In Santiniketan, Tagore’s Abode of Peace, the poet had experimented with an alternative model of education different from the existing colonial one.
Sitting at Bolpur, barely three kilometers away from Tagore’s Santiniketan, another person has started a new experiment with the Bengali language that is fast becoming the language of the ruling party. He is Anubrata Mondal, district president of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) party.
Anubrata first entered the limelight with his speech urging his cadres to attack and set on fire the homes of opposition party candidates during the Panchayat elections in 2013.
As the video footage of his speech was telecast by vernacular news channels, TMC leaders in other districts started picking up the language fast. A few days later, Anubrata’s followers attacked the house of an independent candidate, Hriday Ghosh, and shot dead his father, Sagar. The police registered a case of murder, but Anubrata’s name was kept out of it.
When the opposition and media started raising questions, Mamata Banerjee came to his rescue. Taking part in a debate in the state legislative assembly, the chief minister gave a character certificate to Anubrata and praised him lavishly.
Anubrata is a fine boy. But he has a medical problem, he suffers from oxygen deficiency in his brain, that is the root cause behind his irresponsible utterances.Mamata Banerjee