Bengal is bankrupt. Not so much for the “scams” that make headlines but more because a Mahishasura resembled Mahatma Gandhi at a Durga puja pandal on this very land.
On Saturday evening, a panel that included politicians, authors, actors and academicians debated whether Bengal was bankrupt in front of a packed audience at a club on the Rabindra Sarobar compound.
Desh Bitorko 2023, powered by Century Ply and partnered by the Indian Life Saving Society, was held at the lawns of the ILSS, popularly known as Anderson Club.
Actor-director and stage veteran Kaushik Sen; poet Binayak Bandyopadhyay; author Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay; state BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar — who spoke for the motion, Bangla Ekhon Nishyo (Bengal is now bankrupt) — cardiac surgeon, debater and moderator for the evening Kunal Sarkar; actor, director, playwright and Bengal’s education minister Bratya Basu; economist Sugata Marjit; bureaucrat and poet Yashodhara Roychowdhury; and author Abul Bashar — against the motion.
Majumdar, who made the opening argument, said “he was pained to see how Bengal had become synonymous with jobs for sale, cash hauls and post-poll violence”. Bengal’s bankruptcy, Majumdar said, had spread beyond politics and was now visible in sports, cinema, theatre and literature. But there was a different voice from his own team.
Sen, one of the most prominent faces of the Bengali stage, said Bengal was in crisis because “the face of the Mahishasura resembled that of Mahatma Gandhi at a Durga puja pandal on this very land”.
“We accepted it. We accepted the Mahatma Gandhi-versusNathuram Godse discourse as if they were equals. That is why Bengal is in crisis,” said Sen.
A show of hands that followed the debate showed that an overwhelming majority of the audience was in favour of the motion.