5 years on, TMC's brain bank takes a beating

KOLKATA: Ambikesh Mahapatra, the Jadavpur University Chemistry professor who was jailed by the Mamata government in 2012 for circulating satirical cartoons on the CM, is campaigning in the city's Behala East constituency. He's the Left-backed Independent candidate.

"I was jailed for emailing Mamata cartoons. Can anything be more vindictive than that? The only way I could protest is by joining politics. Although the Supreme Court struck down Section 66 A, I still face criminal charges."

Is the response good? The crowds seem rather thin. "If people are allowed to vote, I have a chance. But in Bengal votes are cast, people aren't allowed to vote."

Do other anti-TMC academics like him plan to join politics? "Some buddhijeebis (intellectuals) have been bought over by the TMC. Some like Jogen Chowdhury have got RS seats. But many now feel the need to be on the streets protesting because intellectual freedom is in danger. Innocent students are accused of being Maoists as happened with Tania Bhardwaj."

Mahapatra says he was encouraged to contest by the worldwide support he received when he was jailed. He and others like Shiladitya Chowdhury , the farmer also imprisoned for raising inconvenient questions at a rally, have formed a front called Akranto Amra (We are under attack).


Five years ago, Kolkata's intellectuals had unitedly supported the TMC against the LF's actions in Singur and Nandigram. That was the high noon of intellectual support for Mamata with a range of literati from Aparna Sen to Mahesweta Devi to Mrinal Sen speaking of the need for "poriborton", change.The last time intellectuals united in a "flagless michhil (march)" was against a 2013 rape at Kamduni, a village in the fringes of Kolkata. Since then the unity has dissipated.
"Intellectuals who came out so resolutely in Mamata's favour during Singur and Nandigram have disappeared," says novelist Amit Chaudhuri.

"Many like Aparna Sen and Nabaneeta Deb Sen are silent on the TMC.

Filmmaker Suman Mukherjee initially supported the TMC, got alienated and moved to Mumbai."Artist Suvaprasanna who vociferously supported Didi, avoids the media.

Chaudhuri says the Left's "us" vs "them" mentality that so sharply divided civil society has been taken to a new high by the TMC. "The situation is horrendous."

"If you are loyal, you get awards, if you are seen as a dissenter you are marginalised," says Nilanjana Gupta, professor at Jadavpur University. Says Gautam Gupta, former SFI leader and economics professor at Javadpur: "Bengal has three kinds of intellectuals today. The co-opted, those who supported Mamata during Singur but have returned to the Left, and the silent. But more are speaking out."

TMC may have failed to co-opt Leftist intellectuals but there's a new crop of young thinkers on social media who enthusiastically support Mamata and feel that budhijeebis who attack her are elitist and patriarchal. Academic Ranabir Samaddar believes Bengal's Left intellectuals must come off their high horse. "For too long Left intellectuals compromised with power and combined the power of the Right and the prestige of the Left. They pine for the return of an unworkable LeftLiberal state of affairs. Many of them are in the Dark Ages."

Gautam Gupta says Bengal's civil society movement has broken down. The rainbow coalition of intellectuals who in 2011 supported Mamata has splintered with many once pro TMC budhijeebis like Ratan Khasnabis, Azizul Haq, actor Sabyasachi returning to the Left. Ratnaboli Ray , women's activist with the network Maitree, says the gender justice movement is disappointed with the TMC: "Many dissenters were forced to resign their posts." Mamata once needed intellectuals to give her legitimacy . With the administration now at her beck and call, the TMC has stopped wooing Left-leaning intellectuals. Budhijibees are now partly co-opted, partly marginalised and partly in the opposition."Today Mamata is too powerful, she doesn't even need the intellectuals," says Ray .

"Who are these intellectuals?" scoffs TMC's Derek O'Brien. "Many don't even vote."