As book stalls came under attack in Bengal, this 73-year-old stood his ground | Political Pulse News
“I told those who came to ransack our book stall to read our books,” says Bipul Dasgupta, a frail-looking 73-year-old CPI(M) worker who captured everyone’s imagination last week as a sharpening ideological battle in West Bengal played out over the past 10 days amid the Durga Puja festivities.
As people prepared to celebrate the festival, there were several incidents of violence targeting book stalls that Left parties — including the CPI(M), Forward Bloc, and the CPI(M-L) Liberation — set up around Puja pandals. From Jadavpur and Nagerbazar in Kolkata to Howrah, Bardhaman, Paschim Medinipur, and Cooch Behar in North Bengal, Left parties’ book stalls faced attacks. The reasons ranged from allegations that the Left was selling “anti-national” literature to lack of permission to set up the stalls.
In Jadavpur, a Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) team arrived with a bulldozer to dismantle the CPI(M) stall over lack of proper permits, but had to turn back after facing resistance from party workers, a group of locals, and Jadavpur University students. In Nagerbazar in north Kolkata, as a group of youth descended on a book stall, shouting slogans and throwing books to the ground, they ran into Dasgupta.
The septuagenarian, popularly known as Buju da in his neighbourhood, stood up to the men attacking the stall and pleaded with them to respect books. In a video of the incident, which has since gone viral, Dasgupta can be seen pleading with one of the attackers: “Ami anurodh korchi, barbar kore anurodh korchi, koro na (I am requesting you, requesting you again and again, don’t do this).”
Dasgupta says the Left’s book stalls not only sell Communist literature but also all different kinds of books, including Bengali classics. “In our stall, we keep all types of books, not just Marxist literature. People from every community and holding different political beliefs buy books from our stall,” says Dasgupta. One of the books an attacker is seen picking up and objecting to is Pather Dabi (The Right of Way) by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay. Published in 1926, the book is about an underground revolutionary society called Pather Dabi dedicated to the violent overthrow of British colonial rule. The colonial government had banned the book.
“There is no alternative to books and education. To know the world, you have to read … Only education and books can drive a society towards development,” he says.
Dasgupta has been a lifelong CPI(M) worker — a “whole-timer” — with his family having been a part of Communist politics. “I learned from them that only education can change society and no one can resist or stop education. Only the disciplined can fight against those trying to spread anarchy,” he says.
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“Those who came to ransack our stalls were driven by an ideology; our fight is against it, not against any individual. Our ideological training taught us to fight against such forces. We need to teach them about proper education and books. I advised them to read; if they read, they will be able to judge what is right and what is wrong,” Dasgupta says.
CPI(M) state committee member Mayukh Biswas, who is from Nagerbazar, says the stall was reopened the day after the attack. That the incident on books did not sit well with local people is apparent, as all the books were sold within an hour. “This year, our book sale across the state almost doubled compared to last year and we sold books worth Rs 1.47 crore,” he says.
The attacks have provided the Left with an opportunity to paint the BJP into a corner, accusing it of being “anti-books” in a city that considers itself the cultural capital of the country and one of whose famous landmarks is the Boipara, or the neighbourhood of books, in College Street. CPI(M) leader and former Kolkata mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya said these book stalls had always been a part of the festive season. “I did not see book stalls getting vandalised even during Trinamool Congress rule,” he said.
The Left and members of the civil society have announced a “Let’s Walk for Books” march from Kolkata’s College Square area on October 29 to protest against these attacks. The march will not be held under a political banner so that book lovers of all shades can join the demonstration.
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Unease in BJP-RSS
Though the attacks on the book stalls drew criticism, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari has hit out at the Left, saying, “The Communists do not offer prayers, refuse to tie the sacred thread on their wrists, and do not put tilak on their foreheads. Beware of them.” The CM suggested that the Left could keep these books in its party offices. In September, he had asked Durga Puja committees not to allow CPI(M) bookstalls outside pandals if they used the term ‘Sharodotsav (autumn festival)’ instead of ‘Durga Puja’ to describe the festival.
However, these attacks on book stalls and acts of vandalism have created a sense of unease in the BJP-RSS, with both state BJP president Samik Bhattacharya and state Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta distancing the party from the violence. “I am ashamed that such a thing has happened and such things should not be repeated,” Dasgupta told a regional news channel last week while visiting a Puja pandal.
“It is not right to throw any book to the ground,” Bhattacharya said days after the incidents were reported. He claimed those involved in the attacks do not belong to the party. “Those who have been associated with the BJP for long have not been involved in this. Only those who were forced to leave the CPI(M) to join TMC and want to associate themselves with us now are engaged in this.”
“Those who, intoxicated by the arrogance of power, do not allow others the right to speak their ideology, do not allow them to set up bookstalls, and break bookstalls, have not understood India either. They are not worthy of taking the name of Hindus,” said RSS leader Jishnu Bose, the co-regional publicity chief of the Sangh’s Eastern Zone unit.
