Bangali koreche bhogoban re...
Banga desh-e jonmo holo
Bangali hoye thakte holo...
Petey bhishon khida tobu
Mukhey baul gaan re...
Bangali koreche bhogoban re...
These lines from a song made popular by Mohiner Ghoraguli, a Bangla band that, meteor-like, blazed for a while and then sank without a trace in the early-1980s, capture the tragedy of being born in West Bengal and the frustration of coping with denial, deprivation and destitution -- of a people, of a State. The timelessness of the lyrics is particularly highlighted by the un-changing face of West Bengal where three decades of Marxist rule, premised on and perpetuated by pandering to regional aspirations, have failed to instil pride and self-confidence among Bengalis, or protect them from rapacious 'businessmen' who, through craft and deceit, have slyly come to control nearly every segment of West Bengal's economy and society, and, by extension, its politics.
Instead, we have a pathetic situation where profiteers, racketeers and scamsters, all cronies of the Marxists in power -- and before that whichever party, including the Congress, that came to occupy Writers' Building -- continue to treat the people of West Bengal as nothing more than dumb animals to be exploited to maximise profits with scant regard for business ethics and even lesser respect for human lives.
Hence, it is not really surprising that a firm called Monozyme India, owned by Govind Sarda and Ghanshyam Sarda, has been accused of indulging in as ghastly a scam as supplying tens of thousands of ‘faulty’ blood-screening kits well past their use-by-date to Health Department-run hospitals, blood banks and health centres in West Bengal. The scam, which began in early-2005, would not have come to light if two senior employees of the firm had not blown the whistle after failing to convince the firm about the sheer illegality and criminality of supplying ‘faulty’ kits and thus endangering human lives.
What has emerged till now suggests no other scam compares to what is being referred to in West Bengal as "kit kelenkari". Monozyme India bagged the contract to supply kits to test blood for contamination before being used for transfusion with more than a little help from apparatchiks in Alimuddin Street in Kolkata where the CPI(M)'s sprawling offices are located. Once they had secured the contract, the firm's owners, known for their proximity to Marxist movers and shakers, went about the task of getting their own men appointed to key positions in the Health Department, which is under the tutelage of Mr Surya Kanta Mishra, who is said to believe that modern hospitals and healthcare are capitalist concepts not meant for the poor, struggling masses of West Bengal.
Subsequently, Monozyme India supplied blood-screening kits whose use-by-dates and other technical data were diligently scratched out. It’s difficult to believe that the firm's owners were ignorant of this. At least 450,000 such faulty kits are reported to have been used for screening blood for killer viruses like HIV and Hepatitis B/C. Which means, as many recipients of blood screened by these faulty kits have been exposed to infection that could lead them to premature death. Media reports say a thalassemic child has already tested positive for HIV.
Govind Sarda and Ghanshyam Sarda, now in police custody, insist that they are "honest businessmen" who merely supplied kits manufactured by a South Korean company. Their liability, therefore, is limited and they cannot be accused of any crime. We can be sure their lawyers will spin out more fantastic tales when the case moves to court, provided their Marxist protectors do not ensure the ongoing inquiry exonerates them of any wrongdoing. We can also be sure that other charlatans who profit from similar "businesses" in West Bengal and have the State's rulers and officials in their thraldom, will bring about pressure on the Government to go easy and not push the envelope too far.
Soon, all could be forgotten -- though not necessarily forgiven -- and it will be business as usual. Yet another criminal offence, fraught with terrifying consequences, will become a footnote of West Bengal's history and that of the Bengalis' too. After all, this is not the first time that unscrupulous ‘businessmen’ have wilfully cheated the people of West Bengal to mark up their profits. Bhabanicharan Banerjee in his 1823 classic, Kalikata Kamalalay, described Kolkata as a "bottomless ocean of wealth" to plumb which there was a gold rush. That wealth has long disappeared, but the plumbing still continues unabated.
The burden of memory can be tiresome, and the vast majority of Bengalis, struggling to stay afloat and make ends meet in a decrepit State with a bankrupt exchequer, have resigned themselves to being exploited by politicians and crony ‘businessmen’. Supplying ‘faulty’ blood-screening kits and endangering tens of thousands of human lives is bad, very bad. But for a people long used to such abuse -- in the 1960s and 1970s it was adulterated baby food; in the 1980s it was mustard oil spiked with paralysis inducing additives -- perhaps it makes little sense to register their protest or voice dissent. They have resigned themselves to their awful fate, and, like the lyrics of Mohiner Ghoraguli's song, believe Bangali koreche bhogoban re...
(November 2006)
Visual shows a still from Mrinal Sen's 1982 film, Kharij, portraying the trials and tribulations of a middle-class couple, played by Mamata Shankar and Anjan Dutta, in Kolkata.
