How I became a CPM Supporter.

Having studied from a missionary school, our culture and that of the communists are poles apart and I always kept a distance from the CPM. Although I do not support any political party, I do have my views and air them on our blog.

I support good, honest, corruption free government – no matter of which party.
However, man's feelings are very fragile and it takes very little to change ones views. It took just took the hearing of one cassette of “Madhur Kirtan” which chants “Hari Om” to make me a disciple of my Gurudev, Asharam Bapu.

I have been living in my present flat at Bangur Avenue since 2nd February, 1979, i.e last 33 years.
The building in which my flat lies is owned by 12 brothers and sisters, most of whom live in Cooch Behar. One of the brothers stays in Kolkata, in the building, collects all the rent and lives on it. He doesn’t do a speck of any other work. The building has seven flats. Six are tenanted and one is occupied by the owner.
He has got rid of the old tenants and I am the only old tenant left. The last two tenants he got rid of were old widowed ladies who had pension as their only source of income. He raised their rents exorbitantly and used to harass them so much that they left on their own.

He has now turned his attention to me.
When I started staying in the flat in 1979, I used to pay Rs 400/- per month.
As per verbal agreement with the present owner’s father, I used to increase the rent every three years by 10% and at present I was paying Rs 1300.00.
In May, 2010, the owner asked to revise the rent as three years had passed since the last revision.
Since I was paying Rs 1300/-, I agreed to increase the rent by Rs 130/- and pay Rs 1430/- as the new rent. However, the owner however, demanded Rs 2000/- as the new rent otherwise he would not accept any rent from me. Since this was the tactic he had adopted to get rid of the two widowed ladies earlier, I decided to put my foot down and not to give in to his unrealistic demand. I decided to go to the Rent Control and deposit the rent there.

When the owner realized that his intimidation had failed he went to the local councilor, Mr. Mriganka Bhattacharya who called me to the Trinamul party office.
I have known Mriganka for quite some time now as he was the councilor earlier also and I thought he was a good person. However, two visits to the party office have made me change my views.

There was another landlord/tenant dispute ahead of mine and I got to see how he handled it. He was very harsh on the old tenant who too had been living in his flat for 22 years. At one point he told the tenant “I am the Rajah (king) in Bangur Avenue and I shall do as I want” This one sentence showed how arrogant he had become since now he found that power would come to his party. How different from the person who had come with folded hands some ten years back, requesting for my vote?

When my turn came, I explained that I was a retired person getting a pension of around Rs 6000.00 per month. I am called part time by my employers on contract basis, thrice a week which they can terminate any time and that I cannot pay Rs 2000.00 as rent per month.
He answered “why are they keeping an old person like you, they should have thrown you out”
I told him that since the owner would not accept my enhanced rent of Rs 1430/-, I had to go to the rent control as otherwise I would become a defaulter and the owner would then evict me.
He said “You are legally right and now he cannot do anything as long as the case goes on. However, there is another point. If you walk on the road and somebody slaps you, and you go to the police, they won’t accept your complaint as you have no proof” He advised me to sit with the owner and settle the matter.
This was another indirect threat that this may happen to me, if I do not listen to him.

I have put all this down to inform everyone of the threat and to know who is responsible if it is carried out. 1. The owner of my building. 2. Mr. Mriganka Bhattacharya.
Having no choice, I had to go to the local CPM office, which gave me a patient hearing and advised me on how to handle the matter. Their behavior was so different from the persons who surrounded Mriganka and who intimidated any person who did not have Mriganka’s approval.
I changed my view on the spot.
I am now a supporter of the CPM although I know they may lose the present election in Bengal.

I know Mamata will win because the people are fed-up with the CPM's arrogance and they want a change. Something like cutting off your nose when you have a cold.

I know that it will be a miracle if Mamata can pull along for more than two years as there are too many contradictions in her.

She doesn’t believe anyone and likes to concentrate all powers in her own hands. That is the reason she is not standing for elections. If she stood from any constituency, she would be bogged down to that. Now she can roam around all the constituencies. If her party wins as it seems they will, she can be an extra constitutional authority like Sonia Gandhi. She will appoint a puppet like Manmohan Singh and pull all the strings from behind.