How Ugly Is The Truth?

Sometimes our shortcomings are bigger secrets that we would rather die with than reveal. It might sound wierd, but it is often true. I take a leaf of the book made into a movie called 'The Reader' starring Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes where Kate Winslet or Hannah Schmitz is a guard in a tram company in Germany when she falls in love with Michael Berg played by David Kross, the 15 year old portrayal played later by Ralph Fiennes. What becomes an important part of the story is when Michael begins to read snippets out of literature which transport Hannah Schmitz to a different world which she could never discover on her own.

It is only years later in the court room that the budding lawyer Michael happens to be at the trial of the main defendent Hannah Schmitz accused of locking 300 people in a church, all Jews of a Nazi camp in Germany during Hitler's time. With just one survivor who has identified six defendents, there is no hope for them being released. Hannah is accused of being the main conspirator who wrote the report to carry out the task. But Hannah can't write in the first place. A truth that might have saved her. But sometimes when we'd rather keep the secret locked in our soul than face the reality that people might smirk at us, it is tough to get the will to let go of our inhibitions in a fraction of a second. When all we can contemplate is whether or not to reveal the shortcoming and whether we would be able to handle the torment of truth that people are mocking us. Sometimes we put our fears before what we need to do to help save our precious lives and live with dignity the way we deserve to.

But sometimes our insecurities defy logic and reasoning. And before we realize, the fraction of a second has changed our life. But why does Michael stop himself from meeting Hannah and helping her in her ordeal of revealing the truth of her illiteracy? What went through his mind, what would go through yours if you were in his shoes? It would be easy to say you would speak up. But in the circumstances that Michael was in and the kind of person he was, he lived in a shell. And again for him revealing the secret of his affair which unlocked the mystery of Hannah accepting that she was guitly when she wasen't the main conspirator, was a conflict within him that he lived with all his life.

Often, there is no reason for our actions. The answer to a question might be simple, but getting ourselves to face the fact and acting as per what is logical is the litmus test. Especially when we are thrown into situations that paralyse our thinking power and override logic.

Anti-Climax To The Great Indian Tamasha.

The stunning victory in the 15th Lok Sabha elections by the Trinamool Congress in Bengal, was an indication that the tricolour party has arrived on the National scene as a serious contender in battle for power. While last time it was the Left that supported the UPA led Government before abandoning them mid way, after the recent polls it can be said that the red brigade has almost been reduced to a minority in the lower house.

While these were just the Parliamentary Elections and it was a poll that determines who rules on the National stage, however the results proved that the people of Bengal cast their vote based on State level issues rather than National level issues like the Indo-US nuclear deal and the UPA Government facing flak for inadequate measures after attacks like the Mumbai train blasts in 2006 and the Mumbai terror attack in 2008, followed yet again by the Guwahati blasts on the 1st of January 2009.

But when close to 70% of Bengal's population is rural and many illiterate, for most of them their main source of information on political parties are the posters they see around them and what they are told by their community or the political partymen. So for them issues like Singur, Nandigram and the police attrocities at Lalgarh come into focus combined with sloganeering by the Trinamool Congress- "Ma Maati Manush" or in other words Mother, Land and People of the soil . A simple effective message that reaches out to the people of all classes, especially in the aftermath of violence stemming from land acquisition in Nandigram and Singur. While the urban voters might have identified Mamata Banerjee as the one who drove Nano out of Singur and a name that became synonymous with anti-industrialisation, it could perhaps be seen as a move to vote for Trinamool Congress because of it's alliance with the Congress in Bengal. And many of them might have chosen to vote for a secular Congress rather than the BJP.

But at end of it the big Indian Voting Tamasha, these elections have proved that it is the people's verdict that decides who takes centrestage to wave the magic wand towards India's development and success in the next five years. As for Bengal, the Trinamool Congress's victory is an indication of what we can expect in the 2011 Assembly elections just as the 2008 Panchayat elections was an indication of the Trinamool Congress's inroads into rural hamlets, ruled for 32 years by the Marxists who came to power in 1977 using the same cards that are spelling victory for Mamata Banerjee. Not to forget that the Left has also lost on out on the muslim votebank after Talima Nasreen, Rizwanur Rahman and the Nandigram issues became Mamata's gain in the long run.

Lalgarh-Fighting Fear.

West Bengal's voter turnout during the first phase of elections was 64% and while arrangements had been made to take the residents of the troubletorn hamlet in West Midnapore's Lalgarh to 4 polling booths outside the area, there was a voter turnout of only 15%. Many Maoist affected areas had called for a poll boycott and while Lalgarh did not spell out a boycott, the percentage of turnout implied the same.

Lalgarh is not very far from Nandigram which many would remember for the March 14th 2007 massacre. And the connect only makes things worse for the Left Government which does not have the support of the people in three areas primarily, Singur being the third which would at one time given birth to the Tata Nano had the Trinamool Congress not oust it from the State.So Singur would be more about divided votes where some farmers are still languishing after they were promised their land back after the project was aborted. For industrialisation would mean more jobs for these farmers and the generations to follow.

While Singur and Nandigram have been spoken about endlessly, Lalgarh has taken prominence where for the first time the State Government and the Election Commission have been hit hard. With fear of police entering the village, these adivasis are even against polling taking place in 40 booths within the boundary. And so the idea of transporting nearly 50,000 voters to booths within a 5 kms radius of the voter's homes. But alas just a 15% voter turnout due to an unspoken boycott.

The CPIM can heave a sigh of relief which is definitely not the opposition's gain. But again these are Parliamentary elections and not Assembly elections. But what crosses the minds of these uneducated tribals, armed with weapons like swords and trishuls who walked the streets of Kolkata days before the first phase of Bengal elections? Any Kolkatan might be taken aback looking at them. Some urban folk feared for their lives when these tribals broke out into a scuffle and sat on the streets till late in the evening following a fight with a bus driver who had accidently hit one of their tribe.

What do elections mean to them, something or maybe nothing? Is it just the weapons that make them a feared lot that even the Election Commission and State Government can do nothing to settle the issue? If clothes make the man, these tribals would symbolise barbarity. But then what would you call the Left Government's workers, many dressed in white kurtas and the police officers in khaki who took some adivasis randomly by the collar and accused them of carrying out the blast on the Chief Minister's convoy in November 2008? An act of reason or a muscle power in the garb of rightousness?