The spirit of revolution

CPI(M) party conferences at the field level, a mandatory, preparatory process for the party’s state conference in February and the part...

CPI(M) party conferences at the field level, a mandatory, preparatory process for the party’s state conference in February and the party Congress later in April, are increasingly becoming violent. In at least half a dozen local committee meetings in different parts of the state, the fight between Marxist cadres has gone beyond verbal exchanges. Assaults, threats and even bombs were used in an ugly display of faction feuds.

A thin trickle of information that gets out of the party’s iron curtain indicates that there is a rising trend of addiction to alcohol among party comrades, and increasing patronisation of anti-social elements, promoters and business lobby by party members. An internal document of a zonal committee in North 24-Parganas adjoining Kolkata talked about these vices among party members and urged party card holders to be more vigilant. Party’s senior leaders refuse to talk about the reports but maintain that these are exercises towards ‘‘purging’’ the party of bad elements. Insiders, however, feel the ills are so deep-rooted and widespread that a clean-up is virtually impossible.

A Bengali’s charge

Comments from Vidhu Vinod Chopra, the Bollywood director-producer, have left Tollywood technicians fuming. Chopra was in Kolkata recently for a fairly long stint in connection with the production of Parineeta, a Hindi film based on a novel by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Chopra did not make any bones about the stunning costs charged by technicians at Tollywood. Frequent stoppage was also a major irritant. The budget for the film has therefore got pushed up several times, he complained. Should he get an opportunity to meet the state chief minister, he promised to raise the issues of such high production costs at Tollywood. The technicians, obviously angry, have risen in protest. The industry spokesmen defended that the rates at Tollywood varied between Hindi and Bengali productions. They further pointed out that producers from Bengal do not get any preferential treatment at Bollywood that Chopra was probably looking for at Tollywood.

Kamtapur archipelago

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ULFA is trying to set up new bases on the India-Nepal border, close to Siliguri, according to BSF officials manning the North Bengal frontier. It is being helped in this by one of its allies, the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), a North Bengal-based underground outfit that seeks a separate homeland. A BSF IG claimed to have received specific information about 25 cadres from each of the two organisations having reached Jhapa in Nepal . The setting up of new bases by ULFA and KLO certainly poses a threat.

Back to caves

A massive cave-in, spread over 500-sq m area and close to the Eastern Coalfields headquarters in Sanctoria, drove over 100 families out of their homes last weekend. A large number of buildings have cracked and caved in after huge fissures appeared on the surface soil. Residents complained about the hollow pits down below. In some places, hot air billowed out of the gaps and panicky residents deserted their homes. But with alternative accommodation provided by ECL being much less than required, most families were forced to get back to their damaged premises, risking lives. ECL authorities said that the coal pit was operated long ago by private miners and had not been properly filled up with sand. A disaster looks imminent.