TRUTH NOT TO BE SHARED ALWAYS

Since long, a phrase, psychologically and spiritually insightful, has got stuck in my head: “Do not judge others and make presumptions about their intentions.” So, we must watch what we say, because we sin to tell the truth. We lie through our truth and do not respect others. Two big sins according to the Catholic traditions are calumny and detraction. Calumny, a favourite pastime of most human beings criticizing others, while sounding creamy, is essentially a lie about someone, and it damages the other’s reputation by falsifying someone’s innocence.

 By detraction, we malign someone by revealing his/her fault by telling the truth. But who gives me the right to reveal a fault of another to someone else?  Does he have a right to know about the fault or crime that another has committed? In both cases therefore, we commit an offense “against the virtues of justice and charity” (CCC 2479). Of course, faults and crimes need to be exposed, when someone needs to be made aware of what affects them directly. In fact, a complicit silence would be a sin if something is not exposed. But, that too depends on what and how much we say. Bible says, “Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless” (James 1:26). This involves discernment.       

Besides, detraction is a devious sin, when we easily rationalize in telling the truth, that it is okay because others “need to know” what we know. We delight in disclosing the moral failures of others whom we dislike. It is a result of pride and egotism: one feels elevated by putting down someone else. 

The Catechism teaches us a lesson for our spiritual life: “To avoid rash judgment, everyone should be careful to interpret insofar as possible his neighbour’s thoughts, words, and deeds, in a favourable way” (CCC 2478).  “But if he cannot do so, let him ask how the other understands it. And if the latter understands it badly, let the former correct him with love. If that does not suffice, let the Christian try all suitable ways to bring the other to a correct interpretation so that he may be saved” (St. Ignatius, Spiritual Exercises 22). It demands grace and mortification to do so, at least for the sake of the person before whom we are critiquing about someone else. In detracting, we’re not just committing personal sin, we’re killing the soul of the person to whom we’re speaking: “The detractor, by one blow of his tongue, commonly commits three murders; he kills his own soul, and the soul of him who listens, and by a spiritual homicide takes away the civil life of the person whom he slanders” (St. Francis de Sales, Introduction to the Devout Life Ch. 29). 

Certainly, sometimes we need to blow the whistle. Injustices need to be exposed and fought. But we have to do it the right way through discernment. Other person's sin should not become the occasion for destroying our own standing with God. Detraction or calumny hardly have stopped someone from defaulting. We only shoot ourselves in the ‘spiritual foot’. Instead, it is good to take the occasion as a turning a mirror on ourselves, to see what is still unseen and ask: Why do we find the faults of others annoying? Why does that ‘deed’ of a confrere provoke us? The short answer is: it reminds us of a similar failing in ourselves. It is good to recount in detail the characteristics that made a person so obnoxious to us, then go back to our room and ask God to forgive those same faults in ourselves. 

God knows everything happening around, every injustice and evil. “Nothing is covered that will not be revealed” (Mt 10:26). Who am I to judge and be the jury, in situations where we have no power to ‘correct’? The Bible says, “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged… Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? (Mt 7:1-6)). Becoming a hyper-critical person will have its terrible consequences: will be hard to be around such a person. Before judging we must practise the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mt 7:12). Similar statements were found earlier:  “Do not do to others what you do not want them to do to you” (Confucius, Analects 15.23 – 5th century BC). “Do not unto others that which would cause you pain if done to you” (Mahabharata 5, 1517 – 15th century BC). Well, this rule should not be used to substantiate unrestrained moral freedom, autonomy, and independence. Jesus’ intent was not advocating a free rein on moral accountability, not using moral judgments by our God-gifted intellectual reasons. On the contrary, Jesus was exposing the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who were quick to accuse the other while refuse to hold themselves accountable to the same standard they were imposing on everyone else. 

When we cannot right a wrong, we can just pray.  Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,” (Mt 5:44). Wielding the grace of God affects far more than our judgement. Because the life’s goal isn't justice, it’s liberation. Thus, we promote a little more peace and harmony in the world. “He who could deliver the world from detraction would free it from a great part of the sins of iniquity” (Francis de Sales).

GETTING BANDEL SHRINE MOVING, TO DRAW PILGRIMS AND VISITORS: A Post-Pandemic Dream Plan

A planning and program is due to reopen the sanctuary of Our Lady of Happy Voyage and that of the Holy Rosary after the first lockdown, March 2020. The Bandel Basilica - the Sanctuary of Our Lady - will welcome back its pilgrims. After a year and half of closing the door of the shrine to the pilgrims and public, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it needs to get ready to open its doors to as many visitors as possible. Here are few ‘out-of-the-box’ future dream plans for such move.

 In line with the a post-pandemic initiative at Lourdes (France), the Bandel Church Nights, is going to be one of the means to attract the visitors, along with Marian candlelight processions and Masses before the statue at Fatima garden. The processions will be accompanied by light shows illuminating the Rosary Garden with the recitation of the Rosary. There will be other modes i.e. Marian Music, Recitals, Adoration, Light and Sound, etc. These events are free of cost, but people are free to donate for the maintenance of the Shrine. We are doing so, so that pilgrims will have unprecedented unique experience that will leave a deep imprint on them.

Besides, the shrine is going to have Youthful Prayer Meet on every Saturday at Fatima Hall from 10 am to 2 pm, by mobilizing youth from all faith affiliation, to attend it. This prayer and healing moment, in collaboration with the Jesus/Parish Youth and with the help of the Laity, Priests and Sisters available, will attract more young pilgrims. It will have a Salesian charismatic touch, with Youth-related and Marian themes. There will be good preaching and interactive moments.

 These new initiatives would be part of a larger programs in collaboration with the Bandel Panchayat Pradhan/DM of Hooghly, the police and the local leaders, to help revive the local economy. The idea is to keep visitors coming to Bandel Church, allow its hospitality facility to function, and the hotels around to accommodate people. The economy and businesses through shops and restaurants can only bounce back through the sanctuary. Poor people around can earn their living.  We need to work on it together.

 Through the digital platforms, so much used during the pandemic lockdown, the shrine wants other devotees and faithful in India and outside, to be in communion with the pilgrims on site. Therefore, on the feast of the Holy Rosary (October 2021) to be held in the first week of November, we will renew the “OLB United in Prayer" with novena prayers and procession, streamed online in different languages on OLB Website. There can be also the Inter-Faith Youth Forum Meet both online and offline.

 Virtual “Balcony Visits” and the Church for the public who may not unable to visit the shrine, will be made available through YouTube; their prayers will be expressed in writing online; prayer intentions expressed; invocations; wishes, witness of miracles either by writing or video or audio, etc. Thus people of different faith communities will be accommodated, feeling that this is their place as well, integrating incultured symbols (e.g. common symbols of all faith) on the website, in keeping with the culture of the place and people.

 There is an urgent need of a resumption of pilgrimages. No vaccine certificate is needed to enter the shrine. If people are attracted to the shrine, the number of pilgrims will be higher in 2021-2023 than the previous years. We shall start scheduling pilgrimages and retreats for the coming year, with mobilization, ads and invitations. We will have to invest time, money and efforts on this mobilization process.

 We need to work with the local health-centre so that health issues can be addressed immediately. We will have to put a limit of 1000 people a day (or 10 persons at a time). The sick, will have special care by the shrine management team. They will be accommodated in our extended pilgrims’ building.  

 While reviving the previous practiced and annual events organized in collaboration with the local and regional bodies (feasts, procession, Blue Army, Lenten and Walking pilgrimage, etc), the above initiatives could add to the vibrancy of the shrine activities with spiritual advancement of all who will have access to them.

The Dynamic Bloodied Body

 Reading through many homilies, notes and commentaries, I find that the feast of the body and blood of Christ is referred mostly to the ‘bread’ and ‘wine’, the fruits of human labour and love, as consecrated Eucharist, to be celebrated in memory of Christ. But Jesus categorically said, “Take, this is My body” (Mk 14:22). A heart wants to warm other hearts with food and drink through nourishment! The attention is not to the chalice with wine or the paten with the host, but the 33 year old Jesus of Nazareth. Probably we have robbed of his rightful place in human redemption. This feast, done in memory of Jesus, is revolutionary. Jesus, before he dies, puts himself totally at the service of humanity – a self-gift in loving service. This explosive reality is shirked away, at a safe distance, allowing only the liturgical Eucharist to emerge. Today we fail to confront the revolutionary demands of Jesus and be challenged by him.

We play safe, we place, preserve and ‘prostrate’ before the tabernacle! We do not allow Jesus to be what He is. We have kept him closed in the monstrance through certain sentimental and egoistic piety. We have failed to be sensitive to the truth. Jesus is the content and his service is the context of the feast of the Body and Blood of Jesus. If we forget this, then there is no memorial of Jesus in the Eucharist. The Eucharist, an agape, celebrates the incarnated love of God and divinizes human love when entered into a sacred relationship with the rest of the humanity, respecting others’ rights and dignity.  It is through the context of service that the incarnated Christ assumes flesh-blood today. Jesus is present in our midst. Only then, it has economic, ecological, social, moral and spiritual consequences. Like the frontline Rights activists movement, Christianity is dynamically revolutionary. We cannot be mediocre.  Jesus intended that we ‘do’ this in ‘memory’ of him.  He washed the feet of the disciples, giving example of how to ‘do’ so. Then he said, “I have given you an example so that you also may ‘do’ what I have done for you.” Jean Vanier wrote that Jesus performed these actions with his body, just before his death. They are physical gestures of love and service. Jesus does not merely teach. He gives Himself. The body and blood “given up for many” in humble service, through presence and communion. They are self-giving actions.

Statistics show few Catholics today believe in the Eucharistic Real Presence. What about us who believe in his body and blood? Of course, everyone's circumstances are different, posed with different challenges to meet with the Creator of the universe to enjoy peace, happiness and healing. It is not about ‘Sunday obligation’. It is about becoming “partakers of the divine nature” of God (2 Pt 1:4). We human become divine. Jesus taught us to ask the Father for “our daily bread” in order to propel up divineness in us. We are encouraged to get motivated through the ‘cross’ in order to radically transform our lives and that of others. The physically crucified Christ was willing to be humiliated, beaten and bloodied, to save others. What are we willing to do for the world?

The spirit of religion is a bond of exchange between God and humanity – a covenant, an alliance – made perfect with the seal of blood. The centre of all religious rituals and functions is celebration of the faith experience. Incarnation of Christ in body and blood, is therefore an intensive and continuous exercise of faith in saving action. God feeds the hungry with ‘bread and wine’. He gives what he has and what he is. Bread is life, because bread sustains life. Bread broken and shared, forms communion. But life belongs to God. The Creator maintains life so that we may have life in abundance, through Jesus, who is the “bread of life”.  Therefore, the bloodied body of Christ, in plain terms, is God’s concern for well-being of all.

Jesus was chosen, blessed and broken to be given. We are called to become bread for the world. By living our brokenness we continue to bear fruit. We bless it, break it, and share with each other.  It is not a vague memory of a person but a life-giving presence that transforms us. We become the ‘living bread’, with lives lived for others, in flesh and blood. Teilhard de Chardin says that the gift of self-giving to others is “not the overflowing tenderness of those special, preferential love” imprinted in us for our inner growth, but a basic and real attraction concretely “be revealed which transforms the myriads of rational creatures into a single monad” - in Christ Jesus.

(Courtesy: Philip John, New Horizon Homilies, St. Paul’s, 2010)

 

THE MIDLIFE JOURNEY OF NON-ACTION

 

A person who has crossed midlife can make or break, transform or de-shape his/her nearest family or community. Many years of travel treaded with fear or confidence can either fire up the spirit to build society or cause damage to life and living.  It can lead either to a religious conversion and spiritual growth, or to a life-without-the-divine. The midlife journey is always at the crucial point for 'the pilgrim’ to reach the end. It is a step towards “The Second Journey” (Gerald O'Collins).   Journeys in the middle years is meant to leave one’s familiar settings and ‘throw’ oneself into the deep or travel the strange roads. It is about taking the ‘middle path’ along with other counterparts. There are ten factors that create basic characteristic patterns of such journey. They are as follows:

1. A midlife journey happens to people due to different factors, thrust upon them. It does not happen voluntarily. Either they are through external phenomenon (crisis, accident, illness, infidelity) or inward processes (disillusionment, distress).

2. A midlife journey includes an outer component, a physical restlessness with the hope of finding a solution, or an inner component - a search for new meaning in life. One wanders physically or internally to find the journey's meaningful end.

3. A midlife journey entails a crisis of feelings: personal failure, unresolved conflicts, or fears for the future; happy or sad emotions. At this stage one learns to interpret and handle these feelings through discernment. A gamut of distressful emotions is being overcome by mustering courage to face them as non-fundamental. Trusting in the divine power then brings peace, clarity and wisdom through a realistic optimism, for what can be changed and which cannot. One surrenders to the Divine will, with acceptance and gratitude.

4. An onward midlife journey brings “the reversal of all the ideals and values that were cherished” (Carl Jung).It becomes a constant search for new meanings, values and goals. Roles are not important anymore. Past purposes and values diminish. One lose interest in retaining his/her identifiable role. Instead, one treasures other values and new identity.

5. A midlife journey, the loneliness that one goes through often, needs to be turned into the “aloneness of a quiet and integrated self-possession”. A suffering solitary pilgrimage turns into success through self-discovery and self-identification, which in turn transforms others that one encounters.

6. A midlife journey concerns the life’s end. It ends humbly, quietly, wisely with wisdom and power. Life that begins dramatically, settles undramatically. Ego-drama turns into God-drama. One becomes a true adult with wisdom, equilibrium, and with purposeful dreams. One comes to oneself and in turn reaches out to others with responsibilities and becomes productive. Ultimately, one arrives where he/she started – exploring, identifying and sharing a fulfilled life. 

7. A mature midlife journey just lets go and lets be, beyond all strategies, action plans, effort and tenacity of the past. Action to resolve problem and control, do not serve to be keys to success anymore.   They become more ineffective as one learns to let go and let be.  

8.  A mature midlife journey follows the principle: a problem is maintained by the solutions found to resolve it. One learns not to repeat the behavioural patterns that were put in place to resolve the problem. You cease to do something to change, and you change.

9. A mature midlife journey follows the principle of non-action, nishkamakarma.  "To reach a goal, you have to give it up" (Gregory Bateson). One acts in the natural order of things, allowing the nature to direct the action - a higher order of life. Such non-action leads towards the natural movement of life - an activity other than that which is defined by action. It is an inner disposition that allows the unexpected to happen. With flexibility, one accepts situations as they arise. It is made of silence and openness.

10. A mature midlife journey benefits out of the act of grace. A path of non-attachment, non-judging and a certain indifference through surrender, humility, consent (Meister Eckhart). As Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better part (non-action), a mature midlife journey follows the path of non-wanting. Consequently, the midlife journey towards self-growth and wholeness happens, finding solace and serenity in the midst of the existent realities of the world.  

 (Courtesy: Gerald O'Collins, St Ignatius Loyola and the midlife journey; Jean-Guilhem, Just let go and let be, La Croix International, May 29, 2021).

 

A Shift in Consciousness: new way of looking at life

 

 We ask today, what is the destiny of the human believers? What if many drift from their faith practice? What if people do not follow their past paths? What will the future following of a particular religious path involve in? It is going to be a metanoia - a conversion of conscience - than moral or life reform.  It is about a complete shift in consciousness, a new way of looking at life. A renewed and reprogrammed ‘memory’ in the making. The pandemic lesson is gut-wrenching: denying one’s past style of life and take up a new course all together. It is a death to the past processed practices in religious terms. A new power to ‘crucify’ one’s set-ego and blind faith.  This paradigm move is going to be the foundation of the religious, or better still, a spiritual life in the future.

It is not difficult to anticipate the religious fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. The impact of religiosity will be felt in the coming years. For the conservative believers, the fallout may well be controlled, but its impact on general religious practices will be felt. Just as the post-Covid contraction of black fungus poses a threat, there will be telling impact on the practicing believers of diverse faith. A prolonged pandemic experience over the past two years of living ‘unnatural lives’ will certainly have strong impact on the believers.  

As the pandemic persists, it is likely that dissatisfaction with ritualistic religious practices will diminish, although a stronger yearning for truth will grow about God, religion and its implication. People’s response to the post-pandemic religiosity will be different. Spiritually, the natural desire for a strong humanity and divinity (as an all-encompassing force) will grow. People’s physical participation in community rituals will change too, probably more towards a quasi-religious practices. These are still assumptions based, on past socio-religious behavior. The present challenges posed by the pandemic, threatens all presumptions and beliefs of the past practices and traditions. The future response possibly will be new patterns of spiritual behavior, more connected to the existing reality, than the past belief-systems expressed mostly through rituals.

The religious narratives has become bare and impoverished in the face of the pandemic experience. It has become arid and static. Today, it has to have a sense of an ethic and meaning that opens up new possibilities. The very Covid crisis has become a religious-ethical crisis. We are not given even the time to mourn the dead or perform the last rite. Religiosity has lost the power of memory. Covid, has proved that the religious crisis is a crisis of culture. Religion as an ideological system has lost its philosophical roots. Today, as ever, the nature is always evolving. In the present ecological age, religions cannot treat nature as a commodity. Reason and faith must be treated equally within religion, based on ‘truth-telling’. The illiteracy of reason within religion is a dangerous thing.  

 

According to Shiv Visvanathan, an academic associated with Compost Heap, a network pursuing alternative imaginations, truth in religion needs to be told in a new language, with a sense of the epic and ethics (Crisis reimagined, The Telegraph, 21.05.21). Certainty and continuity are the hallmarks of any religion based on progressive reasoning with care. Religious truth is to be told with the power of metaphors and the ‘sacramentals’. Religious narratives are a kind of storytelling, - of communicating God’s events in history in metaphors and parables, with their broader meanings. As epidemics of the past had mythic power and people naturally invoked the sacred, the Covid experience too, needs to raise a response to the sacred and the divine. A sacred sense within secularism through social service – as St. Teresa of Kolkata would do - is what is required.

 

When religious language becomes too clerical, the common people during this pandemic crisis desperately seek the power of prayer and healing. Religion that is so much social, cannot afford to lose a sense of society that is suffering. Rituals should not destroy the social reality. At this moment of creation we humans are called to adapt to it, find a new language and act of ethics (not belief system) in order to evolve as new humanity within this evolving creation.

Future Hope OR Now

  

We need to balance our Easter hope with the section of a society opposed to God.  We belong to the world, and to the creator of the world. We are not out of it. Neither God is. Either we chose to live in the world, where we belong as long as we live, or in a world of dreams and future hope, forgetting the present.

 As Christians we are Easter people of joy and hope, while believing in a God who is Lord of earth and heaven, who in Jesus has defeated sin and death. All that is true. But we cannot look for a "cheap grace" interpretation of Christianity, where, as we hear in the film ‘3-Idiots, “All is well”. Neither must we succumb to hoping that “all will be well." Remember the fierce ‘war’ continues, be it physical (as in Israel now, Religious, communal) and spiritual. Well, we can live for ‘cheap grace’ for momentary satisfaction with the belief of hope in life after. For example, we can draw peace for time being through personal adoration before the Sacrament of Eucharist exposed for oneself, for a subjective satisfaction.

 Humans are much deep, capable of loving others with God’s love, as one lives on this earth. God is love. It means, God gifts himself to the other through self-emptying. To have this God is to be what God is - to love with full of hope and joy. In short, God is ‘to love’ in action (a verb, not a noun) right now. In this sense, the joy of obeying the commandment in the present: “love one another as I love you." The laws, rituals, traditions, commands, dogmas, doctrines and devotions, are meant to make us more adept at loving here and now. They are meant to awaken hope-filled love in our present lives.

 To love with God’s love, one needs to “remain” in his love. God’s love as a grace is ever poured on our nature, but remaining in that love depends on our action to love. God’s love dwells in our hearts, bodies, and minds in the measure that we give it away. When we enter into a hope-filled stream of grace, then the divine love “remains” in us. Therefore, hoping now itself, is to cooperate with God’s loving grace. Thus we participate in the love that God is. Hoping right now in our life is a play, between conditional and unconditional love. That’s how we can grow in the hope of loving.

 The loving hope is lived with the spirit of Truth, in words and deeds. It is a witness to God’s concrete love for the world here and now. We testify to this love, by loving hopefully, in the midst of the struggles, suffering and dying of people. Through sharing in their sufferings we are able to participate in the hope-filled life of God. Living with hope-filled spirit in the present, prompts us to speak the truth. With this hope-filled spirit of Truth, we share the love of the Father with humanity. To sum up, a hope-filled love incarnates God in the existing world.

MAMATADEBI, YOU CAN DO IT… An open letter to the Chief Minister of Bengal

      Smt. Mamatadebi,

 Congratulations, for taking oath for the third consecutive term as the Chief Minister of Bengal, to preserve the federal state’s democratic governance with honesty, sincerity and dedication.

 Bengal has vanquished communalism cultivated by the BJP. In your own words, it is an inclusive “victory of Bengal people, victory of the country, victory of democracy”. As you yourself have said rightly, “Bengal saved India today”, it confirms “what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow.” This victory has significance for all the Indian secular parties, struggling to stop the RSS-fed regressive ideology and communal juggernaut.

 You have emerged more strongly as a pragmatic, a down-to-earth politician, to lead Bengal and ultimately the nation. Having pushed back divisive politics, you have held up, as in Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s words, India’s “secular ethos, democratic resilience”. He called you Mamatadebi in his congratulatory message (The Telegraph, 3^rd May 2021). You are ready now to ground fight against a vicious polarised ideology with a strong democratic ideology of AITC (if there is any), while discharging your constitutional responsibility by pledging to protect everyone, appeasing no one. Remember, all communities have helped you to govern Bengal for the third time despite the violation of ethical electioneering by the Centre with all its power, machineries and resources. Your ‘politics of populism’, the multi-faceted welfare schemes and Prashant Kishore’s I-PAC strategy, together have given you the people’s mandate. You have with you the success to show once more on the development and governance fronts.

 Bengal’s inclusive socio-cultural and pluri-religous heritage, enriched by the past and present luminaries, must be saved by all means.  Before everything else, it is time now to handle the Covid-19 pandemic crisis effectively, otherwise, your government will surely be crippled by its gross mismanagement of the second wave of the Covid-19, as it did to that of Modi’s.

 This election has been "a victory of Bengal's tigress." The AITC is built on the sheer energy of you and it revolves around you. What be it, kindly, follow the philosophy of Raj dharma. More than a hype, your humility will save from any mistake you make on the way. For example, as an administrator you follow the culture of ‘welfarism’ and the ‘politics of populism’ with no long-term plan to consolidate the state economy through development projects. Besides, everyone knows, you have an allegedly pro-Muslim stance (if not all minorities in the same measure!).

 As a Banglar meye, a native, protect all of us from all ‘evils’ that prowl around, and provide us with courage and strength, to live in peace and harmony. Keep Bengal united. And for this, here below are the DOs and DON’Ts that I recommend you to follow:

 

DOs :

 

1.      Put the systemic administration right, with law and order: stop all post-poll violence and acts that inflict deaths and distress in many families, and divide communities.

2.      Let the Police do their job independently, do not patronize them. Bring back law and order in the state, immediately.

3.      Initiate an urgent process and plan through the party decision, to tackle the Covid pandemic, straightaway. Handle the pandemic crisis with firm hands, bur with a nursing heart.

4.      The democratic nature of Bengal has to overcome ‘political repression’ right from the start of your third term of governing.

5.      Be aware of widespread discontent against the Trinamul at the grassroots level; an anti-incumbency trend mostly around the local Trinamul leaders and units; disaffection with Trinamul syndicates, extortions, commission cuts, dadas, mastans (musclemen) and other anti-socials. 

6.      Curb the syndicates, dangabaji and goondagiri at every level.

7.      Clean up your party and the government; stop all kinds of corruption, coercion, criminality and mismanagement by your tier-leaders at various levels, starting from the ‘grassroot.’

8.      Close all bomb-gun-factories in Bengal, and stop all smuggling of arms from outside.

9.      Get rid of the scam tainted party leaders and other corrupt colleagues around you.

10.  Personally take care to stop the bribe (cut-money) which has become a part of the political culture of Bengal.

11.  Create a cadre-based party machinery that is committed (with the educated young), a coherent and consistent ideology integrated with values and principles, and collaborative leadership so that the party may not disintegrate. 

12.  Work for the dignity and rights of the people in Bengal, upholding each culture, tradition and practice, for the state is for everyone - irrespective of creed and caste.

13.  Encourage inter-faith dialogue, social friendship and fraternal solidarity.

14.  Be more sensitive to all inter-faith and all-inclusive sentiments. 

15.  Uphold the secular and moral values of Bengal to make this ‘Sonar Bangla’ truly a Pluralist society.

16.  Bring out the best of Bengal’s unifying socio-cultural traditions.

17.  Work with logic and systemic approach, through the SWOT strategy, having a Goal, Objective, Action Plan, and above all a Mission. Learn from Prashant Kishore’s I-PAC strategists.

18.  Be a credible leader for Bengal and a model of governance to the nation.

19.  Stop for good, the Hindutva juggernaut with a clear alternative ideology-based policy.

20.  Unify all non-BJP parties, initiate more welfare outreach, encourage Bengal’s pluralistic multi-cultural identity against the communal Hindutva and social polarization.

21.  Uplift the subalterns : ST, SC, OBC, Dalits, etc.

22.  Have a mix of compassion, sympathy, confidence with the heart of a servant-leader.

23.  Revive the educational culture of Bengal through standard institution of learning with monitored quality teaching and good infrastructure.

24.  Build up a Centre-friendly government, with win-win attitude for the common development of the state.

25.  Place yourself at the forefront of truth, honesty, humility and simplicity.

26.  Deliver on the promises you make.

27.  Form a new team of lieutenants for the future, following the APP model of volunteer- cadre system, delivering on governance and dealing with corruption from the very grassroot level.  

28.  You are Mamatadebi for all sections of society, especially women and the vulnerable groups, and therefore, continue to work for the people.

29.  You need to do course corrections too, keeping away personal ‘ego’   and work as a team.

30.  As a dominant "agent of national political change", first vow to make Bengal Mission a success.

31.  Save democracy, for the people of Bengal have reposed their trust in you for your grit to fight the central authoritarianism.  

32.  Let your heart continue to appeal to the emotion and hearts of its people. We shall then reciprocate positively.

33.  Cultivate a culture around the basic norms of civility that Bengal holds dear.

34.  Use the media assiduously to hammer out your vision and an action plan.

  

DON’Ts :

 

1.      Do not indulge into toxic politics of communal polarization, and the politics of caste. Though, through the politics of regional pride and social welfare, you have tried to limit such polarisation.

2.      Do not allow your grassroot leaders to use threat tactics and take law in their hands in connivance with the local police. 

3.      Do not prevent the local Thanas to work independently and keep law and order in the region.

4.      Do not fall prey to the religious polarization policy of the BJP; shed Hindutva pitch and practice to prove your Hindu identity to the people, in order to win them over.

5.      Do not allow the inclusive cultural heritage of Bengal to be destroyed by the BJP’s alien Hindutva invasion.

6.      Do not do politics of ‘tokenism’, doling out just a superficial ‘pleasing taste’. Instead, maintain your appeal as a strong and honest administrator, giving the best you can.

7.      Do not dissatisfy the intellectual cultural elite and the learned of Bengal. Neither should you divide them.

8.      Do not lure non-party intellectuals and activists in Bengal, who are against the BJP that is trying to tear apart the secular fabric of Bengali society with its Hindutva ideology. Respect them as being the conscience of the people and allow their free thinking and expressions in various forms. Then only, secularism will be safe in Bengal and in India.

9.      Do not do minority/clubs-appeasement, with Puja bonus, money, footballs and such freebees. Serve all the 91 million people of Bengal. 

10.  Do not do something that your people will revolt against. We deserve an honest politician and a good leader in you.

11.  Do not allow your ministers and party leaders to make illegal money either for the party or self (e.g. alleged Coal scam, Cow scam, Cut-money, Sarada, Narada, etc.).

12.  Never allow any attempt from anyone/party to polarise Bengal along religious lines.

13.  Never allow your enemy to succeed. Get the first wind of any defection drive and stop it immediately.

14.  Do not fall into nepotism and appeasement politics. Respect all the party leaders equally.

15.  Do not create a cult figure invincibility for blind followers/partymen and women.

16.  Don’t be too impulsive, while working by instinct, discern well for the decisions to be made.

17.  Do not be ‘cheap’ in your speeches. Invest time and preparation, integrated with more ‘stuff’ that are built on reason and are capable to convince the listeners through progressive thinking. Let them not be unorganized ‘freebees’, but stuff (Derek O’Brien’s Model) that the listeners remember for long. Keep the dignity of statesmanship.

 

 Developmental Schemes for Poriborton:

 ‘Poribortan’ (change), your first term election slogan, won you the confidence and approval of the people. Today we have seen and experienced development taking place in villages, towns and cities of Bengal. Some schemes initiated by your government had its impact and helped increase people’s confidence that you are for the people. Therefore, follow this:

    1.      Make sure that all the schemes that are introduced, reach to the really deserving. Stop your local leaders from extorting cut-money from the financial and construction schemes or from other charitable groups.

2.      With a compassionate heart for the poor, kindly continue with the many schemes meant for them, reform some with effectiveness, and introduce new ones.

3.      Implement and complete with honesty and transparency all the schemes (central and state) that are sanctioned.

4.      Build infrastructures for income and employment generation, through industrialisation. Get land for it.

5.      Do not keep ministers who are non-performers in your cabinet. Do not keep those convicted in various cases, as mere representations.

6.      Make district  and panchayat administration totally  transparent,  to oversee the implementation of the projects: The National Food Security Act, Shabuj Sathi, Kanyashree,  Ruposhree, Rural Development, Drinking water connection, Duare Sarkar, Didike bolo, SC/ST/OBC/BPL certificate distribution, etc.

 

 Save the Nation: 

 The pandemic has turned traumatic. The alleged gross failures of Modi’s administrative management of the second wave of Covid were reflected in the West Bengal mandate. It is time to transcend the state politics, and save the nation from the pandemic crisis. Besides, with your national profile and popularity of ‘Bengal tigress’, you are destined to play a major role in the unity of all regional forces in the country. The time is now, to work towards co-operative federalism. As your victory has given a “fresh lease of life” to multi-party democratic traditions, try to build a formidable political force in the country with the help of the regional parties to fight the BJP hegemony at the Centre. 

 The divided non-BJP opposition parties in India, are looking towards you with a lot of hope. I hope other leaders in India wake up to your cry of preventing the democratic edifice from collapsing. Let your appeal for a ‘national democratic/federal front’ be realized in order to save India from destructive forces, particularly the BJP with its RSS ideology. It is a mandate on you and your co-parties, to head a government of 1.4 billion people living in 31 federal states and union territories. It is high time, that you bring yourself as the leader of the 'united federal front' to take on the BJP in 2024, along with all the regional party leaders, including Congress. Let others give up their ego and accept your leadership, and fight Modi-Shah at national level. As a spirited politician and a “Bengal Tigress”, you are most suited to replace all other aspiring unfit leaders, like Rahul Gandhi.

 Remember, this is a battle for safeguarding the socio-cultural soul of India, starting with that of Bengal, as the BJP has already alloyed Hinduism with subaltern castes and extracted ‘pound of flesh’ out of it. A hate-filled communal politics of BJP to transform India into a Hindu rashtra, will be bad for our society, our Constitution and the Indian Republic. You will have to get into the national battle field, bringing about a better socio, political and cultural changes while safeguarding the plurality and diversity of India.   Please, put a stop to the “transition to a constitutionally proclaimed ‘Hindu Nation’.” Be brave O Mamatadebi with your common touch to foil this game plan. Satyameva Jayate.

 Conclusion:

 As the symbol of “Ma-Mati-Manush”, you will have to be Bengal’s collective consciousness to uphold its rich social, cultural and religious heritage; to support secularism and save democracy. To be so, kindly retain your internal coherence when so many others enter and exit, and reduce contradictions. Smt. Mamatadebi, if you are inspired by the ideals of St. (Mother) Teresa of Calcutta, allow her compassion and love shine through your political services in Bengal. Let this be the victory of freedom for the most downtrodden and the marginalized.

 As you refuse to be defeated by destructive powers with self-confidence, you need to bow down before the Divine-connector. Remember, One-Woman rule can lead the state/nation from one misjudgment to another, from one tragedy to another. Never make arbitrary decisions, instead listen to others’ views too. All your party leaders must shed their arrogant behaviors.  With your simple, sincere and frugal lifestyle, and with acknowledging your limitations, you can continue to conquer the hearts of millions in India.

 Nobody in the recent party politics has such energy, grit, and presence as you have. You remain a loved and trusted leader.  Your leadership will define the trajectory of democracy in this country. Bengal is the critical milestone to where we are headed as a nation. It will mean the difference between India retaining the vibrancy of a multi-party democracy. Therefore, taking along all stakeholders, your associates and advisers, you will have to offer, - other than a toxic mix of religion and hyper-nationalism - a secular, federal, democratic and republic India to all its citizens.  Let this Khela (game) go on…

 Yours sincerely,

A common citizen of Bengal