Malda Training Diary - Administrative Training Institute

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due to some vigorous ad-hoc priority system set-up by an ex-Mukti Fauj officer to whom I
had discretely disclosed my identity. At both the ghats no arrangements had been made by the
Government to impose any sort of order. There was total confusion and a general free-for-all,
with the solitary policeman (who just had a pair of khaki trousers to establish his identity)
quietly effacing himself. And at these ghats I frequently heard irate Bangladeshis attacking
India in no uncertain terms because the relief trucks insisted on being given priority (some
had been waiting at the ghat for the last 3 days). Their reaction sounded curiously similar to
what one hears from Indians about countries that are pumping aid generously into India.
However, these unpleasant experiences were more than compensated for by the magnificent
reception we got at Dacca and at Rajshahi, where the local journalists’ association feted us,
presented us with souvenirs and invited us to functions organised on the occasion of Martyr’s
Day (21 st February). The number of ardent and fiery young poets and writers, mostly in their
twenties, was really astonishing, their bold experiments with literary forms and styles and the
quality of journalism itself were most impressive.
Another aspect of the situation came out in the course of my visit with Bhutu Babu to
Boalia village in Bholahat P.S. In this village 500 inmates had been massacred and it was one
of Bhutu’s pet projects of reconstruction, besides the four villages he had ‘adopted’ in
Nawabganj. Some Viennese institution had also selected Boalia for reconstruction as a model
village. Here I was frequently mistaken for a local official and villagers would approach me
complaining that they were getting just 125 grams of cereals on alternate days, and that they
would like to go back to ‘Hindustan’ where they had been much better looked after. The
more upsetting disclosure, however, came from Moinul Haque, the local Awami League
leader and a very fine worker. He begged me not to send the food-grains to the M.C.A.s, who
were actually selling it in the black-market instead of distributing it to the people. He was
very bitter against the display of arrogance and power by them and told me that the P.M. was
constantly being approached by all genuine Awami League workers not to give these people
re-nomination in the elections, This was also the situation in Sibganj where Rahman told me
that the elected representatives were more interested in smuggling and in organising Razakar
witch-hunts than in planning out the bringing of shelter materials from Malda before the
returning homeless evacuees became a problem. Again, when rations were running out, they
were busy deciding who should be in charge of the relief operations. Finally, at Rahman’s
behest, the people gheraoed (they have picked up this phenomenon from West Bengal and
use it to great effect I found) the M.P.A. and forced him to get them rations from Nawabganj.
Even Bhutu Babu used to deplore the lack of character-building among the youth despite the
bloody freedom struggle, and contrasted the single-minded dedication of Naxalites to the
instability of Awami League and NAP workers. He was disgusted with the general passivity
of waiting for the administration to send relief. In Harinagar, for instance, I found, when I
revisited it after a month, that no attempt had been made to clear up the debris, and use the
bricks to re-build the houses. The villagers were, instead, using the devastated ruins as a
showpiece for drawing sympathy and material help. Thereupon I made it clear that I would
divert my supplies to other areas. From the reports I received subsequently, this had a
salutary effect.
It was in Boalia that I came to know of an unfortunate incident involving a Hindu and
the local M.C.A. Sri Khaled. This Hindu, Benoy Roy, had been driven out from his house in
Boalia during riots several years back, and had settled in Malda. After the liberation, Moinul
Haque had invited him to return and re-occupy his property. Haque had also made the
Muslims who had forcibly occupied Roy’s house vacate it. They, in turn, had gone to Khaled
who instructed the Mukti Fouj militia to drive out Roy. In the process, even Roy’s wife and
daughter had been manhandled. Roy had been hospitalised in Malda, and there had been quite