Winds of change
The “Paribartan chai” slogan has united the Bengal intelligentsia apparently in favour of Mamata Banerjee
It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose the lies, Noam Chomsky had said. For a motley group of artists, poets, actors and former bureaucrats in Kolkata, there is one single ‘truth’ at the moment: Left rule in West Bengal must end. Is Mamata Banerjee the only option? Some of the intellectuals have thrown in their lot with Mamata; others haven’t made up their mind.
It’s a movement that has brought together iconic cultural personalieisof Bengal: writer and social activist Mahasweta Devi; painters Shuvaprasanna and Jogen Chowdhury; theatre personalities Bratya Basu, Bibhas Chakraborty and Shaonli Mitra; actor and film director Aparna Sen; and poet Joy Goswami. What is more, they have begun to shape public opinion. Their message is simple: Paribartan chai (we want change).
Fatigued by 34 years of Left rule, disillusioned by its land acquisition policies, and angered by rising unemployment with companies, including Kolkata-based ones, opting to invest outside the state, the slogan has captured the people’s mood. Bengal today reverberates with Paribartan chai.
It began with the intelligentsia’s public posturing against the “atrocities” of the West Bengal government at Nandigram and Singur. In the run-up to the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, large Paribartan chai hoardings came up at prominent points in Kolkata. These had the faces of painters Samir Aich, Jogen Chowdhury and Shipra Bhattacharya (Shuvaprasanna’s wife); theatre personalities Arpita Ghosh and Kaushik Sen; academic Sunanda Sanyal; former bureaucrat Debabrata Bandyopadhyay; singer Nachiketa; apart from the afore-mentioned luminaries. The election results vindicated their stance: the Left Front was decimated by the Trinamool.
For Mamata Banerjee, known for her mercurial temper and whimsical ways, the endorsement of the intelligentsia was important. But for Bengal, the movement signalled a defining change in political mood. After all this is a state which had always favoured the downtrodden and underdogs. As Shuvaprasanna says, until recently even insects in Bengal were Left-leaning.
Shuvaprasanna, who has been the fulcrum of the movement, says he never imagined that two simple words would create such a public frenzy. “My alignment with Mamata happened much later. Singur and Nandigram had spurred my sentiments to the extent that I labelled the chief minister [Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee] a cannibal on television. My views found favour with some intellectuals and we got together for the Paribartan chai campaign,” he recalls. “I don’t have a party, so our campaign went in favour of the Trinamool.”
True, Paribartan chai did have the semblance of a civil society movement before the general elections. But it has undergone changes since then. The exhortations for change are no longer restricted to lending faces for hoardings; it has developed into on-ground activities such as visiting trouble spots like Lalgarh and Netai, often led by Trinamool leaders; taking part in television debates (at least once a week) and being part of delegations to the Centre on the growing violence in Bengal.
The campaign will likely gather force before the crucial elections to the state legislature in a few months’ time. The faces on the hoardings could also change as the Kolkata film industry has joined the bandwagon.
But the cultural camp is split over whether its support should be overt or covert. “Should we leave it to the people to make a choice and stick to saying that change is needed, or should we openly bat for the Trinamool? I think, the situation demands that we support the Trinamool. To simply say that we want the Communist Party of India (Marxist) out is not good enough,” says an unabashed Bratya Basu.
Some observers, of course, have debunked the independence of the Paribartan chai platform. The supporters of Paribartan have been rewarded with plum positions in the railways ministry, says author Sumanta Banerjee. Some of these are Shaonli Mitra (chairperson, cultural and heritage committee); Shuvaprasanna (chairman, passenger amenities committee); Arpita Ghosh (member, cultural committee and passenger amenities committee); Bratya Basu and Bibhas Chakraborty (members, passenger services committee). Many more have found place in the 85-member Kolkata Municipal Corporation panel. “We have to make a distinction between the ideological motivation that inspired intellectuals who participated in the Naxalbari movement and political manipulation and opportunism that mark the behaviour of the present-day intellectuals,” says Banerjee.
All this has led some of the Paribartan chai-brigade to rethink their stance. Aparna Sen, for instance, says she is undecided on whether she wants to be part of the second phase of the campaign. “I don’t know if I will let my picture be used. I am certainly not campaigning for any political party. But change is needed. A lot of people are supporting Mamata because she has the mass base. I am not sure about her administrative skills, but then leaders emerge,” she says.
Which is the moot question — after the Left Front government is ousted, what does the Paribartan chai brigade expect from the new government? “Let them first go. Expectations will come later,” thunders Bratya Basu. “It will be a humane government, devoid of arrogance,” prophesies Joy Goswami. “The community must regain its lost glory, the poor must be able to live with dignity, the state must progress,” says Shuvaprasanna.
But can a campaign that wants to be successful have such fuzzy deliverables? “Any campaign that is led by people and impacts millions needs clear deliverables and timelines that demonstrate change. Given the intellectuals involved in the campaign, it is high in profile and awareness. To be declared successful, it needs to be positive in impact,” says Avik Chattopadhyay, CEO of Saffron India, a marketing and branding consultancy which is working on Bengal’s image. “Paribartan chai needs definition, a context. Mamata has larger issues to grapple with, like development and industrialisation,” adds Suhel Seth, managing partner of Counselage, a marketing consultancy.
But Kabir Suman, dissident Trinamool Member of Parliament, asks: “Isn’t change of government Paribartan?”
But will that be a change for the better? They don’t have a clear answer right now.