At a time when West Bengal is selling the State as the new investment destination and Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is admitting to past mistakes, Left Front chairman and the party’s Bengal strongman Biman Bose is sticking to his guns on the right to protest.Now facing a three-day jail term for criminal contempt of court, Bose is in Delhi to appeal before the Supreme Court. And this afternoon, in the lawns of V P House on Rafi Marg, he collected money to fight his case, in the same gimmicky way he had done in Kolkata. Only instead of a red plastic bucket, there was a white cardboard box which said ‘‘one person, one rupee’’.Bose explained that he was trying to involve the ordinary man whose right he was trying to protect. That is why he was not relying on his party’s coffers to contest this case. He did not want much, he would not accept more than a rupee from each person, if that person had a family of five, he could give five rupees.In his speech, Bose did some extreme but nuanced tightrope walking as he tried to explain that he had not really taken on the judiciary as has been made out to be. He traced the origins of the contempt case, how a Kolkata High Court judge’s car journey had been blocked by a procession of Adivasis who were marching through the streets of the metropolis demanding among other things the inclusion of the Santhali language in the Eighth Schedule.Bose said, ‘‘I respect the tenets of our democracy. I am aware of the three pillars of executive, legislature and judiciary on which our democracy stands. But that does not mean our right to protest can be taken away.” He added: “The courts are saying we should hold our demonstrations either before 8 am or after 8 pm. I am aware that in some places like Kerala this is possible, but that is not the culture in Bengal. Every place is different. Bengal is not Kerala and Kerala is not Bengal.’’The contempt observation from the Kolkata High Court has come in the wake of slogans being raised at a public meeting almost two years ago. It was Justice Amitava Lala who had banned rallies during the day. At that protest rally in which Bose was present, slogans like ‘‘Lala, Bangla chhere pala’’ (Lala, flee Bengal) were raised.Sounding softer than usual, Bose said today, ‘‘How can we control young men raising slogans? We did not coin it. Someone in the crowd said that, said ‘go back so and so. How can I be blamed for it?’’Groomed by the organisational guru, Pramode Dasgupta, Bose runs the CPI(M)’s massive rural election machinery with an eagle eye, ensuring that every district returns the largest number of party nominees. He should have been made the state general secretary in West Bengal but was ignored because of his brashness. Subsequently he has been rehabilitated as the Left Front chairman in a state, where he has ‘‘managed’’ six parliamentary and five Assembly polls successfully.
