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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Caste redux?

Caste redux?

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published Published on Apr 19, 2012   modified Modified on Apr 19, 2012

-The Times of India

Ahead of the panchayat elections next year Bengal's ruling party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) has issued a draconian fiat to its cadres, exhorting them to socially boycott CPM party members. The state government's food and supplies minister Jyotipriya Mullick has asked Trinamool workers not to have any form of personal relations, including marriage, with CPM members and sympathisers. Mullick's bizarre list of 'don'ts' include not mingling with CPM workers, or sharing tea with them, or even exchanging gossip at local tea stalls. In effect the TMC wants to clamp a social boycott on the CPM, further vitiating the state's tense political climate.

Bengal is no stranger to political apartheid. Though there's no rigid caste system, another equally virulent form of ostracisation has been widely prevalent in this sharply polarised state. Promoted by political parties, the practice of social exclusion based on political affiliations has become deeply entrenched in Bengal. The strategy was perfected by the erstwhile Left Front government, whose clientelist rule worked through organising intimidation as well as social boycott of opponents. It's ironic that the TMC is now following its predecessors' destructive policies. Instead of marking a sharp break with Bengal's culture of vendetta, the TMC chief is covertly and overtly endorsing its continuation. In any democracy one should be able to deal civilly with one's political opponents, keeping up dialogue even as one disagrees with them. But that's hardly compatible with the extreme forms of social boycott now being advocated by TMC. If serious about honouring her massive mandate of transforming Bengal, Mamata ought to make a public statement against the demonisation of political opponents.

The Times of India, 19 April, 2012, http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/opinion/edit-page/Caste-redux/articleshow/12720046.cms


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