Picture speaks! That’s the Silchar we perhaps aspire for…., writes Mima Dutta

March 11: “Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.” True to this saying, politics has become an affair dreaded by the common populace. When it comes to electoral battle, much dirty linen is washed in public. The space between the public and the private becomes so thin that the contesting candidates and their supporters often trespass the borderline. When such a dismal scenario is prevailing all round, a picture became viral in social media which provides solace to many on the ground that “Good Politics is yet not over.”

On 11 March, 2021, Tamal Kanti Banik, Indian National Congress (INC) candidate and Dipayan Chakraborty, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate filed their nominations for the prestigious Silchar Assembly constituency along with many other candidates. While submitting their nomination papers in the office of the Deputy Commissioner, Cachar, Both Tamal and Dipayan met each other on the corridor. When the supporters of both of them were expecting their respective leaders to walk away turning away their faces, something very unusual awaited them.

Suddenly both Tamal Kanti Banik of Congress and Dipayan Chakraborty of BJP came near each other and shook their hands with a graceful smile in their face. It was indeed a moment to cherish for many like me who usually find politics to be an arena of enmity. At once I remembered a quote from Sean O’Casey, who said, “Politics — I don’t know why, but they seem to have a tendency to separate us, to keep us from one another, while nature is always and ever making efforts to bring us together.”

As an inhabitant of Silchar, we lack many things which a town should infact have. However, we have heard our ancestors to boast of our valley “as an island of peace”, “a town of poets”, “a place where culture dominates individual lives, “a place where music flows naturally from the hearts.” However,, these adjectives seem to be an attribute of bygone days. But the moment, I came across this picture, as a youth and as an inhabitant of Silchar, I could feel that “HOPE” for best days are not yet over. If two youths in politics representing two different political parties, contesting against each other for victory could come together and shake hands standing in the political battlefield, then this I believe is a lesson even for their supporters to learn and internalise.

As regards winning the political battle, it is the electorates who would decide, but at least in the eyes of a youth who loves her birthplace Silchar, both of them are winners. They have won the battle of life, they have taught a good lesson to the other political leaders and their supporters that whatever may be the outcome of the elections, both of them by this good gesture have won the hearts of Silchar. If at all any picture speaks, then that’s the Silchar we perhaps aspire for…..

*Mima Dutta is a post-graduate in Computer Science and a resident of Silchar.