[Reader-list] Nandigram and the Icon

[Tapas Ray]

Shuddha,

A quick response: When I said the CPI-M line had been articulated on 
this list, I meant that some members had put forward arguments in 
keeping with the CPI-M position, not that official statements had been 
posted. I apologise if I have been misunderstood.

I now find that Prakash Ray has forwarded a CPI-M press release dated 
March 19. So it seems that from now on, we will have The Word itself, 
not its interpretation by Prakash Ray and others. It seems to me that 
Ray is withdrawing from the debate as a person who inevitably interprets 
(party-generated) texts in articulating it, and is putting in his own 
place the frozen Word, the icon of his god.

I think we should consider whether this list should be a sanctum 
sanctorum where gods speak in their metallic voices and humans then 
discuss The Word among themselves, or a commons where people speak to 
one another in human voices.

Tapas


Shuddhabrata Sengupta wrote:
> Dear Tapas, and Taraprakash,
> 
> Many thanks for your posts. I am sorry that I did not notice that the 
> official CPI(M) position had in fact been carried earlier on the Reader 
> List already. Thank you for pointing that out. But I am glad that the 
> redundant act of re-posting old material has provoked an interesting 
> conversation. And apologies in advance for a post that I think will be 
> somewhat rambling.