Memories of the Samjhauta Express

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On a freezing January night three years ago two journalists queued up to board the train to Pakistan. The Attari-Samjhauta Express stood at the Old Delhi railway station decorated with buntings, gold and silver paper stars and rose and marigold garlands. The train had been suspended after the attack on the Indian parliament in 2002, but now after a gap of two years, once again the humble little friendship express was all set to trundle between families torn apart by AK47s, wire borders and massed troops. On 15 January 2004, the journalists had expected a sentimental flower-laden journey across the train's inaugural run across the border. Instead we found ourselves on a grueling trip aboard an inconvenient train, with customs officers and policemen harassing passengers at every turn. The mood on board was anything but syrupy and sentimental. Instead it was robustly impatient about the whims of politicians. ....

A reformer for the poor

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Franz Kafka's 'Metamorphosis' has haunted West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee since his university days. There are many interpretations of the play, the most popular one, being how a salesman wakes up in bed one night to find himself transformed into "monstrous vermin" or a "bug" or an "insect." Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee does not need to worry about waking up in the morning and finding that he's become an insect. But perhaps he does needs to worry about a different kind of metamorphosis. From peasant communities, to social activists to eminent historians, the coalition of the conscience that once rooted for the Left, are now ranged in implacable opposition against Buddha-babu. The West Bengal government's land acquisition in Singur and its plans of an SEZ in Nandigram have shocked the supporters of the CPM. How could a party committed to the poor and the marginalized, how could a party....