Calcutta Diary

February 12, 1983 Calcutta Diary A M THEY are not a genus, but a species. One should not question either their integrity, or their idealism. They are of course unhappy with the state of national affairs. But, going by the evidence oi their written or spoken declamations, they are, it would seem, more particularly unhappy with the Left Front government in West Bengal. Tripura is not mentioned, it is much too small an entity. It is only events in West Bengal which raise their ire. Their public comments, sweepingiy condemnatory, concentrate, on the various acts of commission and non-commission on the part of Jyoti Basu and his ministerial colleagues. What is happening at the Centre or in the rest of the country, or, more specifically, in the states run by Congress(l) regimes, does not interest them. The fires that rage elsewhere, the killings that take place, the thievery and the manifestations of crookedness going on all the while, the grim social oppression which is the staple of everyday existence there, belong to the category of non-events as far as these ideologue commentators are concerned. Their eager anger has a single focus : down with the Left Front regime in West Bengal.