The Communist who has grabbed headlines across the country by sleeping on a bed of cash mostly retires for the bed next to clanging utensils. Samar Acharjee lives with his wife,mother and son in a two-room tin house in a narrow by-lane near Agartalas Jugendranagar railway station. The lack of space means one of the rooms serves as a bedroom-cum-living room,and the other as a bedroom plus kitchen.
Samar Acharjees brother lives in the same compound,in a separate mud-wall house,with his wife and child.
The Rs 20 lakh it was not nearly as much,Acharjee says was actually spread out at his business partner Santosh Bhoumiks equally sparse rented flat,a few minutes away.
They took turns lying on the money,Acharjee adds,as a joke. We had withdrawn more than Rs 16 lakh for work on April 24. My house is nearer to Tripura Gramin Bank and so we kept the money there, says Bhoumik,who describes himself as a Left sympathiser.
The people who were to collect the money were an hour late. So we put the cash on the bed. We are not well-off people,and we were excited about having so much money. So to pass time we took videos of each other on our cellphones just as a joke,an innocent joke, says Acharjee.
Perhaps the 42-year-old local area committee member of Tripuras ruling CPM should have known better. Ostensible display of money is no laughing matter in a state whose Chief Minister,Manik Sarkar,declared a savings account with Rs 10,800.38 as deposit,a 0.001 acre agricultural land he inherited with his sister,and no vehicles,in his poll affidavit in January. Sarkars wife is known to commute by autorickshaw within Agartala. In the video,Acharjee is also shown as saying that he had long dreamed of sleeping on a bed of cash and that his comrades were hypocritical about their possessions and proletariat only in name.
While Acharjee does not deny lying on the money,he says the video was doctored to make it look like there was more money on the bed and the comments about comrades added eventually earning him an indefinite suspension from the CPM.
The opposition Congress seized upon the video saying that it showed that Communist leaders had amassed plenty in their four consecutive terms,contrary to outward appearances.
Acharjee says someone must have seen the video on his phone and copied it. I had forgotten about it. When the video aired on local channels last week,I looked through my phone and saw that the video was no longer there. Thats when I concluded the whole thing was a conspiracy to defame the party. Now I dont even have counter-evidence to show the video was doctored, he claims.
In the slim three-storey building that serves as the CPM headquarters in another narrow Agartala by-lane,party secretary Bijan Dhar calls the episode a nuisance,though he defends Acharjees suspension.
If you look at the situation today,with even the PMO being probed by the CBI,it is imperative that our party is clean, he says. Even at the panchayat level,we train workers to put up notice boards showing how funds come and go. That is the level of transparency that we try to put in place.
Noting that he doesnt even have a visiting card,Dhar adds: There is no question of indulgence in rank and file… The expulsion of Acharjee is to set an example.
Acharjee and Bhomik have been building latrines under a scheme coordinated by the Agartala Municipal Council,along with several others,and the money was part of this work. Since last year,they have completed 525 latrines and work on 175 is pending.
An apologetic Acharjee,his hands folded,hopes the party forgives him. Uncomfortable at this dubious fame,he adds: Please tell the world this I apologise to all the Communist leaders of the world,Communist workers and sympathisers for having given a bad name (to them) through my childish actions.
At least Bhoumiks wife Chandana still sees the funny side of it. A PhD scholar,she shows a copy of a local newspaper with the photo of her husband on the front page lying next to the cash. We havent been able to sleep for so many days now, she says. Its so embarrassing to be accused of having so much when we are simple people… We are losing weight without dieting.