Kolkata: They continue to have a deep-rooted emotion connection with West Bengal. Kolkata sill continues to be their city of love. They might be thousands of kilometres away from Kolkata. But their emotion connect prompts them to remain updated on the development in West Bengal.
Yes, they are non-resident Bengalis. For the sake of professional demands, they were forced to settle down in cities like Mumbai and Delhi. Still, they are emotional about their home state.
ETV Bharat talked to a section of such non-resident Bengalis about the forthcoming West Bengal elections. But all of them expressed immense displeasure over the developments happening over the polls.
According to them the current trend of politics in West Bengal displays not only a degeneration of political ethics but also a major relapse in overall moral values.
These non-resident Bengalis also sounded quite frustrated over the tendency among all political parties in trapping the celebrities from the silver screen world and fielding them as candidates. How many of them can turn out to be another Sunil Dutt, who never mixed up his successful acting career with his political activities, they questioned.
According to Chirashree Dasgupta, a New Delhi- based educationist, who completed her schooling and high studies from Kolkata, feel that the politicization of the education curriculum had been a curse for Bengal for ages and this curse is still continuing.
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“During the Left Front regime, it was crimson satin of education. After 2011, a separate chapter on the land movement in Singur and Nandigram was included in the school curriculum. I wonder if there is a change in regime in regime in the expected lines, there might be saffronization of the curriculum. But this politicization of education curriculum truncates the scope for developing the education system research-oriented or career-oriented. Naturally, the brain drain from West Bengal, be it for high studies or be it for a career will continue,” Dasgupta said.
Samrat Sanyal, like Dasgupta, also completed his schooling and higher studies from Kolkata. But now he is settled in Mumbai as the vice president of a leading multinational bank. According to him, the excessive politicization of every sphere of life is ultimately affecting the future growth of the state.
“The exit of Tata Motors from Singur or the retreat of Infosys and Wipro after being denied SEZ status has put West Bengal in an extremely bad light to the investor community. But what I am surprised is that no political party in West Bengal is seriously speaking on this issue. The election campaign this time in Bengal has become an exasperating display of mudslinging and petty kitchen politics. I wish some sort of respite comes someday,” Sanyal said.
Kallol Nandi is also based out of Mumbai and is currently heading the international business division of the leading Indian manufacturing conglomerate it is extremely unfortunate that the people of West Bengal is left with the choice between a “bad” and a “worse”.
“Since they are not getting good they are opting for bad. I wonder that when a politically ignorant person like me understands that, how come seasoned political leaders understand that on average relation between average voters and average political leaders is that of disbelief. It is unfortunate that despite having so many natural resources, West Bengal is still lagging behind. The reason behind it economy is taking a back seat in political consideration and cheap gimmicks are taking over,” Nandi said.
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All three of them expressed displeasure over the tendency among political parties in Bengal in trapping celebrities from the silver screen world.
“Mumbai had an extremely respected Lok Sabha member, who was also a successful actor as well. His name is Late Sunil Dutt. But after he joined politics he never mixed up his glamour quotient with his political works. He did not get votes through his glamour quotient. Rather he secured votes through his performance as a Lok Sabha member. But I do not think that the same thing is applicable for the celebrities who have lined up to join the political bandwagon,” Sanyal said and was echoed by Dasgupta and Nandi.
