Will Bengal Sink in Electoral Tidal Wave That Has Lifted Mamata?

After rhetoric, bombast, corruption and messed up finances, Mamata must now truly lead Bengal, writes Chandan Nandy

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee leads a march from Shyambazar to Dharamtala on International Women’s Day in Kolkata, on March 8, 2016. (Photo: IANS)

Almost everything was stacked against her. The stunning images of her party leaders pocketing wads of currency notes, the ghosts of hundreds of thousands of lower middle class investors who had lost their meagre savings, bike-borne hoodlums terrorising neighbourhoods in Kolkata and in the mofussil towns, the yawning remains of a flyover, the rapes and gang-rapes, the state’s finances in doldrums.

Contesting the elections on its own and ranged against a potentially strong Left-Congress alliance, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress defied all odds, even something as abhorrent (to Bengalis) as corruption, to return to power in a state tottering on the brink of financial collapse and moral depravity.

The mandate has shown that Bengal has got rid of the CPI(M), finally. Crushed. The CPI(M) is in danger of losing the status of a national party even as the BJP’s lotus has truly flowered in the state.

But even as Mamata and her raucous partymen and women rejoice and paint the rest of the state white-and-blue, Bengal is set to witness a prolonged period of bloodletting. Some parts of Kolkata and its suburbs were witness to TMC thugs terrorising middle class neighbourhoods, not sparing even toddlers and children midway through the staggered electoral exercise.

Return of Violence?

In each of the instances of violent retribution the assailants had promised to return. If Mamata has won the trust of Bengal a second time, she must ensure that no harm comes to people who voted for alliance candidates in the true spirit of a democratic exercise whose central theme is choice or preference. But should that be expected from Mamata who, like her thuggish party minions, had threatened to “settle accounts” once the election results were out? For sure Mamata does not have the reputation of being either graceful or magnanimous. Nor is she imbued, irrespective of the meaning of her name, with kindness.

The first axe will, of course, fall on Kolkata Commissioner Somen Mitra who stood his ground, taking orders only from the Election Commission and responding to an inner cadence, to prevent loot of polling booths and violence.

While the commissioner will not suffer loss of limbs and will be banished to some insignificant position in the police hierarchy, the same cannot be said of CPI(M) cadres in Bengal’s hinterland. They will cower in fear for what might happen to their homes, their children and themselves. Years ago, when the CPI(M)’s writ ran across Bengal, its loutish cadres would not take kindly to people who would vote for a party other than their own.

Keeping the Thugs in Check

Over the years, as the TMC grew from strength to strength, it pulled the CPI(M)’s musclemen towards itself. Not only did this army of hooligans unleash a reign of terror in the mofussil, they ensconced themselves in the power hierarchy as middlemen who benefited from the party’s patronage politics. Mamata also found novel means to attract the teeming unemployed to her party by disbursing doles to thousands of “youth clubs” and offering temporary jobs of civic policemen to tens of thousands of school dropouts.

TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee talking to reporters in Kolkata, May 19, 2016. (Photo courtesy: ANI)

Scattered Development

As soon as trends showed a Trinamool sweep, a friend from Hooghly messaged me, saying: “The extent of work that the TMC has done in my village has been such that we will vote for the party in the next three elections. For 34 years my village had no electricity. There were no roads before and when it rained the kutcha paths would turn into slush. What we want are schools, colleges.”

In the five years of the TMC’s reign, the party reaped huge dividends from the sprinkling of so-called development work – some cemented roads, scattered and uneven distribution of Rs 2 per kilo rice, bicycles to school-going girls (whose parents preferred the cash equivalent to the cycles) and sundry other programmes that never took off but sold well. For the voters, the progress of “development” from 0 to 1 (on a scale of 10) was itself a huge leap.

TMC’s Surprise Comeback

• Bengal poll results indicate Left losing ground in their home turf, with BJP emerging as another strong contender.
  
• TMC’s victory doesn’t bode well for those who took a stand against it especially Kolkata Commissioner Somen Mitra who abided by EC’s orders.
  
• Trinamool owes its victory to a large group of voters, the unemployed youth who benefitted from party’s patronage politics.
  
• Even a semblance of development was enough for voters to lend support to TMC and give Mamata another chance.
  
• TMC while celebrating its victory should focus on task at hand, creating jobs and bringing investments to cash dry state.
  

Erosion of Morality

While the TMC should, justifiably, take all credit for the thumping electoral victory, the question that gnaws away the middle class’ mind is the near-complete erosion of morality. The elections took place in the backdrop of the Narada sting operation which produced video clips of Trinamool’s top leaders greedily pocketing money. Horrifying as it was for the bhadralok Bengali to watch the TMC leaders taking bribes, the video clips do not seem to have sent a moral message to the voters. They were, surprisingly, not repelled by what they watched and heard.

The living example of this low point in morals is Mamata’s transport minister Madan Gopal Mitra who contested the election from jail. But Madan, an accused in the Sharada chit fund scam who is alleged to have amassed wealth beyond his means, was leading (when this article was being written) in Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas.

Resuscitating Bengal

And yet Bengal has been kind to Mamata. As she steps in to play her second innings, she should be mindful of the governmental neglect that the state suffers from. She cannot afford to occupy herself by painting every government building white-and-blue as if it were a mania.

Kolkata has had enough of white-and-blue lights. Bengal’s youth need jobs, the districts need roads and hospitals, the impoverished villages need electricity and clean drinking water. Above all the din of rhetoric of ma, maati, manush, Bengal is crying out for investments. Mamata has been given a second term but will she now fulfil her promise of poribartan?

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