Subhash Mukhopadhyay (Bengali: সুভাষ মুখোপাধ্যায়) (16
January 1931 – 19 June 1981) was a physician in Kolkata who created the world's
second and India's first child using in-vitro fertilization. Unfortunately, Dr.
Mukhopadhyay was harassed by the state government, and not allowed to share his
achievements with the international scientific community. Dejected, he committed
suicide on 19 June 1981.
That was supposed to be golden era of Marxism politics in West Bengal.
That was supposed to be golden era of Marxism politics in West Bengal.
Those of you are not moved by this tale, please
see Pankaj Kapoor-Shabana Azmi starred “Ek Doctor ki Maut”.
May be in my subconscious mind, I always
consider myself lucky. Lucky because, I am born Bong. That gives me an added
advantage – something of a birth right – I am intellectual, I am patriot ! I know
more than many other Indians!
My father always had other opinion. He
used to taunt and literally curse me saying, “You (his eldest son) think like a
Naga”. I have spoken about this in these blogs earlier also. But here is a
small tale, among Nagas – the Ao tribe is also known as “Naga bangali” –
whatever that means. Former Nagaland chief minister S C Jamir, now Odisha
Governor, also an Ao Naga used to take it as a compliment!
Among various communities, I have often
found similarities of Bengali traits in citizens of Kerala and also
non-resident Keralites – Malayalis – or commonly known as “mallus”. Bulk of my
friendship in media world is incidentally among “mallus” – and I always feel
proud about it. Bengalis are
certainly a class apart.
But who has ‘classified’ us into that high pedestal?
Karl Marx? May be. Among several lacunae in their society, like most
communities engrossed in them, we Bengalis find it distasteful to admit
anything has gone wrong among us.
We also find it immensely blasphemous when others
tell something wrong about us! “Arey oi beta-ra ki jaane (Arey, the hell about
other people’s knowledge)”.
Hence, we have politics of Jyotism – succeeded by
Didi’s dispensation blessed with Goddess Sharada Ma’s immense “kripa”.
The same “kripa” element works in Mallus also, I
guess! The politics of violence is one of them. Everybody knows about it in
Bengal and Kerala - but hardly anyone would speak about it. Hardly anyone would have also speak
about long years of neglect of Muslims welfare in Bengal or tribal welfare in
Kerala. Recall Basu’s famous “barbarous” description of BJP and Vajpayee
government.
In Kerala and in Bengal, whatever we
have is all virtuous rein! Jadavpur University students achieved
that epitome when they screamed: “Manipur maange azadi”.
Under attack for the jingoism – they
twisted intellectually – the target obvious is easy: Narendra Modi.
In Kerala too, Modi is the latest
“villain”. How come he – a Gujju- compare Kerala – our God’s own country to
Somalia.
In Lok Sabha, however, an Anglo-Indian
nominated member Richard Hay did not mince words about deteriorating law and
order situation in Kerala.
“I strongly urge upon the Government of
India to intervene and look into this heinous and barbaric crime that occurred in Kerala,
a 100 per cent literate State, in daylight. Kerala is described as ‘Gods Own Country’. Does that
description suit Kerala? I call it a ‘Devil’s Own Country’ now,” said Richard Hay, who has been
lately leaning towards BJP.
Modi’s “Somalia remarks” is being used
repeatedly to find fault with Gujarat’s development index.
But the fact of the matter is Modi is
not the original author of such a commentary.
"The infant mortality rates in Kerala and Somalia are not
comparable. But Modi is not the first politician to make such comparison with
Somalia. Opposition leader VS Achuthanandan visited the tribal village of
Attappadi in Palakkad district in 2013. When he met the media persons, he
compared the child mortality rate of the village with that of Somalia itself.
CPI(M) leader and Politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan visited the place later and
said life in the village was worse than that in Ethiopia,” wrote Sreejith
Panickar in a well-publicised article in Daily-O website.
So what does this bring about? Mallus
and Bongs have something common to talk about.
My wife articulates it in her own wisdom: “West
Bengal’s politics for last five decades has been essentially based on violent
control of territory and merciless elimination of political rivals. Every
Bengali worth his or her salt knows this. But when it comes to glib talks, most
Bhadraloks will talk about jungle-raj in Bihar and insurgency-related killings
in Assam and beyond”.
Hence my mallu friends are wasting no time to
suggest that Modi has insulted Keralites!
The reality is otherwise. The
“Somalia-Modi” controversy suits sickular media because essentially it suits
Sonia-Rahul-own Congress party!
Moreover, Oomen Chandy’s principal rival
in the state, the Marxists are also alongwise Congress when the target is Modi!
In 2013 itself, various media reports
said, "A survey conducted by Thampu, a non-governmental organisation (NGO)
dealing with tribal rights, found that out of the 300 tribals affected by
malnutrition 200 were children. K.Venugopal, the district medical officer, said
that 412 cases of anemia and 67 cases of malnutrition had been noticed by the
health department”.
Taking it further:
the Integrated Tribal Development Programme conducted a survey between 11 April
2013 and 19 April 2013 in Attappady, covering 7,565 households and a population
of 23,599, and found that the number of tribal people with anemia/malnutrition
was 463/69, the number of children aged below five with anemia/ malnutrition
was 68/57 and lactating mothers with anemia and malnutrition was 62/0”.
Look no further.
But I have a tail piece:
The illustrious Verghese Kurien, the famous milk
man, was once asked at Thiruvananthapuram, “why don’t you do something like
Amul in Kerala also”.
His answer was near classic: “In Kerala, I have
only one problem, there are so many mallus in Kerala”.
You need not be a student of prophecy; but
Kurien could not have achieved even in West Bengal what he achieved in Gujju-land!
Dr Mukhopadhyay's illustration is a test case.
ends
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