As a NRB ( Non Resident Bengali) when I was elated with the crowning of Buddha as the CM of Bengal, a close friend of mine for many years %u2013a card carrying member of the CPM from the 60%u2019s in a private conversation told not to be that positive his evaluation was of a man who was arrogant and intellectually fake- notwithstanding his bhadrolok image and moving around with the Bengali literati in Nandan. I thought it was too harsh an analysis from my friend who was deeply classical in his approach to life and times. An old party hat who fought for the oppressed but now somewhat disillusioned with the modern day promoter- apparatchik combo onslaught of his cherished values. A year later when I called him yesterday from Bangalore he was even more distraught, but told me of a wisecrack doing rounds. Two thousand years ago a Siddhartha turned into Buddha and now we have the horror of seeing a Buddha turning into Siddhartha. He was of course referring to Buddha turning into the image of his past chief minister Siddhartha Sankar Ray and his infamous oppressive machination of the emergency days. Nandigram culminates into an episode unparalleled in the history of independent India . The major cause of violent police brutality in post independent India was a somewhat dubious connection of the local people with so called terrorist or nati-national elements whether in Kashmir or in the North East . As the astute governor Gopal Gandhi rightly observed this fig leaf justification is not available for the present CPM government. The reason for this is socio- political. With no semblance of a rational opposition in west Bengal the government machinery has become fascist as it well knows that even in a free and fair election they will win. This is ought to happen %u2013 not for nothing the US constitution does not allow a president to run for a third term. As the old maxim goes absolute power corrupts absolutely. That is the classic similarity between Modi and Buddha two of the brand poster boys of modern India . In awful twist to Kipling this is where the right and the left has met. My old friend, the classical communist does not agree to my thesis, to him Stalin, Tiananmen square and Nandigram are aberrations of the brutality of the State power. The old bearded German icon who started it all in London could never have predicted the move of his current followers from Das Kapital to Market Capital.
