Utpal Bhowmick
Utpal Bhowmick | |
|---|---|
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| Leader of the Indian National Congress | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Utpal Bhowmick 4 November 1949 Darjeeling, West Bengal, British India |
| Died | 20 August 1993 (aged 43) Howrah, West Bengal, India |
| Cause of death | Assassination |
| Resting place | Shibpur Burning Ghat |
| Spouse(s) | Monika Bhowmick (m. 1968) |
| Children | |
| Parents | Nagendranath Bhowmick Saraju Bhowmick |
| Alma mater | Calcutta University Hazra Law College |
| Profession |
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Utpal Bhowmick (4 November 1949 – 20 August 1993) was the most influential leader the Congress at Howrah has ever produced. His assassination left behind a great legacy of creating a huge base for Congress workers at the grassroots level. Born to the house of a Tea Estate Manager at Darjeeling, coming from Bangladesh, he had a tough childhood. A brilliant student and a revolutionary, he was associated with the Congress Party since his early youth.
A fierce Student Union representative, he opened Congress Units in multiple colleges including Narasinha Dutt College, Shibpur Dinobundhoo Institution (College) – Howrah]], the young man in the 1970s quickly rose in the ranks of the local Congress group, and became the General Secretary of Pradesh Congress (I). He completed his BSc and his LLB and used his Law Degree to help hundreds of commoners who needed legal aid.
He was soon being identified as a leader for the masses and had garnered a huge base of followers in the district of Howrah. He started several Trade unions with INTUC and in the state assembly elections he contested against Kanailal Bhattacharya of the Forward Bloc in 1982. On his journey, he met Mr Somendranath Mitra and they together started building the organisation from the bottom, created a Youth Forum in Howrah, and conducted a Youth Festival, which created ripples among the Youth in Howrah. Utpal Bhowmick was elected as the Howrah Youth Congress President in the year 1980, when he worked in close association with the President Youth Congress – Shri Somen Mitra (Reported by Jugantar, 22 April 1980).
On 29 July 1983, approximately 5 thousand people walked for 65 kilometres on the eve of 9 August 1983 under the leadership of Utpal Bhowmick to reach the Ranji Stadium Rail Authorities Meeting Hall attended by INTUC, Youth Congress, Charta Parishad and the then leadership of Congress, Shri Biren Mohanty, Sri Mrityunjay Bandopadhyay, Shri Amiyo Dutta, Shri Ardhendu Hajra who all joined in to support the initiative by Utpal Bhowmick.
On 13 March 1985, Utpal Bhowmick organised the Youth Festival in Howrah, the 15-day programme was chaired by Shri Somen Mitra and inaugurated by the then Member of Parliament Shri Priyaranjan Dasmunsi.
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The event, organised in Dalmia Park, Howrah, marked the International Youth Year and went into the pages of History of Howrah with participation of 10,000 youngsters and involvement of various Governmental (10) and Non Governmental agencies, with participation of multi political parties, totalling to 65 stalls and Pavilions by Central Government Science & Technology Centre, Directorate of Advertising and Visual Publicity (DAVP), Railway, State of Tripura, NCC, Nehru Yuva Kendra, Tantuj. A Football Tournament was hosted in Uluberia, Domjur hosted various Sports Events, The Botanical gardens hosted Sahitya Sabha, a Debate Competition was hosted at Shibpur, and the star-studded Programme was graced by actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Baijanti Mala, Singers including Anup Jalota and leaders of Bengal including Saugata Roy, Sudip Bandopadhyay, Pradeep Bhattacharya, Anurbalal Majumdar, Amiya Dutta, Amar Bhattacharya, etc.
Among the various other political activities, Utpal Bhowmick exposed the corruption of Howrah Improvement Trust (reported by Bartaman, 31 August 1985). Utpal Bhowmick also led the non–cooperation agitation and demonstration outside DM Bunglow exposing the Padmapukur Water Treatment Scam, whereby 100 Youth Congress protesters voluntarily let themselves get arrested in order to fill the jails of the authority (reported by Bartaman 9th May 1985). He led the Bus Employees Union movement towards safety and security of Bus workers (Reported ABP, 11 October 1984). He protested against Illegal sky scrapers and Residential Constructions without proper planning and permission of the municipality (Reported by ABP 14th October 1985). Utpal Bhowmick led the protest on the continuous crisis of drinkable Water and organised demonstrations outside Mayor office and a few 100 volunteers protested and accepted jail time for participating in the non-cooperation (Reported by Aajkal 21–22 May 1987).
He was born to save a generation from the panic and terror of the then Government in Bengal CPM/CPIM, he was born to uphold an ideology, in the era when Bengal was going through a blood bath of violent face-offs between Naxals & Marxists who had perpetuated and even institutionalized the violence, when all rightist wing leaders were scared to take to the roads, to give a shape to the youth of Bengal, sell them the dream of a better tomorrow, bring forth the ideology of non-violence of Congress came up the young Turk generation of leaders, one of them was Utpal Bhowmick, with contemporaries like Somen Mitra, Subrata Mukherjee, Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi, Sankar Malakar among others who came out of the traditional congress ideology and came forth with a new dream, most of them arrived from Chatra Rajeeti (Student politics), defying the radical left, when the learned, enlightened youth of Bengal was being channelized, brilliant students of Presidency College hooted slogans of Naxalites, Utpal Bhowmick voiced his opinion against the Naxalites, bringing direction to the rather derailed radical sections of the student movement in Calcutta and saving the Students who left schools and colleges to join the Naxalite "annihilation line", a dictum to assassinate individual "class enemies" and to save the generation of tomorrow from getting misled into the darkness. At times going to the point of no return towards the cause of saving the youth of Bengal, however the support of the masses brought him back from the near death, the hundreds of followers from Dinobondhu/Narasingha Dutta Colleges were a witness to that era after the Sai Bari Hatyakand, Sainbari incident.
Utpal Bhowmick wasn't a leader of Congress alone, he was a leader of the masses, he was the proponent of bringing in a new thought, a thought of being a radical, a responsible leader – that when the warriors with him went to war, their families were in safe hands. He led the masses not by orders and instructions but by solving their concerns and saving their families. He brought in the bonhomie between the elites – the educated class, the cultural class, and the criminals who were ignored and pushed against the wall. All were equal to him.
He fought with the leadership to bring jobs to thousands of people, to bring food to their family, irrespective of which political ideology they belonged to, which caste, creed, religion the masses were, he would fight for everyone that made him a mass leader rather than a party leader. He brought in the new era congress – a gift to the youth, refined by the fire of student movement, he emerged as a Youth Leader.
In his vision to build a new Bengal, he faced a lot of obstacles, intra–party frictions which he termed as "inner struggle" – an internal Renaissance to build a modern-day ideology in Congress after Prafulla Chandra Sen, Atulya Ghosh, Bijoynand Chattopadhyay, Bijoy Bhattacharya and formed team Utpal Bhowmick – Under his able guidance, Howrah saw a rise of new faces, leaders were born – good speakers – food writers – good think tanks – good organisers – not specific to a block or a ward but throughout the District of Howrah, he found a host of leaders to raise the cause of Howrah! His followers soon swept across Bengal, Manas Sen was one of such young leaders inspired by Utpal. His personality had the perfect balance of a socialite and a politician, one of his inspirations were Netaji Subhas, Netaji's firmness, his conviction influenced Utpal to a great extent. Netaji was the first Promoter of Sarbojanin Durgapuja. Utpal started Durga puja at his home, encompassing youth at all levels, through festivities, cultural programmes, Balak Bhojan, distribution of clothes to the downtrodden and less fortunate ones. Be it a Flood relief work for Aamta, or restitution of those uprooted in Udaynarayanpur, be it "Concern for Howrah" he worked towards building a collective consciousness through environmental movements, helping thousands with his practice of the law, bringing justice to the helpless as a lawyer – poor destitutes, innocent people trapped with the State Mercenaries, brazen with false litigations. He worked towards his dream of building a cultural consciousness in the State, the biggest example is the Youth festival.
Personally he was a creator, a writer, an orator, a poet, had immense romanticism and cultural programmes organised by him.
To encourage the youth, he had organised multiple Football tournaments, there are multiple clubs with pictures of Utpal Bhowmick hung on their walls even today. He performed the "kanyadaan" of multiple daughters whose families couldn't afford a wedding to support the girl and her family by bearing the expenses of the wedding and demolish dowry and suicide due to lack of funds for marriage. Along with his brothers, Parimal Bhowmick and Kuntol Bhowmick, he established an Eye hospital, made medical facility arrangements for patients. He was particularly concerned for the labour classes and headed multiple labour Unions, Shibpur Floor Mill, Ganges Rope, Guest Keen Williams, Bengal Jute Mill, Howrah Jute Mill, Reform Floor Mill, Shibpur Bus Union.
Every Year on 20th of August a Committee dedicated towards commemorating the great service towards the Nation, organises a Tribute to pay homage to Utpal Bhowmick and Deb Kumar Ghosh garlanding their Marble Statues at the Shibpur Burning Ghat.
Utpal Bhowmick Smriti Granthagar, a library dedicated to the public works with the cause of Education and eradication of poverty (President of the Organisation – Mrs Monika Bhowmick, Widow of Utpal Bhowmick)
On the 25th year of his demise, the Bhowmick family organised the Amar Jyoti Yatra to commemorate the contribution of Utpal Bhowmick towards the society that saw participation of Social Activists, Political Leaders and school children. The Yatra began from his residence in Sarat Chatterjee Road where several gathered to pay homage to the tallest Leader in Howrah ever. The Yatra ended at Shibpur Burning Ghat, garlanding the Marble Bustiers of the Martyrs.
The family of his long time colleague and friend Deb Kumar Ghosh donated an Ambulance to cater to the general people of Bengal and handed over the ambulance to an NGO Tyagi Foundation, which is a non-sectarian, non-political and nonprofit organization which is firmly rooted in the core belief of positive changes. The foundation intends to load the ambulance with modern medical facilities of medical tests on the go and use the Ambulance at the remote villages where access to medical facilities is a rarity. In the month of October 2018, Utpal Bhowmick Smriti Granthagar participated in the Daan-Utsav 2018 on Mahalaya in association with South Asian Institute of Sustainable Development (SAISD), where in they distributed new robes to 100 destitute women in Howrah and spent the evening with them.
Even after 25 years of his demise, his memories are cherished and eulogised in each of these Commemorating events, where thousands of followers turn up to pay their respect to one of the tallest leader Howrah has ever witnessed.
References
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