REHABILITATION of the disgraced is a gradual process, but it arrives with a bang. The Trinamool Congress’s July 28 ann announcement naming Kunal Ghosh as a statelevel party spokesperson is one such. Not only is Ghosh, a journal istturnedmedia honchoturned politician, a prime accused in the Saradha chit fund scam, he also tried to drag party chief Mamata Banerjee into the scam—one of Bengal’s biggest political scandals.
The TMC also inducted in the party expelled CPI(M) leader Ritabrata Banerjee and Chhatradhar Mahato, who once led the Maoist-backed Lalgarh movement during 2008-09, but it was Ghosh’s induction that struck political observers most. Speaking to journalists, some TMC leaders explained the layered message in Ghosh’s reinstatement (he was suspended for six years in 2013): if Mamata could take back Kunal Ghosh, no party deserter was untouchable.
Indeed, there were prior indications. Ghosh’s return to favour came barely a week after Mamata’s July 21 call to deserters and disgruntled leaders to return to the party. Soon after, Biplab Mitra, the TMC’s former Dakshin Dinajpur district unit president who had joined the BJP in June 2019, returned to the TMC. On August 6, former TMC minister Humayun Kabir, who fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a BJP ticket, also returned to TMC.
This story is from the August 31, 2020 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the August 31, 2020 edition of Outlook.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Will Hindutva Survive After 2024?
The idealogy of Hindutva faces a challenge in staying relevant
A Terrific Tragicomedy
Paul Murray's The Bee Sting is a tender and extravagant sketch of apocalypse
Trapped in a Template
In the upcoming election, more than the Congress, the future of the Gandhi family is at stake
IDEOLOGY
Public opinion will never be devoid of ideology: but we shall destroy ourselves without philosophical courage
The Many Kerala Stories
How Kerala responded to the propaganda film The Kerala Story
Movies and a Mirage
Previously portrayed as a peaceful paradise, post-1990s Kashmir in Bollywood has become politicised
Lights, Cinema, Politics
FOR eight months before the 1983 state elections in undivided Andhra Pradesh, a modified green Chevrolet van would travel non-stop, except for the occasional pit stops and food breaks, across the state.
Cut, Copy, Paste
Representation of Muslim characters in Indian cinema has been limited—they are either terrorists or glorified individuals who have no substance other than fixed ideas of patriotism
The Spectre of Eisenstein
Cinema’s real potency to harness the power of enchantment might want to militate against its use as a servile, conformist propaganda vehicle
The Thalaiva Factor
At atime when Bollywood Is churning out propagandist narratives, south cinema, too, has Stories to tell
