Kabir Suman- A Pathbreaker in Politics?

Recently there is the news of Kabir Suman expressing his disgust over the present system of party-politics here, without even caring to spare his own party.This may seem striking as we are not quite accustomed to such a comment from a sitting MP. Of course, some leaders criticize their parties, interestingly enough, only when they are on the verge of quitting the party to join another. And though our intelligentsia often show concern about the present stagnant state of politics, its being dominated by parties which in turn are dominated by opportunist anti-social elements, once they join mainstream politics they usually stop talking about the high morals; then they start to cite the ground realities which cannot be changed overnight. But, Suman is a man who chose not to talk from the podium of Bengal’s self-proclaimed intellectuals only. He rather joined active politics. In the mean time he also had to perform some gallery show. Initially he didn’t react. Probably it took him some time to analyse. But the important thing is that finally he has raised his voice.

Photo courstey: http://www.google.com/

 The commitment he had shown as an artist and promised to show in his new Avatar also, has been fulfilled by him. His drastic statement may in effect help the ruling party , or may be the reason of a split between the intellectuals or may not even manage to create a fuss against the high tide on which the opposition is riding nowadays; but whatever be the impact the fact that at least this one man has really, selflessly (at least it appears so from this distance) has spoken out his mind, has highlighted the collective desire of a lot of people that we do not want to welcome the obnoxious elements from either side, that actually it’s not the symbol but the people or the kind of people enjoying power must change, the way in which they are exercising their power must change, and that the faces of the civil society must change, must be honoured. It is not quite predictable what kind of drama is going to unfurl before us following this episode. But I wish if this time some real, positive things had happened, with some credible, really educated, competent people coming forward to echo the mood of the ‘civilised’ (I chose to skip ‘civil society’, it has almost become a slang now) people, to purge the system of the gangrene. What Suman did by directly approaching the media and the masses definitely sets a new trend. Our only hope is that this gesture ushers in a new age politics, a more participative and interactive kind of politics.