To
The Chief Minister,
State of West Bengal.

Sir,

Keeping in mind the recent spate of violence against poor farmers in Sonachura, I would like to raise certain questions in front of your just visage. I am sure your explanation would go a long way in allaying the fear that is fast becoming a plague of unmanageable proportion amongst the masses. And thereby vindicate my faith in the present system of administration and policing in this state.

Firstly, considering the violent retaliation, I would dearly want to know what made the police operation such a pressing necessity at a time when the government is grappling with the task of delivering on its promises. Promises of rehabilitation and compensation to the displaced farmers. Promises of an age of flourishing industry to the people. Promises of employment to the unemployed. Promises of hope to the distraught. Promises of growth to the despondent.


But, it is with extreme shame and regret that most of us today realize that our dreams had a price-tag too hefty to be paid by us, the average –middle-class- evasive-self congratulatory Bengali intellectual. And therefore it is now left to the already languishing farmers of the state to bear the brunt of our aspirations. We never wanted our dream to be delivered , accompanied by such excruciating a labor-pain. And on this day it is our collective compunction which has driven me to pose certain questions answers to whom I know would not bring back the 20 odd lives lost to barbaric brutality of our otherwise redundant police-force.

I hear that the explanation from the administration for the killings to be ‘Retaliation in response to repeated provocation and an armed confrontation’ intimidating enough to call “OPEN FIRE”.

The fact that crude bombs and shots were fired from the other side cannot be denied but a state-sponsored carnage in the name of installation of law-and-order is despicably lame and ignominious. Most of the shots were aimed at the head or chest of the victims whereas according to the norm firing should always be localized around the limbs. Also, the police atrocity in denying nursing and medical attention to the injured has set new standards of savagery within the ranks.

The state and its residents want an answer. An explanation that would soothe their fears that their state is not going to the dogs. Nor is it going into the hands of blood-thirsty, trigger-happy decision-makers who try to justify massacre of poor farmers in the name of Development and Industrialization. The masses need an urgent exposition of rationale and reason emanating from the corridors of power at the earliest. Otherwise the seeds of collective dissension might just spiral out of control at some point in the near future.

There is a telling air of apprehension looming large over the state and it is the responsibility of the administration to re-instate faith in the order the state is being run. And expressing mere regret and contrition in words would not suffice.
The need of the hour is to deliberate on the course of action being pursued and ring in sweeping changes in the modus operandi wherever necessary.

I am sure your empathy and understanding for the underprivileged and your long years of service to the state would eventually result in the evolution of a blood-less solution to the present predicament.

Yours truly,

A Thinking Citizen.