[Reader-list] 5th posting: Urban Entertainment in Kolkata

[sovan tarafder]

Dear all,

 

My sincere apologies for the belated monthly posting. Actually, I've been terribly busy with my newspaper job since we just had a flurry of municipal elections in different parts of West Bengal, and to top it all, the election in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation--- which happens to be the last big shodown before the assembly election next year between the two foe-in-the-state-but-friend-in-the-center, the Left and the Congress---  is also round the corner.

 

Regards

 

Sovan Tarafder

 

5th Posting: Time and Tide

 

The lifestyle is NEW. The modes of leisure are NEW. The patterns of getting relaxed are NEW. The housing arrangements are NEW. A whole new stretch of urbanity, NEW Town, is awaiting its new inhabitants. This is a brave NEW world, where success brings a NEW high (and failure a new low, expectedly). This is the NEW face of Kolkata, which, as many pundits opine, signals the advent of the much-awaited Development (21st century ishtyle!) in the cityscape.

 

However, with election in Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC hereafter) being round the corner, the debate over this Development has taken an interesting turn. The fulcrum of the debate is the acceptability of this NEWness of the city. Instead of accolades, the developmental turn of the urban space is getting brickbats. There won’t be any rewards for guessing that the ruling coalition in West Bengal – Left front – is mouthing the invective since the left parties are presently occupying the opposition bench in KMC

 

The significance of the current showdown lies in the fact that the face-lift of the city – decked with fly-overs, shopping malls and entertainment parks – is the bone of contention. All these attempts, which even the other day, were showered with critical acclaim, have begun to be called as development without a human face. This is allegedly a development that is for the rich, of the rich and by the rich! In an ad-campaign, the left front candidate for the prize-post of Mayor, Mr. Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, calls the development, taken place during the tenure of the outgoing BJP-TMC (Trinamul Congress) board virtually a meaningless

one since, as he alleges significantly, this development is meant for a selected few and not for the common greater good.

 

It is foolish to think that the so-called developmental activities in Kolkata were done simply in accordance with the sweet will of the Mayor Subrata Mukherjee, the Congress (I)-turned-TMC leader, who just severed links with TMC before the poll and is probably planning a return to Congress. 

 

The ruling coalition – and the big brother of the coalition, CPI (M)! – did give the nod and did not hesitate to hog the limelight while things like fly-over or entertainment parks were dedicated to the people (as if the people were awaiting them eagerly!) with much fanfare. Now, in the urban space, the left front is cleverly trying to regain lost grounds with a double-pronged attack on the rival. On one hand, the middle-class concern for good governance is repeatedly accentuated upon. On the other, the proletariat has again come to the fore.

 

Notwithstanding the well-recorded and distinctly documented support behind the new face of urban development (now critically called the fly-over culture!), when CPI (M) and the other parties in the coalition try hard to distance themselves from this discourse of development, the debate seems more significant than it does on a mere cursory look. This is because the debate, currently raging between the rival camps, proves that there does exist a fissure in the urban mindset as far as new trend of urban development in Kolkata is concerned and this is precisely what the opposition in the KMC is trying to cash in on. 

 

The fault-line in this respect is also there in the very heart of the CPI (M) who, while spearheading the developmental activities in the state (meaning effectively in Kolkata, since the developments in West Bengal are unfortunately still very Kolkata-centric), is not-too-secretly suffering from an ideological crisis – whether to fall back on the traditional path of the dictatorship of the proletariat or to embrace the present trend of Development. 

 

The developmental activities are, as a large section within the CPI (M) perceives, nothing but attempts to get aligned to the bourgeois segment of the society and share the typical middle-class dreams that are themselves upwardly mobile. This is evident from the fact that just a few months back, in the convention of Kolkata district committee of CPI(M), the pro-reform Chief Minister himself drew flaks from different members who made no bones about telling that the party was getting more and more inclined to the richer sections of the society. 

 

The KMC election being just a few days away, I personally am keeping my fingers crossed, since the result of his election is sure to have a long lasting impact on the urban entertainment sector in Kolkata in future. However, as it seems, the train of development is least likely to be derailed, since Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, the CM has so far made it clear that development has landed here to stay.

 

But what will be the human face of the development, if the Left wins (which seems most likely, taking into consideration the total mismanagement in the Congress and the TMC-BJP camp) the battle?

 

Will the NEWs be there? If so, in which avatar?

 

Let's wait and watch. This is not just another political brouhaha, seen at regular intervals during election-time in this country. 

 

Thanks

 

Sovan Tarafder 


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