“We see no evil, O Mastermoshai”
May 3, 2013
Sabyasachi Goswami, the poet and political activist, was arrested by the Kolkata police special branch on 18th April, 2013, and accused of being the head of the Kolkata city committee of the CPI(Maoist). Sabyasachi, together with his comrade, Zakir Hussein, were beaten up and tortured in police custody before being produced in court on 20th April and sent to jail. Sabyasachi had been arrested earlier, but had been released on bail in 2011, since when he had no cases against him. Therefore the police arrest of him was absolutely arbitrary and illegal.
Barely two weeks after the arrest of Sabyasachi Goswami, the chit fund crisis unfolded in West Bengal, devastating the lives of hundreds of thousands of poor, working class depositors and agents, and exposing the obscene connivance between the chit fund comapnies such as the Saradha Group and the ruling parties, the Trinamool Congress that is in power now, and the CPI(M), which was in power earlier. One of the major players in this murky affair is Kunal Ghosh, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP, and media baron of the Saradha group, running the multiple TV channels and newspapers of the Saradha group as virtual mouthpieces of the ruling TMC and its government. Over the last two years, this Kunal Ghosh had been the arbiter of media affairs in West Bengal, acting as the proverbial “school master”, warning the opponents and critics of the government to “behave themselves” or else to face the consequences. Today, he has been accused even by the employees of the media concerns he used to run for embezzlement of funds. Journalistic objectivity and ethics in West Bengal had reached a new low in the hands of Kunal Ghosh.
Interestingly, Sabyasachi Goswami had written an article in Bangla in May 2012 about the activities of Kunal Ghosh, aptly titled “Mastermoshai” (the school master). This article has never been published before. We now publish this article in protest against the illegal arrest and imprisonment of the author Sabyasachi Goswami, and the unethical and illegal activities of Kunal Ghosh and the government that he represents. It is ironic, and illustrative of the situation of democracy and human rights in West Bengal, that Sabyasachi Goswami who had no cases against him is rotting in jail whereas Kunal Ghosh, who has multiple FIRs lodged against him by his own employees and chit fund depositors, is representing the state in the Rajya Sabha, and being defended to the hilt by the chief minister Mamata Banerjee, whom he has served indeed well.
– Editors
Download Entire article in Bengali (PDF)
