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Calcutta, April 18: Some of the most electrifying encounters in Bollywood have unfolded when brothers wake up one fine morning on different sides of the great divide. Remember Deewar?
Bengal now has a chance to stage an explosive replay in some of the best-known households in the state, if familial protagonists overcome what smells like opening-week stage fright.
If Trinamul supporters cannot have food with CPM cadres at social events and sip tea with them in a local stall as a Bengal minister has dictated, brother will be pitted against brother, niece against uncle and cousin against cousin.
Such is the political melting pot of Bengal that many families have different members owing allegiance to different parties and ideologies. But the three diktats issued by food minister Jyotipriya Mullick on Sunday do not leave much elbowroom:
Don’t sit beside CPM workers and have food at social events
Don’t attend a gathering at a CPM leader’s house
Don’t even have tea with them at the local tea stall.
Till late tonight, blood appeared to be thicker than tea. No reports had come in yet that any brother has pitched the piping hot contents of a cup at his sibling’s face.
But in the inherently good-natured world of Bengal’s tea-stall politics, all possibilities are being tossed into that irresistible “what-if” pot. Some could not help but wonder if Trinamul MP Derek ’Brien would shun social contact with his younger brother Barry just because he had been nominated by the Left Front government to represent the Anglo-Indian community.
Barry, who is not a member of any political party, said: “Though apolitical, my views on politics have never influenced my personal relationships.”
Derek smelt mischief or bias. “At its best, this is mischievous journalism. At worst, this is biased journalism. There are two reasons. First, my colleague Jyotipriya Mullick has been quoted totally out of context. He was addressing a private meeting of committed Trinamul workers who live every waking hour with the memory of losing 53,000 of their colleagues to the brutality of the CPM in the last three decades. What also needs to be considered is the social milieu in which he was making the address, which is very different from that which we are more familiar…. ‘An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth’ is not our belief.”
Derek also pointed out that his brother could not be associated with any political party.
“It is common knowledge that I am the only person from my family to join a political party. To even mildly suggest that my brother belonged to or was associated with any party would be grossly unfair to him. My father and brother were representing the Anglo-Indian community in Parliament and the legislative Assembly,” Derek said.
Cut to Barasat and another parallel emerges. Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, the Trinamul MP from Barasat, is the niece of CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta.
Kakoli told The Telegraph today: “The CPM and the Left had tortured the poor people when in power and had even threatened that their names wouldn’t be included in the BPL (below poverty line) list if they shared time or tea with Trinamul workers. The food minister’s utterances were to remind the people of what the Marxists did when they were in government.”
However, Kakoli added: “I am told that Mamatadi had not issued such a warning. I think personal relationships should not be brought into this controversy.”
Dasgupta, her uncle, held that his family’s relationship with Kakoli would continue. “Political bias should not overshadow human relationships. Otherwise, Bengal would become a Taliban-ruled place. My relations with Kakoli, who is my niece, will continue,’’ he said.
Another twist lurks if the diktat is taken to its logical conclusion and applied to all parties to which Trinamul is allergic.
Saugata Roy, Trinamul’s junior minister at the Centre, is the younger brother of Tathagata Roy, the former state BJP chief. Saugata said he was not aware if Mamata herself had taken such a decision. “I don’t know if this is the party line or an individual’s utterances,” he said.
Tathagata, however, didn’t mince words. “This is a ham-handed order. I don’t care for it. I interact with Saugata over phone at regular intervals. We meet unfailingly on the day of bhaiphonta… and that will continue,’’ he said.
Down the ranks, the social boycott, if it is enforced, can have searing consequences.
Maheswar Mukherjee, the Trinamul block president of Kulti in the Asansol sub-division, shares his residential premises with his cousin Sagar Mukherjee, the CPM zonal committee secretary.
The bond that the cousins built when they lived under the same roof as children has survived their political affiliation even after they shifted to adjoining homes.
“I have good and cordial relations with Sagar. He met with an accident in February while going to the Brigade Parade grounds for a CPM rally. I visited him in hospital regularly to monitor his progress. I have never thought of severing my relationship with him,’’ Maheswar said.
Maheswar said they had their meals together on occasions. “Our schedules are different so we don’t get around to having our meals together as often as we used to but I do hope that this continues.”
What about personal choices like newspapers, which have also been branded weapons of mass discrimination in this state?
Maheswar emphasised that the choice of newspapers or TV channels has never come in the way of their relationship. “My brother reads Ganashakti while I read Pratidin (one of the 14 publications state-assisted libraries are allowed to subscribe to) and any English newspaper. There is no clash here,” Maheswar said.
The same goes with television channels.
Sagar emphasised that there was no “friction” because of their political beliefs. “I’m certain the Trinamul’s diktat would not come in any way between the two of us,” he said.
What a letdown! Vijay and Ravi, the warring brothers in Deewar, will have to look beyond Bengal for a happy hunting ground.