The news in Kolkata these days is full of the political fallout of the collapse of one of the largest chit fund companies in the state. Mamata Banerjee, in an effort to distance her party from the Saradha group, was believed to have cleared the arrest of its chairman, Sudipta Sen, who has been on the run. The CPM has jumped on the issue as well as has the Congress alleging the government did not do anything about chit fund companies despite warning notices from the RBI and Sebi. This is ballooning into a political issue for the Trinamool.
But this is a story about the human cost of a company’s collapse as written by a former employee.
The final blow came on Tuesday, 26 March around 7:00 pm when I returned to my office at the Bengal Post, after my beat. As I entered, my editor said “Everything is finished. Read the notice.”
After almost three years of publication, Bengal Post, one of the many media properties of the Saradha Group was closing down. For almost three years I gave my heart and soul to the newspaper. It repaid people like me by shutting down with just five days’ notice and that too with pending salaries for two months, PF dues and non-handover of Form 16 for 2011-12.
The closing of all editions of Kolkata-based news dailies owned by the company has put my career, along with those of nearly 1,400 journalists of other media ventures like Sakalbela, Azad Hind, Tara News, Tara Muzic and Tara Bangla, Prabhat Varta, Parama and the Seven Sisters Post in jeopardy. Tara employees are trying to keep the channel on the air on their own. Other than its media empire, Saradha was also involved in construction, realty, tours and travels, and agro development.
I remember 26 March, 2013 – the day I met the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) chairman UK Sinha. His words still reverberate in my mind when he said: “We have initiated proceedings against some of these companies and investigations are being made. In some cases, interim orders have also been given.” Sinha was expressing serious concern over the mushrooming of chit funds especially in the eastern region. He also said strong action would be needed to curb their activities.
Whether the Sebi action will do away with the chit fund business is yet to be seen, but the action has definitely had a direct fallout on the media houses in West Bengal belying all the company’s tall claims about deep pockets.
Rumours of the Bengal Post closing down were doing the rounds for the past one week. When I attended press conferences, many journalists from other organisations marveled that I was sticking with the paper despite knowing about the proverbial Damocles’ sword hanging over its head. Several eyebrows were raised when I attended that Sebi briefing about chit funds. But I just filed my copy, toning down the Sebi chief’s remarks to fit the company policy. I kept on telling myself that everything was fine and I should be concentrating on filing my returns as only four days were left for the end of fiscal 2011-12. But at the back of my mind I knew I was hoping against hope. The notice my editor told me to read confirmed that.
For a couple of seconds I stood there. Unable to move. Then finally I dragged myself towards the notice board hardly 10 steps from the editor’s cabin, with a lump in my throat and a burning sensation in my eyes.
The notice read, “…we really regret to inform that due to some irrevocable reasons and compelling circumstances, in spite of the best of our intentions, we shall no longer be able (to) publish the daily from 1st April 2013.”
I had to read these lines at least three to four times to understand the implication. I tried to see a ray of hope between the lines but could not. It took a long time for it to sink in and to understand that it was for real. I kept on thinking that I was dreaming and that someone would wake me up and everything would go back to normal. But it did not. My world came crashing down all around me. And around my colleagues.
Gautam Chaudhuri who joined The Bengal Post as managing editor on June 2011 said it was shocking to get the notice on 26 March. “I met Sudipta Sen on 8 March. Nothing of this sort of action could be thought of. Mystery is wrapped in layers. Sudipta Sen is not a man of his word and he misled us.”
Photo-journalist Aditi Saha wrote on her Facebook page on 15 April, 2013, the day after Sakalbela, the Bengali daily ceased to exist: “Ai din a 2010 a chakri payachilam ar ai din ai 2013 te chakri galo. jani na ar kono din phirbo kina. bachar jonno kaj chai chobi chara bach te parbo na.” (I got a job on this day in 2010 and I lost a job on this day in 2013. I don’t know whether I will return any day. I need work to survive. Without photographs I cannot survive.)
When writers and freelancers from other media subsidiaries of this ‘chit fund’, or should we now say ‘cheat fund’, were contacted, they all had stories of hardship. Some said: “I am not being able to buy food”, “I withdrew money from my credit card as bank balance was nil”, “I could not pay premium so my policy collapsed”, “I am a single mother and I don’t have money to buy baby food and diapers for my 2 years old son”.
The story got national attention when the anchors and guests on Tara Muzik had an emotional live programme for Bengali New Year also marking the announcement that the popular channel was being closed down.
“Scenes on the set of Bengali channel Tara Muzik resembled a primetime soap opera, except that these weren’t scripted…” said one of the national dailies.
Some see hope in Mamata Banerjee’s reassurances to the employees. The state government is trying to revive the media entities by talking to other investors. Maitreyee Mitra, actress and anchor, Tara Muzik said: “We are happy that Mamata-di is there with Tara family. I am working for Tara from last six years and only monetary compensation did not drive me to work for this. We are hopeful that Tara will survive.”
Shubhasheesh Roy, senior vice president at Tara recounted the night of 14 April when the company got the declaration about closing down. The next day was Bengali New Year. “We got Rs 10 lakh as ex-gratia from the state government,” said Roy which helped employees not greet the new year completely empty-handed.
For the employees right now the focus is being paid the money that is owed to them. But it also seems now we have become a joke for all the media houses. Companies do not take us seriously. I feel I am back to square one, after taking a trip to the wonderful fairyland of journalism. From The Bengal Post to every pillar and post.
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