The death of a student leader, Sudipta Gupta in Kolkata proves conclusively that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has let down the great majority who elected her. Gupta was affiliated to the Students Federation of India, a wing of the CPI (M) and it has created a controversy. But he was just participating in an agitation in confrontation with the police. What is astounding is that Mamata Banerjee called it a petty matter even before the investigation was complete. She also hastened to give the police a clean chit. After making these remarks, she said that the post mortem would reveal that it was an accident. How did she know? Banerjee came to power two years ago because of popular resentment against the decline in law and order in the state under Left Front rule. But she seems to have done worse, politicizing interrogation of her government. She remains insensitively above the question. To ask questions about the propriety of government action means courting arrest and torture. The right to information has been crushed. There is no accountability and any expression of doubt about it provokes counter accusation. There can be no meaningful discussion of issues of governance. The governor is treated as a rubber stamp. The Left Front is trying to rally its rank and file deriving political mileage out of the situation but is in disarray.
Whether or not the enquiry into Gupta’s death clears the police remains to be seen but Mamata Banerjee has predetermined the outcome. She made a similarly hasty move in the Park Street gang rape case. Police officers who try to be proactive are sometimes put out in the cold. The Panchayat elections in West Bengal are coming and the results will show whether or not Mamata Banerjee’s credibility has taken a hit.