Welcome to the land of the communists - the last really strong bastion of the Leftists outside Cuba, and the Americans or the CIA can't do a thing about it - and are extremely frustrated about this, if the conspiracy theories of hardcore Bengal Leftists are to be believed. :) But as with most things Red in Calcutta, we take this with a pinch of salt - despite the stern gaze of Netaji and the Forward Bloc flag fluttering around him. For, the Forward Bloc that he founded is for practical purposes a has-been in the world of everyday politics, while the CPI (M) rules the roost.
But while the Forward Bloc may well be a spent force, it is clear that the Red Army still holds sway in Bengal - and will probably go on doing so, for many more years. I took this snap of a so-called revolutionary poster pasted outside Writers' Building, the seat of the Secretariat of the West Bengal government. And, of course, loads of snaps of the building in question.
To my mind, Writers' has been synonymous with Leftist rule, even though it's not technically so. I mean, during the era of Congress rule, it was probably the Congress trade unions which held sway there. Premankur tells me, the place derived its name from the clerks of the East India Company who used to work there - and were called (imaginatively enough) writers.
O, and yes, he cracked the silly joke about how writers are intrinsically Leftist, and hence you have the CPI(M) holding sway there. Har-de-har-har. :)
That's a view of Writers' from the corner of St Andrews Church.
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