PAYING TRIBUTES TO COMRADE BASU DISALLOWED

KOLKATA: In a show of political vendetta of the worst kind, the TMC government of West Bengal created obstacles in commemoration of the 98th birth anniversary of communist leader and former chief minister Jyoti Basu, as former Left Front MLAs and ministers were barred from entering the West Bengal assembly on Sunday, July 8, to observe the occasion. This was despite the leader of opposition, Suryakanta Mishra’s request to the speaker, Biman Bandyopadhyay, in this regard. Basu’s birthday falls on July 8.

Surprisingly, the Trinamul-led government had ‘observed’ Basu’s birth anniversary on Friday, July 6 --- two days before the date, even after strong reactions from different quarters. The Left Front MLAs had therefore chosen to stay away from the July 6 event, arguing that the ruling party was dishonouring the departed leader by observing the occasion two days in advance.

What happened on Sunday afternoon was that when Left leaders reached the north gate of the assembly building, the Marshalls said former MLAs could not enter the house without permission. Leader of opposition Suryakanta Mishta then called up the speaker, Biman Bandyopadhyay, and asked him to allow the former MLAs to go inside the assembly building.

“Are the former MLAs criminals?” Mishra asked the speaker over phone while informing him that some of those who had assembled were elected way back in 1971. But when the speaker denied to entertain Mishra’s request, the Left leaders decided to garland a portrait of Basu outside the assembly building’s north gate.

This was because Left Front MLAs and former MLAs chose to pay their tributes to Jyoti Basu on the pavement outside the gates of the assembly building where a photo of him was placed. Misra stood on a chair and spoke in the occasion. He said, “Jyoti Basu was the voice of democracy. The ruling party in West Bengal is afraid of this very democracy. But we will take the ideas of Jyoti Basu to the people.” 

Describing the developments as “unparliamentary,” former speaker Hasim Abdul Halim, who also stood outside the assembly buiding, said that it was “disrespectful to the democratic norms of the house.” Halim recalled that it was here that millions had paid their last tributes to Comrade Jyoti Basu after his demise.

Subhash Naskar, RSP MLA, expressed his strong displeasure against the attitude of the ruling party.

Denied entry, Left pays tribute to Basu at House gates

TNN, Jul 9, 2012, 04.29AM IST

KOLKATA: Two days after chief minister Mamata Banerjee prematurely celebrated former chief minister and CPM patriarch Jyoti Basu's birthday in the assembly, his comrades had to garland him outside its gates on the actual day of celebration.

The Left parties had planned to offer flowers to the painting of Basu in the assembly. Accordingly, around 15 leaders gathered at the assembly gates at 10.30 am on Sunday. After leader of the opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra arrived, they tried to enter the house. But the securitymen stopped them, saying only sitting MLAs would be allowed entry.

A heated exchange followed, with the securitymen pleading that they were "following instructions" of the Marshall. Among those who were not allowed in were former ministers Debes Das and Manab Mukherjee and former MLAs Rabin Deb, Rajdeo Goala and Sudhangshu Sil. Former speaker Hashim Abdul Halim was allowed in with the sitting MLAs.

When Mishra failed to convince the Marshall, he called Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay and pleaded with him. "I am requesting you to instruct the Marshall to let us in. As former MLAs, they have been given identity cards and enjoy the privilege of entering the house just like sitting members. I had taken verbal permission from you for this morning's programme that we had planned in memory of Jyoti Basu. Why should we submit a list of people entering the Assembly? They are all former MLAs," Mishra said on the phone.

But permission was not granted. The "insult" was obviously not taken kindly by the former MLAs and ministers who decided to register their protest against such "unconstitutional" behaviour by the ruling party. A framed photograph of Basu was brought from the 'Ganashakti' office, placed on a chair and the Left leaders offered their respects at the gate of the assembly house.

"This is absolutely shameful. We have been forced to offer flowers to Jyoti Basu on his birthday at the gates of the assembly. The speaker simply refused to listen to reason. The government celebrated Basu's birthday two days in advance and has now prevented us from offering our respects on the day itself. No one could imagine that things would come to such a humiliating pass," fumed Mishra.

Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay justified himself, saying Mishra had not submitted a formal application seeking permission for the programme. "We had asked for a list of names. Why could he not provide us with that?"

Former Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim, however, was not impressed. "How can a speaker prevent former ministers and MLAs from entering the assembly? They bear identity cards that allow them this privilege," he said.

West Bengal Pradesh Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya, too, called the act "shameful". "They should have been allowed to go in and offer their respects. The ruling party has not behaved properly," he said.

Congress leader and Behrampore MP Adhir Chowdhury called it a "farce". "I won't be surprised if tomorrow they say that since Jyoti Basu is a former chief minister, we should take his painting out of the House!" was his snide remark.

On the other hand, state panchayat and PHE minister Subrata Mukherjee criticized Mishra for not taking prior permission. He explained that since the assembly is closed on Sundays, the state government had organized the programme to pay tribute to Basu on Friday at the behest of chief minister Mamata Banerjee. "CPM MLAs refused to participate in it. They just sat there and sipped tea," he complained.

According to him, "Mishra is seeking cheap publicity through media attention."

"By paying their tribute outside the assembly, the Left leaders have dishonoured Basu," he said. "When Basu was alive, no CPM leader would go to Indira Bhavan with flowers to wish him on his birthday. It was only Subhas Chakraborty and his wife Ramala who celebrated it. The other CPM leaders would say that communists do not celebrate birth or death anniversaries," Mukherjee reminded.He claimed the Left leaders organized this event only to counter Friday's state-backed programme at the assembly.

"Former Speaker Hasim Abdul Halim is also well aware that prior permission of the speaker is needed to keep the assembly open on a holiday. Moreover, certain security measures have been installed decision for which was taken in an all-party meeting. So entry has been restricted now," Mukherjee said.

"It's just drama. If Mishra had any respect for Basu, he would have visited Indira Bhavan where the CPM patriarch stayed till his last days. But how could Mishra have got publicity had he not enacted the drama in front of the assembly gates," Mukherjee lashed out.

Meanwhile, CPM state secretary Biman Bose said that chief minister Mamata Banerjee, immediately after the government was formed, had said that the Assembly would be for the Opposition - a spirit that reflects democracy. "However, there is no reflection of that," Bose said, reacting to Sunday's incident. "Whatever happened today was shameful, and it is not clear which way the government is going."

He said birth anniversary celebrations could "begin" a few days ahead, but to observe the actual date of birth has always been the custom. "What are the students learning from all this? This is disrespectful", Bose said.

New old name : West Bengal became Pashchimbanga

By SUHRID SANKAR CHATTOPADHYAY

FRONTLINE, Volume 28 - Issue 19 :: Sep. 10-23, 2011

West Bengal sheds the colonial legacy in its name by becoming Pashchimbanga, but not everyone is happy.

THE proposed change of name of the State of West Bengal to Pashchimbanga has roused mixed emotions. The new name was accepted unanimously at an all-party meeting on August 19, following the submission of the proposal of the two-member committee set up for the specific purpose of changing the name. The two members of the committee were State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee of the Trinamool Congress and Leader of the Opposition Surya Kanta Mishra of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). “The main rationale behind the name change was that we all wanted to drop the colonial legacy attached to the name West Bengal. All other States have dropped any such colonial appendage and it was important for us to do so too,” Mishra told Frontline.

The first choice of the Left Front was “Bangla”, which was reportedly not liked by the Congress. “Our second choice was Pashchimbanga, which we proposed mainly to facilitate a unanimous decision,” said Mishra. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, while maintaining that her party, the Trinamool Congress, did not have any particular favourite, said her own personal choice was “Bangabhumi”. But she was quick to accept “Pashchimbanga” as the consensus choice.

EARLIER MOVE

Ironically, in 1999, when there was a move to change the State's name during the chief ministership of the late Jyoti Basu, it was the Left that had suggested the name Pashchimbanga. The Congress rejected it in favour of “Bangla”. However, when an all-party delegation from the State went to meet the then Union Home Minister, L.K.Advani, the matter was not met with much enthusiasm. “The proposal was not directly turned down, it was suggested that the name Bangla was too similar to Bangladesh, which might lead to future confusions,” Mishra told Frontline.

REACTIONS

The announcement of the new name was accompanied by a collective groan of disappointment from across the State. From intellectuals and celebrities to students and professionals, many have been vocal about their dissatisfaction. The main objection is that it is no change at all, as Pashchimbanga in translation means West Bengal and has always been in use in the vernacular. “I do not find this change of name satisfactory. Pashchimbanga and West Bengal amount to being the same thing. There has been no real name change. I personally would have preferred the name Banga or Bangabhumi as the Chief Minister herself said she would have liked,” the legendary Bengali thespian Soumitro Chatterjee told Frontline. The renowned film director Mrinal Sen was of a similar opinion. “The word Pashchim should not be there. I believe it should be Bangla or Bangabhumi,” he told Frontline.

Neither were people convinced by the justifications provided by the government for its decision. One of the reasons cited was that the State would be going a few notches up the alphabetical order (from ‘W' to ‘P'), which would improve its prospects vis-a-vis other States during Central meetings and conferences. “If going up the alphabetical order was a criterion, then why not simply change the name to Bangla? Besides, the name does not make sense as there is no ‘Purbo' [East] Bengal any more. It is also a completely Bengali name that many of the non-Bengali speaking people of the State might find difficult to pronounce,” said Pratik Mazumdar, a final year B.Com student of St Xaviers' College, Kolkata.

Almost the same voice of dissent could be heard from within the Congress ranks. Om Prakash Mishra, general secretary of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress, found the whole exercise “unnecessary” and “superfluous”. “This will not bring in the intended benefit as a name change of a State can hardly be justified on the grounds of either administrative convenience or supposed support due to a change in the order of precedence in the alphabetical arrangement of the States in the Indian Union. This purpose would rather be served then by renaming our State as either Bengal or Banga,” he told Frontline.

HISTORICALLY INAPPROPRIATE

The eminent historian Sabyasachi Bhattacharya also feels that this change is no change at all. “I see no reason why West Bengal should still preserve its fragmented identity like this. There was once an East Punjab for a very brief period after Partition, but that name was soon dropped and it became simply Punjab. There was also an East Pakistan province which later became a sovereign nation, Bangladesh. Such things should not affect the identity of the people of a region,” he told Frontline. Bhattacharya believes that the most applicable name would have been “Banga”. “The name is not only present in the national anthem – Dravida Utkala Banga – but also has its origins in ancient texts and in Sanskrit. The term West Bengal was coined by the British during the partition of the region,” he said.

The origin of the name of Bengal is shrouded in mystery. In History of Bengal (volume one), edited by R.C. Majumdar, the historian H.C. Raychaudhuri wrote that there was no mention of the land now known as Bengal in Vedic hymns. However, the Puranas and the epics, which came later, refer to various parts of the region as Vanga, Gauda, Pundra and Samatat. In the epics, there is unambiguous mention of the “Vangas” – the people of Vanga. In the Ramayana, they are mentioned among a number of peoples with political relations with the kings of Ayodhya; and in the Mahabharata, Bheema, after defeating the lord of the “Pundras” (as people of north Bengal were referred to), is said to have attacked next the king of the Vangas.

From the seventh century onwards, the Buddhist Pala dynasty consolidated its hold over the region, which became a major centre of Mahayana Buddhism. Around this time, Gauda (in the central part of West Bengal) became the power centre of the region. In the subsequent consolidation and unification of the region that took place under the Pala and Sena dynasties, references to Vanga as a political unit can be found in various inscriptions dating back to the latter half of the eighth century. In fact, the titles Vangapati and the Gaudesvara for the ruler of the region became interchangeable. The name “Vangaladesha” can be traced back to the 11th century in epigraphic and literary records.

The Sena dynasty fell to the cavalry of Ikhtiyar-ud-din Bhaktiyar Khilji, who, it is said, conquered the region with just 17 soldiers on horseback. Thus began the Muslim rule in the region, culminating in the Mughal conquest in the 16th century. Abu'l-Fazl (1551-1602), the author of Akbarnamah, threw some light on the origin of the name of Bengal when he wrote: “The original name of Bengal was Bang. Its former rulers raised mounds measuring 10 yards in height and 20 in breadth throughout the province which were called ‘al'. From this suffix, the name ‘Bengal' took its rise and currency.”

THE FIRST PARTITION

The term West Bengal first came into being in 1905 when Lord Curzon, the then Governor General, decided to partition Bengal into two halves on administrative grounds, though many people believed that the move was meant to stamp out any republican sentiment that was on the rise. East Bengal was created in October 1905, and along with Assam, this new province was placed under a Lieutenant Governor; West Bengal, along with Bihar and Orissa, was placed in charge of another Lieutenant Governor. This unleashed a massive political agitation, which forced the colonial rulers to review their decision. Finally, the two parts of Bengal were merged into one province under a Governor in 1911. Bengal was once again partitioned in 1947 when one half became East Pakistan, and the other once again became West Bengal, this time a State of the Union of India.

GOVERNMENT STANDS ITS GROUND

In the face of mounting criticism, the Chief Minister stood her ground. On August 23, she defended the move in the Assembly, saying that the choice of “Pashchimbanga” (which she admitted was already in vogue even in administrative use) was a politically unanimous one and was final. The upshot of the whole exercise, which reportedly took just 10 minutes, was simply to drop the English version of “Pashchimbanga”. “In the past we have had endless arguments around the choice of a name, but till now there was no change and the name West Bengal remained. This time we were all determined to change it,” said Mishra.

MLAs can now earn 5K more

TNN, 3 SEPT. 2011

KOLKATA: It was a windfall for Bengal legislators on Friday. The new government, despite financial constraints, increased their daily allowances by Rs 250 for the days they attend the assembly sessions or the committee meetings. Under the new system, MLAs can earn up to Rs 32,000 (including their Rs 12,000 salary per month) - which means a hike of Rs 5,000 from what they got earlier.

State finance minister Amit Mitra also had some good news for his ministerial colleagues. They will also get the daily allowance for attending the House, on a par with MLAs. Ministers, till now, were only entitled to a monthly remuneration of less than Rs 10,000. This, for them, is an added bonus.

"There are 24 Assembly standing committees with 10 members each. In addition, there are 15 other committees with 20 members each. So roughly, almost every member of the house is a member of these committees, if not more. When they attend a committee meeting, the MLAs will be entitled to this enhanced daily allowance too. It is difficult to pinpoint the actual but Roughly for the MLAs, if they attend the twice-a-week meetings, they get allowances for all the five days in a week. The meetings are usually on a Monday and Friday. So a bare calculation indicates they can earn Rs 5000 a week or Rs 20,000 a month. However, these will purely be on their attendance," the finance minister said. The MLAs, therefore, now will earn Rs 5000 more every month only by attending the meetings.

A look at the Assembly records in the 2006-11 term show that on an average 47.8 Assembly sittings were held every year. Inspite of the bitter acrimonious prompting Trinamool Congress MLAs to boycott the session for a long time, the Assembly had 219 sittings. Even in this index, the MLAs - and ministers - can earn close to Rs 12,000 a year more. This, however, is much less compared to the Mps. The Mps, other than a Rs 50,000 a month salary, gets Rs 2,000 for every Assembly sitting.

Earlier, Mitra made a spirited defence of his revenue-generation proposals, saying by hiking taxes in IMFL, lottery and tobacco products and by simplifying the rather complicated

tax structures, he was confident of meeting the revenue targets. "West Bengal is the only state after Karnataka to have dematerialized the VAT registration process, a bottleneck that led to less compliance," he said.

Gorkha leader warns of agitation if bill does not fulfill promises

Kolkata, Sep 3 (ANI): Gorkha Janmukti Morcha leader Harka Bahadur Chettri has said people demanding the creation of a separate Gorkhaland state would agitate if the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Bill does not fulfill its promises.

Talking to reporters here on Friday, Chettri said: “If some impediment is created, if the promised autonomy is not given, if at the end of the day people feel that there is no provision, no scope, GTA is not creating any employment, GTA is unable to create infrastructure that it aims to create, in that case, definitely people will take to streets because nobody will have control over people if you fail to deliver GTA,” said Chettri.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition, Surya Kanta Misra slammed the state government for passing the bill in haste.

“You see 54 amendments on the part of the government itself show that they have not gone through the bill properly and even after giving 54 amendments, there is one provision that has been passed in the house one of the amendments which is patently unconstitutional,” he said

“The Constitution has no provision for the district level panchayat (council) in the Darjeeling neither the state act have it. They say the central government should agree to amend it in the parliament, but unless it is amended, so long it is not amended, even it is amended, only on the verbal assurance that it will get amended you cannot pass something unconstitutional in the assembly,” he added.

A renewed demand for a separate Gorkhaland region, which would include Darjeeling and some contiguous areas of Jalpaiguri District, has created fresh turmoil over the past few months.

The Gorkha population in West Bengal is estimated to be around a million. (ANI)

Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Bill passed by Bengal Assembly

Kolkata, September 3, 2011: The West Bengal Legislative Assembly on Friday passed the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration Bill with 54 amendments, overruling a demand by the Opposition to send it to a select committee for further discussions.

Amid charges by the Treasury Benches as well as the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) legislators that this amounted to delaying tactics, Leader of the Opposition Surjya Kanta Mishra said that peace and development go hand-in-hand and there was need to further discuss matters in a peaceful environment. He said peace might have returned to Darjeeling, but there was tension in the Dooars and Terai regions. He later told reporters that the government was confused and doing things that might be ultra vires of the Constitution.

Out of 54 amendments, 53 were moved by the government, accepting the demands of Gorkha Janmukti Morcha. The government also accepted an amendment moved by opposition leader Surjya Kanta Mishra, relating to provision for reservation of seats in the GTA Sabha for SCs and STs and women. The government, however, didn't accept the amendment for reservation of women.
The state buckled under pressures from the GJM that wanted it to transfer financial and administrative powers along with executive powers to the GTA. It was incorporated in the amended version of the Bill that GTA would strive to establish ethnic identity of the Gorkhas as well as expediting their socio-economic, educational, cultural and linguistic development. The unnecessary mentions of the word 'Sabha' (the elected body of GTA) was dropped from the draft.
The mention of a zilla parishad was incorporated in the Bill.
Speaking on the Bill, chief minister Mamata Banerjee explained that the Centre would carry out the necessary constitutional amendment to make provision for a zilla parishad in Darjeeling. GJM member Harka Bahadur Chhetri explained that earlier the zilla parishad in Darjeeling had been abolished because the outgoing DGHC was functioning as zilla parishad.
Accepting GJM's demand, the amended Bill dropped the provision of the governor nominating two members to the Executive Sabha. All the 14 members of the Executive Sabha would now be nominated by the chief executive of GTA. The presence of one-third of members of the GTA Sabha would form the quorum for holding its meetings.
The principal secretary of GTA would not be transferred for a period of two years after assumption of office without consent of GTA. While the government in the draft Bill had agreed to delegate to GTA the power to make appointments only in Group-D posts, in course of the debate the CM agreed to GJM's demand and the amended version delegated to GTA also power to make appointments in Groups-B and C posts.
In a significant step, the government accepted an amendment moved by the leader of the opposition providing for reservation of seats in GTA Sabha for scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and OBCs. "The reservations will be as per constitutional norms and the provisions of the agreement with GJM," minister Partha Chatterjee told TOI later. It appeared that GJM agreed to the amendment with reluctance. "We are prepared to accept whatever is the constitutional provision," GJM leaders Roshan Giri and Harka Bahadur Chhetri told TOI.
The CM also said that the governor who could nominate five members to the GTA sabha could also give nomination to representatives from these categories. Observers said this would pave the way for reservation of seats in the GTA Sabha for smaller communities like Lepchas and Bhutias as well as for adivasis who live in Dooars and Terai, where GJM has demanded areas for inclusion in GTA.
The chief minister announced that a development board would be set up for the Lepchas of Darjeeling under the state government. Lepcha groups are agitating in the streets of Kolkata for the past one month with this demand.
She said the government was taking steps to ensure that there was no discord between Gorkhas and adivasis in the process of identification of additional areas in Dooars and Terai for inclusion in GTA. She said Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikash Parishad which had held agitations against such inclusion had been misguided by vested political interests. She accused the previous Left Front government of not being serious in addressing the problem of Darjeeling.
GJM member Harka Bahadur Chhetri later explained that the process of GTA formation and the expert committee on identification of areas in Dooars and Terai submitting its report would proceed in a parallel process. "The holding of the election will not depend on the submission of report by the committee, which has six months' time," he said.

Assembly session from June 15

KOLKATA, 22 May : The budget session of the West Bengal Assembly will resume on June 15, Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim said on Thursday. The Assembly was adjourned on March 27.  Though the Assembly would resume in the backdrop of the reverses suffered by the ruling Left Front in the Lok Sabha election, Halim said there was no relation between the two and it was not correct that the session was being resumed earlier than usual.  Going by the results of the LS polls, in which the seats of the Left Front went down from 35 to 15, the Opposition has won in 193 of the 294 Assembly segments in the state, thus having a notional majority. LF candidates have lost in Assembly constituencies of 27 state ministers.

Praharaj appointed as Chairman of LA standing committee on Commerce & Industries

KOLKATA: West Bengal Legislative Assembly speaker Hasim Abdul Halim on Wednesday appointed CPI(M) MLA Srutinath Praharaj as chairman of the Assembly standing committee on commerce and industry. " Mr Praharaj will function as chairman of the said standing committee till July," Mr Halim told reporters.

The standing committee on commerce and industry is being touted as among the most important legislative panels in West Bengal. Previously, Sudip Banerjee, Congress MLA, was chairman of the standing committee. But recently, Mr Halim expelled him under anti-defection laws after the leader of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) Manas Bhunia lodged an official complaint with Halim against Banerjee. Sudip was expelled after he rejoined Trinamool Congress despite being elected to the state Assembly from the Bowbazar assembly seat during 2006 polls on a Congress ticket.

Naturally, Halim on Wednesday, filled up the vacant post of the standing committee chairman by nominating Praharaj. Congress, however, demanded that the post be given to it as the standing committee was headed by a Congress MLA. "I urged the Speaker to appoint our MLA from Katwa, Rabindranath Chatterjee as the chairman of the standing committee. But the speaker told me that he could not do so as Chatterjee is not a member of the said standing committee," CLP leader Manas Bhunia said on Wednesday. "But we strongly oppose the Speaker’s decision and want him to appoint some of our MLAs as the chairman of the committee," Bhunia mentioned.

Trinamool Congress, however, described the Speaker’s actions as "politically motivated and unethical." The opposition leader and Trinamool Congress MLA, Partha Chatterjee said on Wednesday that "the way the speaker has appointed a CPI(M) MLA who has not completed a full five year term in the state Assembly clearly shows his political bias." "We strongly opposed the Speaker’s decision of appointing the CPI(M) MLA as the standing committee chairman. The monsoon session of the House will begin on June 15 and the speaker could wait till that time before appointing the chairman of the standing committee. His act has hurt the democratic values and we are sorry to say that by appointing the ruling party MLA, the speaker has shown his loyalty to the CPI(M)," said Mr Chatterjee.

Praharaj won the Uttarpara assembly seat during 2006 Assembly election on a CPI(M) ticket. Chatterjee also said that "Praharaj was elected chairman only because he belongs to Hooghly district where Singur is located."