Just weeks ago, the Trinamool Congress and its brigade of “anti-CPM intellectuals” backed the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities (PCAPA) in Lalgarh against the state government’s crackdown on Maoists there. And PCAPA leader Chhatradhar Mahato was their hero.

However, with his name scrawled on the Rajdhani Express and after the Maoist killing of two policemen and an abduction, the TMC and its think-tank are quickly eating their own words.

Their new refrain: yes, we backed the PCAPA and Chhatradhar Mahato but if they take to arms — as they have announced — we won’t support them.

Take the case of Aparna Sen. She had once rushed to Lalgarh and met Mahato — who is now in jail — and PCAPA’s members. Today, she said: “I’m shooting and as far as recent developments are concerned, I have no clue at all...I am far removed from all this.”

Painter Suvaprasanna, theatre artists Bibhash Chakrabarty and Kaushik Sen and poet Joy Goswami did a U-turn.

“If the PCAPA takes up All the Mamata men & women tweak their pro-Maoist tune arms, we will not defend it...But this doesn’t mean that we do not support the movement as we strongly back tribal causes,” said Suvaprasanna.

Author Mahasweta Devi struck a different note. “If the PCAPA has decided to take up arms, it cannot be called an armed struggle as they use bows and arrows, which can kill only one person at a time. They do not use bombs and guns and when they do, we will consider our stand.”

... contd.