, the organisation spearheading the mass movement against POSCO-India's mega steel plant project, on Sunday alleged that the steel major, in nexus with local police and local administration, had unleashed a reign of terror on the anti-industry activists.

In Kolkata:,Paying rich tributes to late Congress Chief Minister Dr B C Roy, known as the architect of modern West Bengal, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee today said that Dr Roy's genious was in planning development meticulously unlike the "hasty and hectic" development initiatives of the state's ruling Left Front Government.
"Dr Roy was such an architect of development that he planned things in totality and hence what he initiated was well coordinated. But what is happening today (in the name of development) is hasty and hectic planning," Mukherjee said speaking at a function near Dr Roy's house to mark the birthday of the leader.
Mukherjee's remark came close on the heels of CPI(M)'s surprise decision to observe Dr Roy's birth anniversary today as 'Peace Day' to work for restoration of peace at Nandigram and also campaign for state government's industrial rights.
CPI(M) State Secretary Biman Bose announced the decision to observe B C Roy's birth anniversary last week stirring up a controversy as the party had always been highly critical of Dr Roy's tenure which they believed had led to the decline of the state's economy.
However, another CPI(M) state party leader, Benoy Konar later clarified that the party's programme merely coincided with Dr Roy's birth anniversary. Mukherjee said that the work culture that existed during Roy's tenure had somewhat deteriorated now.
To-day, Banladeshi Hindus are arguably worse off than in Pakistani times during 1947 and1970. Bangladesh is inching towards a total disaster of religious fanatic civil war. The divided nature of the Bangladeshi polity has its roots in the very history of its creation and the events in the first years of its independence. This division is, then, largely, a hang over from the past and recent issues are viewed through the prism of the past.
Bangladesh has its boundary, almost entirely with India on the west, north and east, runs into about 1500 miles or 2424km. On the south-eastern frontiers, Bangladesh has about 200 miles or 322 km. border with Myanmer (Burma). It is interesting to note ,the longest distance from the north-west extremity of the country on a line soth-east to the tip of Chittagong is about 475 miles or 765 km; the greatest width from east to west is about 290 miles or 466km.
The major issues dividing the Bangladeshi polity are the questions of acceptability of the Jamaat for its anti-liberation and genocidal role during the Bangladesh War of Liberation in 1971 and its extremist Islamic position and the question of the acceptability in the changes made since the bloody August 1975 coup and overthrow of Sheikh Mujib and his AL from power are there too.
"The successive post-75 governments have changed the concept of nationalism from Bengali nationalism-characterized by ethno-linguistic identities and not by religious (Muslim) identity - to Bangadeshi nationalism-characterized by religious (Muslim) identity of the Bangladeshi majority- which make them distinct from the Bengali Hindus of the Indian state of West Bengal who never showed any interest in forming a separate state based on Bengali nationalism.
In both the cases of BNP and Jatiya Party, army took the state power and formed political party with the help of a section of political activists those who have a little pace for doing positive role in their respective parties. Jamaat is a beneficiary of army politics in Pakistan and Bangladesh. BNP and AL are facing the trial of time but Jamaat keeps aloof, why and how? Only time could say who is behind the scene of the design of reform.
Lady Mountbatten in all renderings of the violent disruption that followed the Partition of India is universally praised for her heroic efforts in relieving the misery and to this day she remains a heroine in India of the Partition period — notwithstanding a certain amount of drollery regarding her well-known intimacy with Jawaharlal Nehru. Lord Mountbatten himself remains a controversial figure — possibly if he had not been so eager to hasten Indian independence and ensure that the inevitable carnage that would follow would not occur on the British watch, it would not have occurred at all, or at least not so disastrously.She is especially remembered for her service in the post-Partition period of India and Pakistan, when she was the vice-reine of the truncated India, Pakistan having been partitioned off as a result of the movement led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah.

But Lady Mountbatten is universally regarded as a heroine: her efforts to relieve suffering during the Partition of the Punjab are remembered to this day, together with her modest demeanour in St John's Ambulance Brigade uniform: needless to say, it made a profound impression in juxtaposition with her official portraits in Viceregal grandeur in evening gown and tiara.
Lady Mountbatten continued to lead a life of selfless service after her Viceroyalty in India. She died in her sleep at age 58 of unknown causes in 1960 in Jesselton, Borneo while on an inspection tour for the St John Ambulance Brigade. At her request, Lord Mountbatten buried her at sea off the coast of Portsmouth off the HMS Wakeful on February 25, 1960; Nehru sent two Indian destroyers to accompany her body; Geoffrey Fisher, the Archbishop of Canterbury, officiated.
in view of thecontinuing exodus from East Pakistan, the Government of India gradually realised that itwould be difficult for the cash-starved West Bengal to give shelter to all the incoming
refugees from the other side of the border. Therefore, it would be wise to select some of
the displaced persons who could not be rehabilitated in the economy in West Bengal, and
send them to other parts of the country.48 After all, the Government already made it clear
that there was a serious lack of available land for rehabilitation in West Bengal, especially
for agriculture. In such a situation, the incoming refugees were additional liabilities for
West Bengal.49 Against this backdrop, the Government of India decided to treat the East
Pakistani refugee problem “absolutely on a national level”.50 It is interesting here to note
one of the statements of Sucheta Kripalani, a Member of Parliament, in this connection.
She said:
“It was not on West Bengal’s decision that this country was partitioned.
This country was partitioned by a decision of India …” “Therefore, it is a
national problem and all the states should pull their weight in
rehabilitating them”.
This was the spirit that was perhaps responsible for the Government’s decision to send
the ‘excess’ refugees outside West Bengal to places like Dandakaranya of Madhya
Pradesh and the Andaman & Nicobar Islands.51
It was decided at the official level that, mainly the refugees belonging to the socalled
lower castes like Namasudras, Kshatriyas, Poundra Kshatriyas, who took shelter in
the refugee camps and received doles from the Government, had to go to Dandakaranya.
However, the refugees, the original inhabitants of the Indo-Gangetic plains were reluctant
to go to the dry, ‘alien land’. In no time, the Government stopped their doles temporarily.
Dow distances from Bhopal gas tragedy
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Sarah Jacob
Sunday, July 1, 2007 (New York):In 2001, Dow Chemical bought Union Carbide for $9.3 billion, despite this, Dow has refused to accept moral responsibility or be held accountable for the Bhopal gas tragedy.
It argues that Union Carbide had sold its shares in Union Carbide India before Dow Chemical acquired it and that Dow had never owned or operated that plant. It now seems that the Commerce Minister has concurred with this view, saying that Dow cannot be held accountable for Union Carbide?s liabilities.
As Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath sold American investors the India story at the annual US-India Business Council Summit in Washington DC, outside the conference protesters held their ground.
The group, Association for India's Development or AID has charged the Commerce Ministry of working behind the scenes to absolve Dow Chemical, the American corporation that took over Union Carbide in 2001 of legal liability for the Bhopal Gas Tragedy in return for investing in India.
According to documents obtained through a Right To Information application on February 7, 2007, Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath wrote to the PMO saying: ''While I would not like to comment on whether Dow Chemical has a legal responsibility or not, as it is a matter for courts to decide, with a view to sending an appropriate signal to Dow Chemical, which is exploring investing substantially in India, I would urge that a group under the chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary be formed to look into the matter in a holistic manner.''
Legal liability
AID claims that despite what the Minister says about leaving the issue of Dow?s legal liability to the court, this letter is a clear indication of where his sympathies lie.
In response to a PIL, the Jabalpur High Court had ordered Dow Chemical to deposit Rs 100 crore for the clearing up of toxic waste and contamination in and around the Bhopal factory site. Protesters claim that since the issue of Dow's liability is being heard in court, it is improper for a Cabinet Minister to take the matter up directly with the Prime Minister.
"
Dow Chemical?s official stance is that the plant was owned by Union Carbide India - a joint venture between Union Carbide Corporation, the Indian government and private investors. Union Carbide had sold its shares in Union Carbide India in 1994, seven years before Dow acquired it.The plant is now controlled by the Government of Madhya Pradesh and Union Carbide India is now renamed Eveready Industries.
Inherited integration
"The tragedy was at Union Carbide and Dow by integration inherited it. Union Carbide-Dow themselves had no status in this. So, that does not affect Dow's investments. Of course with the court cases, the court procedures will continue. But we like to see this resolved and to see that this chapter is put behind us," said Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath.
At the Doha Round of talks on the WTO, India, under Kamal Nath, emerged as the voice of the developing world. The Bhopal Gas tragedy has historically been rallying point for the need to hold corporations socially responsible in developing countries.
The Indian Government is trying to balance the need to attract foreign investment with that of keeping corporations accountable in a democratic society, where perceptions of succumbing to corporate pressure can be as damaging as actually doing so. As it attempts to bring closure to this issue, it is clear that it will receive careful scrutiny from both foreign investors and domestic activists.

Maoists attack police posts in Bihar, 9 dead

PATNA Maoist rebels killed nine people, including five policemen, in Bihar early on Sunday during an attack on two police stations, officials said.Some 200 rebels were involved in the pre-dawn raid, stripping dozens of wounded policemen of their weapons after the raid before they fled into the darkness.Sunday morning's attack came after a two-day strike against the government's economic policies that was called by the Maoists earlier this week.The Maoists operate out of jungle bases across a swathe of 13 states running up the eastern flank of the country, and say they are fighting for the rights of poor peasants and landless labourers.
Five ‘abducted’ men were rescued by the police on Friday night. The rescued include two CPI(M) supporters and three members of the Bhoomi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee (BUPC).
Kanai Gayen of Gokulnagar and Shaktipada Bar of Serkhanchawk, both CPI(M) supporters, were admitted to the Kamarda Hospital with critical injuries.
Alert sounded in Bihar
Laloo urges Maoists not to target railways
Katwa (W: Three days after Maoists burnt down a railway station in West Bengal, Union Railway Minister Laloo Prasad today urged them not to target the railways to register their protests.
"Loss for the railways is loss for the nation. They should not resort to violence and economic blockades to protest issues of other regions. Things happen at one place and they protest at another," Laloo Prasad said at the foundation stone-laying ceremony of a gauge-conversion project here.
The Minister said that the railways suffered huge losses due to such acts of violence. He also urged the Maoists to give up violence and return to the mainstream.
Armed Maoists burnt down the Biramdih station near the West Bengal-Jharkhand border in Purulia district on Wednesday as part of their two-day economic blockade programme in protest against the state and Centre's globalisation, industrialisation and SEZ policies.
New investment regions on way
Minister of state for Industry Ashwani Kumar says that the proposal to set up Manufacturing Investment Regions (MIRs) in lines of PCPIRs has been circulated to the relevant ministries, adding that the cabinet was likely to give its approval. The Industry ministry has mooted a proposal to set up Manufacturing Investment Regions (MIRs) in lines of PCPIRs to give a boost to the manufacturing sector in the country.Minister of state for Industry Ashwani Kumar told reporters on the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting of Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) here, on Saturday, that the proposal had been circulated to the relevant ministries, adding that the cabinet was likely to give its approval. “It is fairly at an advanced stage,” he said.

R&R Bill
On land acquisition for mega projects like PCPIRs, the minister said that it was a state matter. He, however, said that the passage of Relief & Rehabilitation (R&R) Bill in the Parliament would help the state governments in land acquisition. The Bill is likely to be introduced either in the monsoon or winter session of the Parliament.

Karnataka to amend land acquisition rules
Bangalore,) The government has decided to amend the rules of the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board (KIAD, the nodal agency of the government, to acquire land for industrial purposes allowing the land-losers to become partners in development.Speaking at the Annual General Meeting of the Bangalore Chamber of Industries and Commerce (BCIC) here today, state Large Scale Industries Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu said the state would bring in amendment to the KIADB rules governing the acquisition of farm land for industries.
Mr Naidu said the proposed amendment to the KIADB rules would enable the land losers to become partners of developed industrial cluster and own 40 per cent of it. ''The decision of the state government would help in a long way to protect the farmers from exploitation'' he added.
Stressing the importance of the expansion of industrialisation Mr Naidu said the industries contributed about 30 per cent of the state's total revenue and it accounted about 23,000 crore. Unless we promote industries, it would be a Herculian task to tackle unemployment, he said.
Plightys of Dalit Refugees
Pakistan government as a matter of policy had been letting loose fanatical and criminal forces to kill the minorities loot their properties and rape their women. It was a calculated design of Pakistani rulers and non-Bengali capitalism for achieving their lands and wealth and gradually making East Pakistan an entire Muslim territory besides terrorizing non-communal political forces. This policy of hunting the minority in 1964 and 1971 helped advantage but why it is happened in Bangladesh? Does it mean that Bangladesh is maintaining the" legacy of policy of Minority Hunting in 1990,1992 and 2001?
The policy of hunting the minority helped Pakistan to take advantage up to certain level, afterwards, Pakistan herself was collapsed with sins of genocide and cut unto size. If Bangladesh steps in the same policy of advantage that also of a practically one-way traffic in exchange of population. That would tell the image of Bangladesh abroad. Former Amir of Jamaat –e-Islami Golam Azam endored the event in his series of his autobiographically writings in the Daily Sangram,in 2004 . Moreover through this adventure, he is misinterpreting the history of the War of Liberation, in those rightist-dailies.
So Golam Azam ,a collaborator of erstwhile Pakistani army regimes, may have calculated design of Pakistani rulers , the policy of minority hunting to safe the BNP-Jamaat alliance from people's agressions and movement. He hoped to kill two birds with one stone by generating anti -Hindu and anti- Awami League campaign The history of the birth of Pakistan was associated with communal strife and bitterness, verbal acrimonies and behind the scenes politicking. But Bangladesh is the product of truth's victory in its battle with lies and falsehood that culminated in the War of Liberation. It was a movement against the Pakistani military-bureaucratic oligarchy for the establishment of democratic rights. Presently Jamaat=e-Islami is led by Maolana Matiur Rahman Nizami.
The policy of minority hunting was implemented in pre and post 2001 election. I could say, Bangladesh would not survive without secularism as her birth is by fire.
In 1971 Pakistan experiment forcefully brought home the fact that religion by itself was not a strong cementing force. So, the relationship that developed between the two governments of Bangladesh and India during the war led them to follow ‘common policies in matters of interest to both the countries ‘. In order to formulize this relationship which was ‘cemented through blood and sacrifices’.
Secularism is the elixir of the war of liberation. Democracy and democratic behavioral attitude of tolerance would be our guided force and the government would be by the people, of the people and for the people. News Week mentioned in its 5 Feb. edition: What went wrong? Five years ago, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) formed an alliance with the fundamentalist Jamaat-i-Islami in order to win an election. In return, experts argue, the BNP—which was replaced by a caretaker government last October—allowed Jamaat sympathizers in the security services to ignore the rise of local radicals. "The BNP has been Pussy footing with the radical[s]," says Sumit Ganguly, a South Asia expert at Indiana University. Taliban-style madrassas, he argues, have also grown in popularity as the public-school system has broken down. All this means Bangladesh could soon start to resemble prewar Afghanistan.
Centre and the State, and the other group comprised mostly Left-minded members. In
1949, those Left-minded members took over the leadership of the Parishad, except the
post of the President, which was occupied by a ‘Hindu Mahasabha sympathiser’. Since
then, the Parishad organised meetings and demonstrations in the squatters’ colonies,
and this sort of ‘unionisation’ helped the refugees to launch the protest movement in an
organised manner.
In fact, the introduction of the Eviction of Persons in Unauthorised Occupation
Land Bill (later known as Eviction Bill), which after subsequent modifications became Act
XVI of 1951, triggered off the politics of agitation of the refugees in full scale against the
anti-refugee policies of the Congress Government. The Government felt that, the forcible
and unauthorised occupation of private and government lands and premises
requisitioned by the Central and State Governments and other public bodies had created
problem that could not be resolved by the normal process of legal action. In other words,
the squatters’ colonies violated the sanctity of private property guaranteed by the
Constitution. But, Dr. B.C. Roy, Chief Minister of West Bengal, argued that the
Government possessed virtually no power to evict a squatter in unauthorised occupation
of land or premises except through a prolonged process of legal action and the
enactment of the Bill sought to reconcile the demands of law with the needs of the
refugees35.
The United Central Refugee Council (UCRC), formed on June 4, 1950, launched
a resistance movement against this Bill. The UCRC hastily outlined a three-fold
programme of action:
a) to start an intensive propaganda campaign by involving all refugee organisations
of the colonies, barracks, slums etc.;
b) to organise a volunteer force in each colony area with a sizable refugee
population for the safety and security of the refugees; and
c) to mobilize fund for the campaign.
In this way, the UCRC tried to help the refugees to increase their consciousness
about their rights and thereby made the civil society more vibrant for the first time since
independence36, which Nilanjana Chatterjee has termed as a dynamic interplay between
‘official discourse’ and the refugee counter-discourse.37 Although in this way the Leftists
gradually became influential among the squatters, the refugees never became puppets of
the Communists.38 Rather, the UCRC worked as the mouthpiece of the helpless,
displaced persons from East Pakistan. In other words, the politics of rehabilitation by the
Government triggered off a new politics, which may be termed as ‘the politics of
agitation.’39 This politics of agitation was an active resistance to the politics of
rehabilitation initiated by the Governments (the Government of India and that of West
Bengal together). Moreover, this politics of agitation by the displaced persons along with
their shared memories provided the shelter-seekers a specific identity.
Life and times in the refugee camps
After briefly considering the struggle of the displaced in the jabar dakhal colonies to
reconstruct their lives, let us now turn our attention to some of the camps that were set up
to provide shelter to the incoming displaced persons. As the cross-border influx continued
interminably in the 1950s, the helpless, uprooted people reached the reception and
interception centres at the Sealdah station. From there, they were subsequently sent to
the transit camps. Although many of these refugees were supposed to be sent to other
parts of the country, instant arrangements could not be made possible for their travel.
Therefore, the relief and transit camps were set up in different parts of West Bengal to
provide immediate help to these people.
At the peak of the inflow of refugees from across the border with East Pakistan,
the government mainly set up three types of camps, namely, women’s camps, worksite
9
camps and Permanent Liability (PL) Camps. The inmates of the women’s camps
comprised mostly women and children who had no male member of their family to look
after them. Bhadrakali and Bansberia women’s camp in Hooghly district, Ranaghat
Women’s Home in 24 Parganas district were such women’s camps.40 As time passed by,
many of the inmates of these women’s camps were permanently rehabilitated along with
their family members in and around the camp area.
Second, in order to counteract the demoralising effect of the prolonged stay in
the camps, the government introduced a system of keeping able-bodied men engaged in
useful work for the development of the area, where they were supposed to be
rehabilitated. Accordingly, 32 such worksite camps were set up in West Bengal. Bagjola
camp and Sonarpur R5 scheme in 24 Parganas are examples of such worksite camps.
The refugees were also kept engaged in many Central Government-aided projects like
the Damodar Valley Corporation projects etc.
Finally, the PL camps were for those refugees who were considered unfit for any
kind of gainful employment through which they could be rehabilitated. They were mainly
old, infirm, invalid and orphans. These PL camps were located in Dudhkundi in
Midnapore district, Bansberia in Hooghly, Chandmari, Cooper’s Camp (partially), Chamta
and Dhubulia in Nadia district, Habra, Ashoknagar and Titagarh in 24 Parganas district.
On November 30, 1952, the population of these camps and the homes was 34,000,
including the population of the orphanages. The number soon increased to 37,000.
According to the report on the Relief and Rehabilitation of the displaced persons in West
Bengal, in 1953, the number of camp admission of the refugees was 10,474, in 1954, the
number was 46,904, and in 1955, the number increased to 1,09.834.42
In most cases, the military barracks and tunnel-shaped huts made of iron
constructed for Allied soldiers (during the World War II) were converted originally into
camps for the refugees. Thousands of refugees, the displaced persons who arrived either
by train or by truck from across the border, were dumped in these camps. When some of
these camps became overpopulated and the government could not provide any more
space in these makeshift military barracks or huts, the additional refugees got tents to live
in.
Consequently, the camp life was not always satisfactory but sometimes subhuman
in nature. While narrating her experiences in the Coopers’ camp, Hironprova Das
(75), a resident of the Coopers’ Notified Area, said:
“Even in the dormitories of those barracks, each refugee family was
allotted a little space. Each family marked its occupied area with pebbles,
stones and tit-bits and sometimes did not even have a sleeping space for
the members of the refugee family. So far as the tent was concerned,
each refugee family comprising four members got one tent, and a bigger
family (with more than four members) got two tents to live in. Under
such circumstances, there was absolutely no question of any privacy.
The refugees definitely got shelter far away from their home and
communal hatred, but scarcity of water, lack of proper health care,
irregular supply of ration (dry doles) still made their lives unbearable. In
such a situation, many children died of dysentery in the camps. Dead
bodies of children were sometimes buried, but very often were simply
thrown away in the jungle for paucity of funds. The government used to
pay only Rs.16 for the cremation of a body.”43
The Government had no carefully thought-out plan for the rehabilitation of camp refugees
in the East in the initial stage. It was only in 1955 and thereafter that the Government of
India decided to look at the problem of the East Pakistani refugees on ‘a rational basis.’44
Between 1947 and 1955, the Indian Government provided ad hoc assistance to enable
10
the refugees to resettle themselves under the Byanama Scheme. Under this scheme a
camp refugee was allowed to choose a plot of land that he wanted to buy with the
Government loan.45 The Government used to grant loans for the rehabilitation of refugees
in the rural and urban areas depending upon the occupational background of the
displaced.46 However, in many cases there were tremendous irregularities to grant loan
to the refugees for purchase of lands for their resettlement. Sometimes, when the refugee
somehow managed to get money there was scarcity of cultivable land.
It has already been discussed that the refugees, who took shelter in the camps,
were mostly cultivators. Therefore, a lack of access to the cultivable land for a long period
of time naturally made them annoyed. The scarcity of cultivable land coupled with the
poor living conditions in the camps, including irregular supply of food and cash doles
gradually increased the grievances of the camp-dwellers. Incidents of passive and active
resistance emerged in many refugee camps. According to Prangobindo Das (76), once
involved in the refugee movement in the Coopers’ camp:
“Initially we used to follow the non-violent methods to make the
government aware about our demands

Bengal Got BC Roy Thanks to Lady Mountbatten and He ousted Dalit Refugees out of Bengali Geopolitics!

Palash Biswas

Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata- 700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551
Email: alashchandrabiswas@gmail.com">palashchandrabiswas@gmail.com

Mountbatten's relations with the Congress party had a flying start. The foundation of Nehru's friendship with Lord and Lady

No doubt, Lady Mountbatten played the key role during partition of India. She was instrumental to make Nehru the leader of Independent India. It is interesting that it is Lady Mountbatten once again who was behind the appointment of Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy`s appointment as the Chief Minister of West Bengal after Dr Prafulla Chandra Ghosh was made to resign and accomodate Dr Roy!

in May 1947 when the partition of India was already looming large on the political horizon, Sarat Bose of the BPC and huseyn shaheed suhrawardy of the Bengal unit of the Muslim League floated the idea of undivided Bengal as a free and sovereign state outside India and Pakistan. But the central leadership of both the INC and ML showed scant regard to the idea. On the eve of the transfer of power the BPC came under the control of Surendra Mohan Ghosh and the emerging Hoogly group led by Prafulla Chandra Sen, Atulya Ghosh and Dhirendranath Mukherjee. Dr Prafulla Chandra Ghosh, then the only working committee member from Bengal, was elected leader of the Congress parliamentary party and thus became the first chief minister of west bengal in 1947.

Buckingham Palace decalared the announcement of C Rajgopalchari as the first Governor General of Dominion India. In another declaration Dr Bidhan chandra roy was appointed the Governor of Uttar pradesh. Roy returned from USA> He reached New Delhi by Kalka Mail from Kolkata. Lady Mountbatten intercepted and convinced Dr Roy not to be the governor. The Lady convinced the Lord and the Prime Minister Nehru that DR Roy should not be imprisoned in th Raj Bhavan as he has to play a greater role. Sarojini Naidu then became the governor of UP.

Immediately after Ghosh resigned Dr Roy became the chief minister of West Bengal. Ghosh belonged originally to Dhaka and WBPC president Surendra Mohan hailed from Moymansingha. This dominance of East Bengal was not liked by Prafulla chandra sen and Ajoy Mukherjee. Though Dr Roy had his roots in Khulna but he was brough up in Patna and had no sympathy with partition victims, the caste Hindu leaders of Bengal accepted him and made an Icon out of him!

Bidhan Chandra Roy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidhan_Chandra_Roy

Bidhan Chandra RoyBidhan Chandra Roy (Bengali: ????? ?????? ????) (July 1, 1882 – July 1, 1962) [1] was the second Chief Minister of West Bengal, India. He remained in his post for 14 years as a Congress Party candidate, from January 14, 1948 until his death in 1962. He was a respected physician and a renowned freedom fighter. He was an alumnus of the Medical College Calcutta of the University of Calcutta. In India, the Doctors Day is celebrated on the date of his birth (and death) July 1 every year.

Last Saturday I wrote you,friends:

Thirty years of Marxist regime in West Bengal sustaining caste Hindu Rule over Bangla Nationality turns the Bengali speaking geopolitics in another Killingfield after Bangladesh, where lacs of women were raped to sustain East Pakistani Military Regime. Now, it is no wonder that ruling Marxists have adopted the method of Rape and Murder to sustain the rotten Brahminical syatem for which they divided Bangla Nationality and Indian Nation! Buddhadev declares that he is going to celebrate the birth anniversary of Dr. BC Roy while his party takes a U-Turn denying the celebration which portrays well the Bengali brahminical fascist communalism which is the real Marxist aesthetics of the Bengali speaking Marxists! The dalit Bengalies scttered all over the world may not forget the history of partition and the role of Dr BC Roy, the Ivory Icon, who along with Pdt. Jawahar Lal Nehru asserted that refugees coming from East pakistan were not at all partition victims despite Noakhali experience. It is Dr BC Roy who drove away the dalit Bengali refugees, specially the militant Namoshudras and Paundras out of Bengali geopolitics. Now, Paranb Mukherjee tries to eject them out of Indian Nation depriving them citizenship and civil human rights countrywide. They tried to make Mukherjee the next President and failed. Thus, it is no surprise that CPIM gets shelter in the capitalist wings of Dr BC Roy as the industrial policies adopted by ruling Left Fron are reminiscent of DR BC Roy! Some day, they will also celebrate the birth days of Atulya Ghosh and Prafulla Chandra Sen! No wonder.
Anasua Basu Raychaudhury writes:

But, it is quite known now that, the people, who finally took the hard decision to
leave desh and to cross over to the other side of the border for safety and security,
contributed a lot to the progress and prosperity of their adopted land. The refugees
definitely felt some kind of detachment from their new place of residence, but that
detachment did not come in their way to make the adopted land more liveable.
Who was a refugee?
Immediately after the partition, when the mass exodus was going on in full swing in the
eastern part of India, the Government of India defined the term ‘displaced’ in the following
words:
“A displaced person is one who had entered India (who left or who was
compelled to leave his home in East Pakistan on or after October 15,
1947) for disturbances or fear of such disturbances or on account of
setting up of the two dominions of India and Pakistan.”14
Those Hindus, who had left East Pakistan before 15 October 1947 due to the communal
frenzy, were excluded from the previously mentioned official definition. At that time, the
‘passport system’ was yet to be launched, and it was regarded as a special case since
the refugees had citizenship rights in both the states. Therefore, the Indian Government
probably thought the term ‘displaced’ more suitable than ‘refugee’.
Moreover, although India became independent on 15 August 1947, the extended
period of two months was given to the people for setting themselves in the country of
their choice.15 However, in the later phase these ‘displaced’ people were referred to as
‘migrants’ and were divided into two broad categories – the ‘old migrants’ and ‘new
migrants’. To quote the Manual of Refugee, Relief and Rehabilitation of the Government
of West Bengal:
4
“(a) Those who migrated between October 1946 and 31 March 1958 are
known as ‘old migrants’. Their rehabilitation was governed by the West
Bengal Act XVI of 1951…
(b) Those who came between 1 January 1964 and 25 March 1971, are
known as ‘new migrants’.”16
One should not forget that, many people crossed over to West Bengal between 1958 and
1964, who were excluded from the definition of ‘migrants’. Moreover, although many
people came from East Pakistan to India with ‘migration certificates’, they were treated
like refugees and in many cases they were sent to the camps because they need
rehabilitation and relief for their survival.17
East remained East
While West Bengal was the largest recipient of refugees for her geographical and cultural
proximity to East Pakistan, not all districts of the state were equally affected by the
problem. In most cases, the refugees from the western parts of East Pakistan came to
the adjacent districts of West Bengal, whereas, the displaced from the central and
eastern parts of East Bengal preferred to resettle themselves in 24 Parganas (then
undivided), and in and around Calcutta. However, the refugees from the northern part of
East Bengal tried to remain in the adjacent districts of the northern part of West Bengal.
Though the Annual Report of the Department of Rehabilitation of the
Government of India pointed out that, in the first phase of the refugee flow during the year
1946 to 1952 2.52 million refugees arrived in West Bengal, the year between 1953 and
1956 were marked as crucial (See Table 1). Gradually, by December 1957 the refugee
influx reached the highest point in the east. The number of the refugees crossing the
international border went up to 3,16,000.18 Now, these figures can hardly give one any
idea of the pain, trauma and agony through which the displaced might have gone due to
the ruptured economic, social and cultural ties with their original homeland. Nevertheless,
they are important to understand the scale and magnitude of the post-partition
displacement in the East.
Rehabilitation Minister of the Government of India to the representatives of Tripura,
Assam, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal, in a meeting held in the Writers’ Buildings on
March 2, 1950 that the Government’s work would be restricted to relief only rather than to
rehabilitation. Moreover, Saksena was in favour of establishing the relief camps in the
border areas to facilitate their quick return to their homeland.19
But, the refugee situation in the East did not improve at all even in the late 1950s.
As a result of the Nehru-Liaquat Pact (1950), a large number of Muslims who had left
West Bengal before March 31, 1951, came back to West Bengal, and reclaimed their
land already occupied by the Bengali Hindu refugees from East Pakistan. While the
Muslim evacuees returned to West Bengal, there was hardly any reverse population flow
of the Hindus from West Bengal to East Pakistan.
But, during the initial phase, the Government of India was primarily concerned
about the resettlement of the refugees from West Pakistan, and the national leadership
was ambivalent regarding its responsibilities toward the Bengali Hindu refugees from
East Pakistan. Nehru’s letter to Bidhan Chandra Roy, the then Chief Minister of West
Bengal reflected that kind of ambivalence. To quote him:
“It is wrong to encourage any large scale migration from East Bengal to
the west. Indeed, if such a migration takes place, West Bengal and to
some extent the Indian union would be overwhelmed … If they come
over to West Bengal, we must look after them. But it is no service to
them to encourage them to join the vast mass of refugees who can at
best be poorly cared for”.20
It made one thing obvious that the Indian Government’s policy toward rehabilitation of the
Bengali Hindu refugees was not only inadequate, but also discriminatory in nature.21
Prafulla K. Chakrabarty, the author of The Marginal Men, and a major chronicler
of the partition refugees in the East, identified two basic reasons behind the
discriminatory attitude of the Indian Government. First, the refugees in the west were
more close to Delhi, the capital of India, where any trouble might destabilize the
Government, whereas the geographical distance from Delhi put the refugees in the east
in a vulnerable situation; and second, there was a large number of Punjabis in the armed
forces, and a military mutiny was possible, if their kith and kin were ignored.22
According to the report of the Planning Commission on the Rehabilitation of the
Displaced Persons, the larger part of the task of rehabilitating West Pakistani displaced
persons was accomplished before the end of the first Five Year Plan. Despite that, the
Second Five Year Plan provided Rs.187 million for the rehabilitation of the refugees.
Funds were quite liberally available for the completion of the housing scheme already
approved, and for mitigating unemployment in the townships and colonies of displaced
persons through schemes for setting up industries. The continuation of the training and
education schemes for the displaced people also remained crucial to the policy of the
government.
The Report of the Planning Commission admitted at the end of the First Five year
plan that, the continuing influx of the displaced persons from East Pakistan made the
problem of rehabilitation in the eastern states particularly difficult. Although the Second
Five Year Plan altogether provided Rs.668 million for the rehabilitation schemes of the
displaced persons in the eastern states, the Government of India decided to review the
financial provision in the third year of the Second Plan, and it was said, “if needed”,
rovisions for the additional fund would be made.23 But, the sanction of this sum of
money was not adequate enough to manage the entire refugee situation in West Bengal.
By and large, there was an immediate recognition of the gravity and magnitude of
the refugee problem in the West, and therefore, new townships of Faridabad, Rajpura
and Tripuri were constructed to permanently rehabilitate the displaced in the pucca
6
houses. Work centres and industries were also set up with the government help in those
areas along with the basic amenities, like schools and hospitals. East did not witness any
such development, except may be a small township in Fulia. Even the reception centres
for the refugees in the West were of superior quality than their counterparts in the East.
Whereas the cash dole was given in a standardised form in the West, that was not the
case in the East. Some work centres in the West were only training centres without
provision for residence, but each home was a complete unit providing not only residence
but also education in different stages, professional or practical training and employment
for at least a short length of time, as it was in Hoshiarpur. No such facility was available in
the East. The rate of grants in the West was also in a way of a generous scale compared
to that in the East. It was seldom below Rs.30 per month and was sometimes at a higher
rate according to the professional training chosen. The rate of grant in the East was
almost the same but several categories were excluded from this privilege. Women
refugees taking a course of training in teaching or nursing in a recognised institution or
hospital were not given any stipend but were only allowed to attend the vocational
training centres specially set up for refugees. In addition to the stipends amounting to
Rs.30 per head to the trainees, the government provided the houses, the establishment
and equipment cost and a revolving cost of raw materials in the West. On the other hand,
except in Titagarh and Gariahat work centres (which were for men), the grants for women
under these heads in West Bengal were very meagre.24
In short, both the Governments (Government of India as well as the State
Government of West Bengal) were slow in responding to the refugee crisis in West
Bengal. Under the circumstances, relief and rehabilitation process was mainly restricted
to those, who registered themselves in the official records and took shelter in relief and
transit camps.25 In other words, the problem as a displaced was, in a way, sometimes
more acute for those who crossed over to West Bengal in the early years of the partitionrelated
crisis.26
Jabar dakhal colonies and the ‘politics of agitation’
Let us first consider the case of those refugees who crossed over to West Bengal from
East Pakistan from the late 1940s and early ’50s, and who primarily belonged to the
upper or middle classes. Due to their class character, their natural destination was
Calcutta where they hoped to find jobs or professional opportunities suitable for them.
Many of them had friends, relatives and acquaintances in Calcutta, who initially helped
them to resettle here. In a way, a social network system of these displaced people played
an important role to reconstruct their lives in the other side of the border. Neither of these
two groups of people was interested to go to the relief camps. Even those who belonged
to the middle class and comparatively worse off families, and did not possess much
resources, did not want to settle in the refugee camps mainly because of their maan
(honour).

Just read this article in full Text:
Life After Partition:
http://www.sasnet.lu.se/EASASpapers/33AnasuaBasuray.pdf

A Study on the Reconstruction of Lives in West Bengal
Anasua Basu Raychaudhury*

With West Bengal's ruling CPI-M and opposition Trinamool Congress pitted against each other over acquisition of land for industry, the Congress today said such fights were pointless as agriculture and industry were both important for the state's development.

"Debates on the issue are useless. There is no scope for political differences or clash on the issue," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said while unveiling a statue of former chief minister Bidhan Chandra Roy at the party office here on the occasion of his 125th birthday.

Recalling that Roy took over as chief minister at a time when West Bengal was plagued by the influx of refugees from East Pakistan, frequent communal riots and militant trade unionism, Mukherjee said despite such difficulties, he could successfully steer the state towards industrialisation.

"After winning the first election in 1953, he enacted legislation abolishing the zamindari system, carried out land reforms and increased agricultural productivity by taking up a series of river irrigation projects. He showed that industry and agriculture are supplementary," Mukherjee said.

In an indirect reference to the killings in Nandigram, state Congress vice-president and CLP leader Manas Bhuinya said the path to industrialisation should not be riddled with bullets.

"The path to be followed must be the one tread by Dr Roy who could successfully develop both agriculture and industry," he said, adding the Congress will launch a state-wide awareness campaign from today about the peaceful industrialisation process followed by Roy.

THE WRONG ’UN
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070701/asp/opinion/story_7997251.asp

All icons are alike. But a misplaced icon is misplaced in its own unique way. The leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) may have surprised themselves by choosing Bidhan Chandra Roy to be the new icon of industrialization in West Bengal. Roy was known all his life as an anti-communist, and he banned the undivided Communist Party of India in the later Forties when the CPI was following its infamous extremist line of insurrection. Throughout his chief ministership, Roy’s principal critic and foe in West Bengal were the communists and the other Left parties that today constitute the Left Front. Within the chambers of the legislative assembly, the man who harassed Roy at every turn and hurled imprecations at him was none other than the redoubtable Jyoti Basu, today’s angry old man. The communists lampooned Roy in ugly graffiti across Calcutta’s walls, and even came close to accusing him of rigging the elections when Roy won by a narrow margin against a communist candidate, Mohammad Ismail, in 1957. It would be no exaggeration to say that the Left’s response to Roy has been one of extreme hostility. Why then this sudden and bewildering decision to honour him on his birthday, today?

The answer has nothing to do with Roy of course, since he is dead and gone and his legacy is a part of West Bengal’s history and baggage. The turnaround has to do with the CPI(M)’s own internal transformation. The communists have suddenly come to realize that they have no alternative but to carry out a rigorous policy of industrialization in West Bengal, where they have been ruling for more than thirty years. The problem with the communists is that for the better of those thirty years, they have not only pursued policies that were anti-industry but also hurled abuse at those who upheld industries and industrialization. As a result, the communists have no personality among their own whom they can put on a pedestal and use as an icon for the process of industrialization, which has recently been initiated.

The absence of a suitable figure in their own pantheon has forced on the communists a somewhat dubious choice. This is not because they were at one time sworn enemies of Roy. Questions arise because of Roy’s own record on industrialization. Many believe that West Bengal’s economic ills began when Roy agreed to the Centre’s policy of freight equalization. He alone, of all the chief ministers around in the Fifties, possessed the influence to make Jawaharlal Nehru change this policy. But he refused because of some vague promises that had been made to him. The Left, when it came to power very soon after Roy’s death, aggravated matters by its own policies and irresponsibilities. Capital ceased to consider West Bengal a friendly destination. The tide is turning. If Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee follows the right policies and provides the right ambience, capital will come to West Bengal, without a mascot. There is no need to make yesterday’s spectre into tomorrow’s icon.

CPI-M has unleashed 'state terror' in Bengal: Mamata

IANS[ SUNDAY, JULY 01, 2007 12:30:00 AM]

SINGUR: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Saturday said the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya government in West Bengal has unleashed "state terror" to suppress people's resistance against forcible land acquisition for industry.

As a daylong shutdown called by the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) to protest the arrest of its leader by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the Tapasi Malik rape and murder case ended, the Trinamool leader took over a rally in the area as she flayed the government.

She also presented the victim's mother before the people to narrate how the 18-year-old girl's rape and killing was blamed on her father by the communists.

"CPI-M has unleashed state terror. The chief minister has many faces. He says different things at different times during a day. He has unleashed the cops on people and rewarding the policemen who help him in repressing movements," Banerjee said, accusing Bhattacharya of double standards.

"They (communists) have raped and killed a young girl like Tapasi. They have not spared even infants in unleashing violence or slapping police cases," Banerjee fumed.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/CPI-M_has_unleashed_state_terror_in_Bengal_Mamata/articleshow/2164300.cms

No roll back on industry plans: WB CM
2007-07-01 13:44:16 Source : Moneycontrol.com
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He is the man in the hottest seat right now. The West Bengal Chief Minister?s job is one of the most important in the country. This job will decide the future of industrialisation in India, the right balance between industry and agriculture. CNN-IBN National Affairs Editor Diptosh Majumdar speaks to the man who is at the centre of turbulence in West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Diptosh Majumdar: Nandigram, Singur, then a reported incident close to Burnpur where IISCO is carrying out an expansion program. Is there a very dangerous trend in all this?

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: This is a trend that has recently developed in the state but I think it is not the whole picture. Nandigram, Singur and the IISCO project do not fall under the same category because they are separate issues. At the same time, I would like to inform you that there are many proposals with the government, which we are discussing with the concerned parties or companies. At this moment, we are implementing some projects like three big steel projects. One in Pashcim (West) Midnapore, another in Burdwan and another in Purulia district. We are now going to set up SEZ for Videocon.

Diptosh Majumdar: But the obvious question arising is why is it being experienced only in West Bengal? There is agitation in other parts of the country but not in the same manner as West Bengal.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: It is unfortunate so far as Bengal is concerned. If you look at other states like Maharashtra, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu, the ruling parties and opposition parties have different ideology but when the question of an important project comes up, there is complete consensus.

Diptosh Majumdar: Is it also that you have too many rehabilitation and compensation packages?

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: It is but natural, we cannot just dictate to the companies.

Diptosh Majumdar: But do you see a ray of hope with the new proposals that are coming with better compensation packages?

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: Yes. From the experience, we are changing our policies. The problem I was mentioning was that when we have industrialisation, we have to touch a portion of agricultural land. We are trying our best to avoid fertile land. But when we go for acquisition of land, we have to have a rehabilitation package for the land losers. In some cases, Jindal has come up with a very good proposal. They will give jobs to all land losers and their families. But the number is only 790 so it is easier for them and particularly for a steel company. But in case of Singur, there are 12,000 families. How can they give jobs to 12,000 families?

Diptosh Majumdar: There is a larger question which is the issue of education. You have said yourself that an agriculturist?s son doesn?t want to be an agriculturist anymore. But in the past 30 years, have you given him that platform, education that he needs to think of alternative employment?

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee: In Nandigram, the specific problem was that we wanted to set up a specific chemical hub. It was an important project and it was decided by the Government of India. Eight states took part in the competition. We made our presentation in Delhi before the Chemicals and Fertilizer Ministry. Four states were shortlisted with West Bengal topping the list. They said four chemical hubs were going to be set up in the country and the first would be in West Bengal. What we thought was that Haldia was a fisherman?s village 30 years ago. Now it is flourishing with investments coming in almost every month. But unfortunately, there is the Haldi river flowing there and on the other side is Nandigram, a poor village with poor agriculture. So we thought we will construct a bridge with the chemical hub and Nandigram will be another Haldia. Before we could lead the masses on how it was going to change their lives, the Opposition successfully mislead them.
After CR Das's death in 1926, the BPC was bitterly torn into two factions led by two of his closest lieutenants, Jatindra Mohan Sengupta and subhas chandra bose. Sengupta represented the interests of the high-caste Hindus, while Bose wanted to continue Das's line of Hindu-Muslim accommodation in the political management of the BPC and in such local self-governing organisations as the Calcutta Municipal Corporation. Sengupta won the blessings and support of Gandhi and became president of the BPC. At the other extreme, two groups of national revolutionaries of Bengal were organised under the names jugantar and anushilan samiti. These two groups had some say in the BPC and up to 1928 both supported Subhas Bose. Later Yugantar continued its support to Bose while the Anushilan supported Sengupta. Apart from these two factions, there were a number of other groups in the BPC, particularly the Muslims and the communists. During the thirties, the Communist Party of India (CPI) operated under a different name and generally worked within the BPC.

Bankim Mukherjee, Bijay Modak, Benoy Chowdhury and other communists were all functioning within the BPC. Bose organised a democratic front within the BPC. The development sharpened the conflict between the two BPC factions. In the thirties the Yugantar group controlled the BPC executive committee. After Bose's imprisonment in early 1930, effective control over the BPC passed into the hands of the 'big five' in Bengal politics, Nirmal Chandra Chander, Nalini Ranjan Sarkar, Tulsi Charan Goswami, Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy and sarat chandra bose (elder brother of Subhas Bose). The 'big five', originally a creation of C.R Das, did not have much faith in Subhas Bose's radical stance of politics. In Bose's absence, the 'big five' especially Chandra, Roy and Sarkar gained effective control over the BPC. The Yugantar group was eventually pushed into the background. The 'big five' opposed the Sengupta-Anushilan faction. The faction-ridden BPC leadership incurred the displeasure of the central leadership of the Indian National Congress (INC) on the issue of Muslim representation in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation.

The bitter factionalism within the BPC snapped the bond between Yugantar leaders and the 'big five'. Neither of these factions could pursue any positive political line. The followers of Gandhi within the BPC were numerically weak, and hence Gandhi's position in Bengal politics was rather feeble. When the civil disobedience movement was launched in 1930, the BPC was no longer a united political platform.

The Sengupta-Anushilan faction organised its own forum, the Bengal Civil Disobedience Council. Regional affiliation and factional interests, rather than national feelings, began affecting the BPC, which failed to enlist support of the Muslims and the lower castes. After the first elections to the provincial legislatures in 1937 under the Government of India Act, 1935, ak fazlul huq, the popular leader of the Bengal peasantry, proposed a coalition ministry of his Krishak-Praja Party and the Congress. But the BPC leadership was not allowed by the INC to go for a coalition with Fazlul Huq. Factionalism surfaced again in the BPC when Subhas Chandra Bose had to resign his presidentship of the INC in the aftermath of the Tripura session (1939) because of the non-cooperation and unrelenting opposition of Gandhi and his rightist lieutenants. Bose resumed his presidentship of the BPC and immediately came in conflict with the new working committee of the INC. Bose was subsequently suspended for three years and debarred from holding any elective post in the Congress organisation.

The BPC, with Bose as its president, however, continued to function as the 'suspended BPC' a parallel organisation to the 'official BPC' which had Surendra Mohan Ghosh as its president. Eventually Subhas Bose left the INC and formed the Forward Bloc. The BPC came under the control of staunch followers of Gandhi, such as Surendra Mohan Ghosh, Dr Prafulla Chandra Ghosh and others. The parallel BPC, led by Khagendra Nath Dasgupta, Jyotish Chandra Ghosh, Rajendranath Deb and Afsaruddin Ahmed Chaudhury and others, continued till 1942. During 1942-45 there was no BPC as both the official and suspended committees were dissolved. The BPC played an ineffective role in confronting the growing strength of the muslim league (ML) in Bengal politics in the mid-forties. After the congress leaders came out of jail at the end of the Second World War, Sarat Chandra Bose took the initiative for a single united BPC for effectively contesting the elections to the provincial and central legislatures in late 1945 and early 1946. The new BPC committee comprised Sarat Chandra Bose, Hemanta Kumar Basu, Afsaruddin Ahmed Chaudhury, Dr P.C. Ghosh and Surendra Mohan Ghosh.

July 1 is observed every year as Doctor's Day in India.In the USA, the Doctor's Day is being perhaps marked for more than 150 years in commemoration of physician Dr Crawford Long who used aneasthesia for the first time ever on a patient during a procedure way back in the year 1842.

In our motherland the reason to celebrate Doctor's Day on first of July annually was none other than the birth of an eminent Doctor and a great Indian nationalist in the lands of the state that is ironically known for dismal health statistics and high crime rates apart from very slow development and growth rates. I am talking about respected and beloved Dr B C ROY who was born in Patna in the state of Bihar on the first of July 1882. Is it an irony of fate or just a mere coincidence that the great man breathed his last also on the first of July 80 years later in the year 1962.

In his lifespan of 80 glorious and hard years Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy rose to excel as a physician, shine as an eminent freedom fighter and a brilliant statesman. He was associated with the Indian National Congress party and was the chief minister of West Bengal state for 14 years when he died on first July, 1962. He was credited with taking charge of the greatly disturbed state of the region post-partition.

That was our mistake.
"Lord Mountbatten - The Last Viceroy"
Amazon.com
A lavish production that captures the pomp, ceremony, and complexity of British and Indian politics, Lord Mountbatten: The Last Viceroy stars the great Nicol Williamson (Excalibur, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution) in one of his last substantial roles. As the six-part mini-series begins, Mountbatten accepts a position that almost everyone around him thinks is folly: The Viceroy of India, specifically charged with overseeing the transition to India's independence from British rule. Only his wife, Edwina Mountbatt