Mamata is on solid ground
By Ashis Biswas
West Bengal Chief Minister Ms Mamata Banerjee has effectively silenced her critics for some time to come, by torpedoing the proposed Teesta Water Sharing Agreement between India and Bangladesh.
The contrast with former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu could not have been more telling. Years ago, Basu in his capacity as the elder statesman of Indian politics, had been given virtually a free hand to work out the details of a new Farakka water sharing agreement with Bangladesh. Though he was born in Kolkata and a staunch Mohan Bagan supporter, Basu’s Bangladeshi roots, say observers, could have been a factor in his stand on the new treaty. The terms were extremely generous for Bangladesh, but the future of Kolkata and Haldia ports were compromised. Both are struggling for survival, even as Chittagong port in Bangladesh is getting a new lease of life.
Ms Banerjee, hailing from Birbhum in West Bengal, has no such emotional baggage. She has the best of relations with Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Her accommodative attitude towards Muslims often proves irksome for diehard Hindus. She genuinely wants trade and business between Bangladesh and west Bengal to grow. She looks forward to buying the Hilsa fish and Jamdani sarees from Bangladesh and export agricultural crop and power from West Bengal.
But unlike Basu, she will not allow the interests of her own state to suffer, even for a so-called larger national interest. There are a number of reasons why she could never do a “Basu” on the Teesta water deal.
To begin with, the economic future of nearly 14 million people living in the six north Bengal districts would have been put into jeopardy. The formula proposed was a sharing at 52 to 48% of the Teesta waters which flow into Bangladesh, in favour of West Bengal.
These districts are served by rivers that flood the plains during the monsoon, but go virtually dry in the lean winter and dry summer months. This has forced authorities to build a dam and a reservoir, but the situation has not improved by much
Ms Banerjee is aware of this. She had always been told that no more than 25,000 cusecs would be diverted, roughly, 25% of the flow. Suddenly she was informed at the last moment that a supply of 33,000 cusecs had been promised to Bangladesh. This suggested a sleight of hand, on part of central government authorities who were busy finalizing the draft. Also, she was not consulted at every stage of the negotiations over water sharing in the manner that Basu was. The feisty Ms Banerjee is not one to take such a snub lying down. It did not take her more than an instant to dissociate herself from the formal signing. The powerful Delhi-based mandarins had blundered in taking her for granted.
Says an observer, “Ms Banerjee has done no more than what leaders like Jayalalithaa or Mayawati would have done. Jayalalithaa is usually consulted at every step before the Centre finalises diplomatic steps vis-à-vis Sri Lanka. Why they did not talk to Mamata is difficult to comprehend.
Then too, even Mamata’s worst critics will admit that she is very alert about handling official correspondence and reads most of the official files. Her quick grasp of government matters and details has impressed officers working with her. On that score, she is far, far ahead of her predecessor Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who found such correspondence and details too onerous for his taste.. No wonder she could spot the difference between the figures given in the first proposal and the final draft.”
There is also a clear political compulsion. For all her efforts to ensure the expansion of the Trinamool Congress into a regional, if not national party, Ms Banerjee is well aware that it remains a Bengal-based outfit. In case something goes wrong with her base here, it will spell the end of her party and her existence as a political leader. Regionalism therefore remains the order of the day. This has been apparent in her tenure as the Union Railway Minister as well. Now that she is the Chief Minister, she has to play the regional card effectively.
Basu in contrast, had different values .He preferred a larger than life role on the Indian centre-stage. The CPI(M) too, is not a one-state party in the sense that the Trinamool Congress is. It could afford to be more expansive in its approach towards issues affecting West Bengal. It is another matter what such expansiveness may have cost the state as a whole and the party itself!’
For the time being, the TMC flag flies high. Ms Banerjee is once more the political icon In West Bengal, never mind the grumpy reaction from sourpuss CPI(M) leaders. The TMC may have crossed its first 100 days in office, but its best so far has come on the stroke of the 110th day. (IPA)