Are We Governed By Hooligans?

I am taking it from where the day long banner on Times-Now tried to suggest its viewers. Are we governed by goons? Maybe or maybe not. That said, if you really try to assess the situations that our democracy has gone through since its inception then may be not but if you bound your impost around last couple of decades or so then, yes we are not only governed by goons but also are forced to choose one among the goons as our so called representative. In fact they are not only goons but also are thugs, traitors, leeches and manipulators of highest degree.


A prestigious and heritage educational institute like the Presidency University could be a firsthand witness to the goons that we have elected to govern us. A bunch of TMC vandals stormed the campus and destroyed a century old laboratory the other day. Hang-on, the ruffians didn’t stop there. If eyewitnesses are taken into account, the delinquents manhandled many students with criminal intention and chased down girl students with a threat of raping them in public. Even the lady vice-chancellor of the university wasn’t spared from their indignation. She was also threatened by the miscreants of dire consequences, much to what they have threatened the girls. As per reports, at least a dozen students are badly injured with an equal number suffering from minor injuries. And if you have forgotten, it is the TMC that is ruling the state after coming to power on the backbone of some nonsense called Porivarton. Great Porivarton I must say where our students are manhandled and issued rape threats in broad daylight. Perhaps turning the state into a banana republic is what Porivarton is for Mamta Banarjee.

But do you think, someone is taking the blame and genuinely feeling ashamed for such rowdy behavior of its cadre? I would be surprised if you even be thinking of such statesmanship from TMC. As routine to any political party, the TMC distanced itself from the misdeeds, terming it as a plot of the opposition to malign TMC’s image. TMC’s image? Seriously? Even the vice-chancellor’s statement that she saw the goons carrying TMC’s flags were rubbished on the grounds that anybody can procure those wretched stuff with an intention to show the party in bad light. Such holy cows these TMC chaps are that they are almost Teflon coated to any kind of nefarious accusations. Even the evangelist called Derek O’Brien was all but taken the avatar of Manmohan Singh for every question that was landing at his Twitter mentions. He was silent on the earlier denying of TMC of any involvement when pictorial proofs in the form of Partha Basu, a TMC goon turned councilor started appearing alongside the vandals those ransacked the university. It took me half an hour and five tweets (three I have shown) to get some kind of reply from the TMC chief whip. And boy, wasn’t that a philosophical one?

For records Mr. O’Brien, I am not asking you to establish any kind of communication mechanism with me or many others those were bugging you for valid reasons. It was an honest question that requires an equally honest answer. Rhetoric in the form of philosophical statements has got no place in matter as serious as what your TMC goons are alleged to have committed. We are not here to judge your competence as a leader nor are we asking you to showcase any. Rather than communication, we are expecting a true leader to come back with his responses for the genuine and aggrieved queries of the people who have made him a leader at the first place. Rather than quoting Peter Drucker (honestly, I don’t know who this person is), we would have been happier if there were some simple and crisp honesty. Honesty in the form of accepting the fault and taking the blame head-on, as any true leader would do. Are you leader enough to admit the fault and promise to deal with your party goons, those involved in the Mafiosi with iron fist? Can you assure us concerned people that our children won’t ever be sandwiched between the political slugfest of TMC and an equally notorious CPI? Can you make an example of your goons by handing them strictest of punishment for threatening young girls with rape? If not, then please keep Peter Drucker and many of your other political Gurus to yourself. We really don’t care what Mr. Drucker said on which bloody context. We have enough theatrical personas in our political spectrum and we undoubtedly would be better off without a certain Derek O’Brien and his spectacular one-liners.

Before I leave you Mr. O’Brien, could I ask you the reason for such vandalism? Just because Mamata Banarjee got heckled by CPI goons, you can’t pounce on innocent students of Presidency as you guys don’t have a substantial presence in its students union. Isn’t that the correct reason dear quiz master? Be ashamed, first of all for the pathetic law and order situation of your state where even the CM herself is not safe from the buffoons. If the CM can be manhandled at such ease, we can guess how precariously the common man’s safety is placed in your state. Are you ashamed with the fact that the law and order situation has gone to dogs in Bengal or Poschima Bango, if you like that way? Did your party or your leader who so vociferously vouches for Porivarton has taken any steps to fix this basic of governance? Can your CM assure us of safety when her own safety is so perilously positioned?

Questions are though Derek and I know it. To be honest, I would have done pretty much the same (turning philosophical) had I been at your place. Not to take away the due credit from you; you at least thought of replying, unlike most of our other politicians who will just hit the mute button. But what required is much, much more than your tweeter reply. What required is action on the ground and that too in a hurry. You know it, as does many in your party. And please educate your finance minister that he can’t just brush everything by terming them as Tuchho Ghatana. If not anything, he at least is insulting and ridiculing the very people who have voted him to the post he is presently in. God forbidden, if people start taking note of all such Tuchho Ghatana, he along with many others in TMC might end up losing their deposits in next legislative elections. Hope someone at TMC is taking all such eventualities into account.

Next time, hope to see a genuine reply from you Derek. Not just communication in the form of being a very good listener. Time for listening has long gone. Now the demand of the hour is raw and unperturbed action.