A mix of poverty and politics creates lethal situations. This is the case with West Bengal, where the gram panchayat elections resulted in the murder of over 40 persons. Most of these, if not all, were from poor backgrounds. Like flies to fire, they were drawn to aggressive politics. What however added to this poignant situation were the reckless and irresponsible stands taken by the state election commission. Despite directives from the high court to call in central forces for deployment in sensitive areas, it dragged the matter and responded late. Its decision to hold the three-tier polls across the state on a single day also resulted in the present chaotic situation. Worse, the ruling TMC’s internal problems added to the acts of aggression in the streets. Hence the elections proved yet again that the ruling party is unbeatable across districts. It is a debatable point whether this election exercise added another feather to Mamata Banerjee’s political cap or heaped shame on her.
West Bengal is today among the poorest states – a far cry from what it was even in the post-Independence days. Bengal led this nation in the first phase of British rule here, after the East India Company established its base in Calcutta. Bengal was regarded for long as the intellectual capital of the nation, thanks to the presence of those like Tagore. Politics has much to do with its degradation to being a picture of poverty, want and political fights for the past several decades. The people there, even the Bhadraloks, breathe politics. Arguments where no argument is needed are the norm. The undoing for West Bengal started with the installation of a Communist-led government in 1977, which through repeated terms lasted till 2011. Its beginning was on an inspiring note with a Western-educated Jyoti Basu taking charge as chief minister and initiating progressive steps like land reforms. Fighting the Centre, then run by the Congress, was the Communist governments’ main obsession, knowing little that this had the potential to undercut the state’s growth in the economic and infrastructure fields. Curiously, a few years after the Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee took charge of the state, she too eventually raised the ante against the Centre.
Politics in Bengal has undergone a sea change, though. The once-powerful Congress and the formerly well-entrenched CPI-M are today a pale shadow of their former selves. Communists had engaged in verbal crusades for the poor and showed no matching obsession to uplift them. Industries fled the state due to the culture of strikes at the behest of the reds. Job opportunities have shrunk. Uplift of the state today is easier said than done.
