WEST BENGAL-The Meaning of Baranagar

February 27, 1971 THE dastardly murder on February 20 of Hemanta Kumar Basu, the 76-year- old chairman of the All-India Forward Bloc and a veteran of the country's freedom struggle, stirred the conscience of this State's people as nothing before during the entire period of violent lunacy that has come to hold West Bengal in its grip. The spontaneous expres- pressions of grief and condemnation which immediately after the murder brought normal life in Calcutta and parts of the State to a standstill were not merely a respectful homage to the personal qualities of the departed leader whose simple life of dedication was really exemplary. These demonstrations also reflected the pent-up feelings of dismay mingled with wrath against the degeneration of political struggles into a war of gangsters. The leaders of the political parties were wise enough to sense the new mood of the people. Spokesmen of all the political parties from the CPI(M) to the Congress(O) unreservedly condemned the crime, with the usual wordy barbs against one another somewhat subdued. All the parties also hastened to give a call for Bangla bandh on February 22 to con