problems plaguing bengal

I normally do not like to write political blogs and express my political opinion, because I believe politics, like religion is every individual's own belief, and must not be a matter of heated debate or discussion. However, I thought that some facts should be highlighted because in this era information and misinformation both travel hand in hand. The situations narrated below consist mostly of facts and some analysis but rarely of opinions (except at the end). It is not a newspaper article (which incidentally nowadays is almost always devoid of facts and full of opinions, of the reporter, editor and the newspaper group head).

West Bengalis must be having a ball of a time. Not a single day passes without some major news on the papers, becoming subjects of heated discussions and addas. It all started in 2000 when Buddhadeb Bhattacharya first came to power. Indian media went into a frenzy as he was the so called "liberal communist" ( an oxymoron if u ask me), who believed in industrialization, and was a cultured, sophisticated Bhadrolok (gentleman) who wrote poetry, was a nephew of eminent poet Sukanta Bhattacharya and was held in high esteem for his honesty, even by his detractors. He quit Joti Basu's cabinet once alleging massive corruption and nepotism, where he held an important post in information and culture and enjoyed a good relation with most of the intellectuals of the state, who were so fierecely behind left front. Its a different story that he got back into the same cabinet within a year. But this overall incident was showcased as outspokenness, honesty and integrity and the courage to stand up, even against the party and enhanced his image in the eyes of intellegensia and common man alike. So no wonder when he came into power after Jyoti Basu's retirement, he carried with him a baggage of expectations. The communist party, which was by that time well settled for 23 years and was mired in several controversies and corruption cases, got a fresh breather, in the form of an honest intellectual having a great image and reputation heading the party. Even his opposition was in a disarray and media took every opportunity to hype a great future for Bengal. If you draw a parallel from history, the same hype was probably created in Germany when Nazi party under Hitler assumed power. Germany which was then plagued with an incompetent republic, economic crisis under great depression, lawlessness and joblessness and general pessimism, got a "change agent", who was fiercely nationalistic, strong believer in supremacy of Germany, wanted to make Germany economically strong and come out of the ignominy of treaty of Versailles. Nazis had developed strong intellectual roots who fervently believed in racial purity of Germans, had a very well entrenched organization and cadre base in the form of brownshirts (SA) under Ernst Rhoem and newly formed SS under Goerring, had a union of workers, an organization of women, a cultural organization, a strong youth base, in short, every form of orgnization structure needed to efficiently run a party.
Buddhadeb likewise had (or still has) a vision, of industrializing Bengal. He had an able party machinery run by a supra efficient leadership and an enviable cadrebase which was firmly entrenched in remotest corners of Bengal. It is often joked that if you want to know the address and details of a person anywhere in Bengal, just walk into a CPM party office and you will get all information, including that person's political affiliation. CPM had put in its own men in almost all institutions and administrative posts which had lost any semblance of meritocracy long time back. The police force was fiercely loyal to the party (barring a few blacksheep), his party had the most organized support base among workers of both organized and unorganized sectors who could be counted upon during elections and any party activity. And intellectuals were still firmly behind. So Buddha had all he needed, popular support, organizational support and favourable opinion. Buddhadeb correctly indentified the evil of strikes and work culture as the root cause of having industrial revolution by passing West Bengal and made no stones unturned of his intention of a turnaround. He bought "Glasnost" in West Bengal communism and even hardened communists eagerly embraced this new found zeal for capital inflow. One of the reasons might have been far from altruistic. Communists understood that to run a Government and a party smoothly they needed money and money can only come if there is adequate capital inflow. 22 years of rule had virtually emptied the coffer and even constant propaganda of a "step motherly attitude of central governement in allocating funds" was not working anymore esp. with the youth who had become aspirational and ambitious along with the rest of the country, with the liberalization. West Bengal needed somebody to steer the party ideologues and veterans to that direction and Buddha was their man. Nobody would blame him as a "capitialist agent", because of his staunch reputation of honesty, he is one of the very few who have read Marx, Engels and other theortical communist publishes, by heart, and was always a theoritician egghead in the eyes of some "closer to the ground realities" colleagues. West Bengal needed a fresh infusion of hope after 22 years and they clung desperately to the new CM for bringing in changes. He started with a bang, industrialists crowded around him. At the same time there were some infratstructure improvements done by KMC and state government together (KMC was controlled by opposition at that time) which further brightened his image as the "doer".

But then came the problems of Chhota Angria where cpm hooligans burned several persons alive and which was orchestrated by one minister. Leader of the state presented himself as the leader of his party and like his compatriots could not rise above party politics to punish the culprits. However even a CBI enquiry to this incident could not throw much light on communist atrocities and the case is still buried in legal loopholes. Communist propaganda machine could easily overcome this incident by merely baming Maoists for all problems. Then came the turf war between between TMC, the main opposition and CPM cadres in several other villages like Keshpur and Garbeta, where initially TMC held ground and later ruthlessly beaten and driven away by CPM in connivance with administration. CM was not perturbed by atrocities and squarely blamed opposition for fermenting troubles.
In the midst of all these, owing to a positive outlook of state towards industrialization investment steadily flowed in IT and BPO sector and some manufacturing and real estate. For the first time after 30 years, Bengalis, esp. in Calcutta, began to see some rays of hope. IT sector had big names like TCS ( a long timer), Cognizant, IBM and PWC (another veteran) and also bigwigs like Wipro and some others joined the bandwagon. However, the evils that had been assiduously cultivated over the 30 year period continued - indiscriminate "bandhs", militant trade unionism, a slow and degenerative bureaucracy, absolute lack of work culture esp. in Government offices, power shortage, traffic problems, bad road and general infrastructure which had crippled economy. In short, "fundamentals" were not right for doing a business. Nevertheless, Bengal attracted investment and entrepreneurs, esp. from NRI sons of soils. Buddhadeb devised a policy of looking "eastward" instead of West, i.e. Japan, China and Asia Pacific region for potential investors, with whom communists had no major "ideological" differences. He went to Indonesia and signed several deals with a group called Salim (the same notorious ones who were the chief financiers of dicatatorial regime of Suharto). It seemed that the woes of Bengal were finally over.
With 2004 central Government election in which NDA was out and UPA was in with communist support, golden period of Indian and esp. Bengal communism began. Now they were a part of central government and privy to its policies and purses. They could get more funds without much accountability. All the central ministers including the PM were friendly. PM himself was an ardent admirer of Buddhadeb and communists grabbed media headlines almost everyday. Bengal media was already Buddhist, and now national media followed suit. All so called liberals, seculars, detractors of "hindu nationalism", champions of minorities and socialism were elated with the prospect of a "secular, liberal, progressive" alliance having its field days. In contrast to rabid leaders like Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechuri at the national level, dhoti panjabi clad Buddhadeb was to national media a moderate, reform friendly face of CPM who can do no wrong. Media heralded him as Deng Jiao Ping of Indian communism. And the final touch was given by Tatas who, committed to build their cheapest car, Nano, from a location called Singur in Bengal.

Now little is known about the initial decision to choose fertile lands of Singur as the location for Nano. It will perhaps always remain a mystery. West Bengal Government said Tatas had selected this tract of land, while Tatas said that Government had offered them and they liked it because of its proximity to the highway and the state capital. However a few detractors alleged that Singur, even being a prosperous agricultural village with good harvest, was deliberately chosen to punish the villagers who voted for opposition in the last assembly election. However, even if we give benefit of doubt to Government and its intentions, the question remains as to why 1000 acres of fertile agricultural land with good returns was elected for setting up an industry. In their haste to establish their image as champions of industry, West Bengal government gave several concessions to Tatas, some of which were published much later (after the exodus from Singur) and many of which could have resulted in political scandal and downfall of the Government in other countries (for instance giving loan @1% interest rate, electricity and water at nominal charge, its after all tax payers money). And then in their usual arrogance they simply did not involve all the stakeholders, i.e. the people or farmers there. People who lost their lands protested and administration and local CPM hooligans used force to disperse them - a tactical and strategic blunder. This land deal with Tatas benefited local CPM leaders more than anything else, they bought surrounding lands at cheaper price in anticipation of price going up and made millions overnight at the cost of poor peasants. Peasants obviously did not take it very well and once again they were ruthlessly prevented from voicing their dissent.

Its not that Buddhadeb knew about these problems and malpractices. Afterall he is the CM of the state and its his business to know. But he decided to keep his eyes shut and anyway media and urban population was with him. What if some poor peasants who dont carry much weight in politics shout from the rooftop. Local party cadres and police will take proper care of them. He needs to tackle broader issues, meeting industrialists and cleaing proposals and showing dreams to the state public and getting pats on the back from a friendly central government and media.

And what were the Tatas doing all these time? We all know that fundamental thing to do before getting any project started is to identify and involve all stakeholders, who have positive as well as negative stake in the project, and listen to them and try to address issues, than letting these issues flare up at a later stage. Sadly, Tatas simply showed no such endeavour. Perhaps they thought that suh disturbances are common in any project and would go away on there own, perhaps they relied too much on Government to sort out all problems and perhaps they were overconfident by the goodwill generated by media and public on Nano and thought that detractors would'nt have the capability to thwart such a project. But things started getting horribly wrong once opposition parties got into fray.

Most people and media are of the opinion that TMC and its leader Mamata Bannerjee is a disruptive force in Bengal and it is extremely unfortunate to have her around. That however is too simpleton analysis. At one point of time Mamata, irrespective of her obvious drawbacks, was hugely popular among anti CPM voters of West Bengal for her relentless ability to fight back. She fought for her life after couple of deadly of assaults by CPM hooligans, fought with Congress leadership and left the Congress and joined NDA because she felt Congress was too compromising, and dubbed some Congress leaders as "Tarmuj" or water melon (for the uninitiated, a water melon is green from outside and red inside, here red standing for communists and green for congress), fought on almost all isssues against Jyoti Basu's Government and snatched some remarkable victories, even under most adverse circumstances. So writing her off from political map of West Bengal would be a huge mistake. And after the stupendous victory of CPM in 2006 assembly elections where they won a record 235 seats, left front leadership, media and urban populace did that mistake. They thought that "didi", the hystrionic, fickleminded demagogue is politically finished.

But they were wrong. She came back with a vengeance. This time there was no urban populace to support her, no local media dubbing her as "firebrand", her one time support bastion dwindled, but she came up as a last means of hope for those poor landless farmers who had lost everything to Tatas in exchange of a meagre paycheck which they refused to accept, even if they went hungry.

To the utter surprise of leftfront they found that despite having a solid support with local and national media, despite having the urban opinion in their pockets, they were getting isolated as their once staunch loyal friends now turned adversaries and joined "didi's" camp. These were the leftist intellectuals, many of them had fought shoulder to shoulder with left leaders against an "evil" Congress regime to catapault the left front to the throne. And their voices got shriller and echoed in delhi and other places. The plight of the farmers got the attention of Medha Patekar, who, till that time, was a staunch ally of the very leftfront in other states, protesting against the same atrocities which are committed there against the peasants, viz. taking away their means of livelihood and displacing them without adequate compensation in the name of development.
Now with Singur showing some dissent, another problem flared up in the face of Buddhadeb. Nandigram, which formed part of West Medinipur district, was till date a left bastion, but now with rumours of a chemical hub by Salim group and land acquisition notices, it changed colours almost overnight. Peasants formed local resistance groups under some dynamic local leadership and received full backing from TMC. Goes without saying that CPM leadership did not take these developments well. They atfirst tried hard teach these fellows a lesson by usual terror tactics. Elsewhere it had worked because of lack of popular anger being directed and bought under in a united stand, but here it did not work for precisely the same reason. The erstwhile staunch supporters of CPM, the rural peasants of Nandigram were angry at the prospect of their lands being taken away by land mafias in the name of development, of party's connivance and treachery and they were particularly angry with a local CPM leader and MP Lakshman Sheth, who almost treated the entire Tamluk and Haldia area as his fiefdom, had amassed huge wealth, had proximity with mafias and police alike and drove this land grabbing initiave from behind. Party leadership knew everything about this leader, but decided to keep quite and support him. He was too precious a leader to enable them to win elections.

Buddhadeb at this point probably realized that things were going out of hand in Singur and Nandigram and elsewhere, wherever news of land being taken for industrial development came people were getting restive. Even more, they had the audacity to rebel, against the very CPM who were so far synonimous with peasant struggle and "land reforms".

Things were not looking good in North Bengal. Long deprivation had resulted in creation of dissident groups in Coochbehar district, the once prosperous royal province of Bengal. The dissidents went by the name of KLO or Kamtapur Liberation Organization, demanded separate statehood. In Darjeeling, Subhas Ghissing, the leader of GNLF and CPM's blue eyed boy, was fast losing ground. His opponents fed up with his corrupion and betrayal of Gorkha cause, had taken up arms against him and he was driven away from hills and had taken shelter in Kolkata under the wings of his mentors, CPM state leadership. The workers in tea gaden were a disgruntled lot as they felt betrayed by CPM. In the remotest and poorest Purulia and Jhargram, the tribals were up in arms and were gaining strength under Maoists. Maoists were also finding sympathy with student organizations in some of the reputed institutes.

But all were surpassed by Nandigram. There the peasants almost drove CPM local leaders and their supporters away and disregarded all attempts by administration to thwart their efforts and went ahead with their business. Such a brazen disloyalty was too much for CPM. Besides, they had to gain grounds and gain it fast, before Panchayat elections, else they ran the risk of losing their rural base.

Buddhadeb made blunders here, one after another (probably the same mistakes were committed by Dhritarashtra in Mahabharat, only difference being, affiliation and loyalty towards party instead of affection towards sons). Instead of showing some courage against his fellow partymen who were going out of control, instead of showing strong leadership skills and inclusiveness, of listening to villagers' angst, of taking initiatives to resolve the issues in an amiable manner, he was downright contemptuous and arrogant. It was as if so much praise by industrialists, media, and political big wigs including the PM made him feel he was the superman who can do no wrong.

In March 2007 state police sent shivers along spines of many liberals by brutally killing atleast a dozen peasants in Nandigram. On November 2007 Nandigram was besieged by CPM cadres and with active assistance from local and state police. The entire operation was allegedly planned at CPM HQ at Alimuddin Street. What followed was a mass murder, to sweep away any opposition.The brazen cold bloodedness and ruthlessness of the entire operation shook even the staunchest CPM supporter to his core. Many bodies were never recovered as they were simply dumped in the river. Though the official count was only 29, unoffcially hundreds were missing.

And then came the moment, of distinguishing between a state CM and a party leader, but the party leader in Buddha took the better of him. He clearly and succinctly made a demarcation between "us" and "them", conveniently forgetting that being the leader of the state he was also the leader of "them" and was given constitutional responsibility of protecting "them" as well. He went on blaming the Maoists for all problems and singled them out as "root cause of all evil", notwithstanding the fact that in other states the same CPM is hand in gloves with the same Maoists.

For the first time naional media too hung its head in shame. For the first time even a friendly Government at the centre could not come out openly in support. For the first time leftist intellectuals in Delhi protested against left front government. In the next few days CPM got into damage control mode. But popular anger was so much evident that they dared not go too far elsewhere. And this is when Singur farmers took the full advantage. They not only expressed solidarity with their brethrens in Nandigram but showed every signs of orchestrating similar resistance movements. Their agitation got a shot in arms when a poor farmer girl, Tapasi Malik, ws brutally raped and murdered. Government of West Bengal played a pathetic role in Tapasi saga. They first tried to hush it up and then downplayed it as "family feud". The CID even insinuated that Tapasi's own father or atleast some relatives were involved. Tapasi was actively involved in Singur agitation and so farmers did not spare any means to get justice. Public outcry forced the CM to intervene and seek CBI investigation. And CBI identified the culprits to be local CPM leader and goons and the CBI court found them guilty and gave life sentence to both. Now it was the turn of state unit of CPM to cry foul. They alleged that CBI deliberately framed two "innocent" guys. They received a shot in arms when the CBI chief investigating this case was caught red handed while taking bribe and his case is under investigation. But farmers believed that CBI did a good job in Tapasi's case.

CBI similarly led another investigation, that of Nandigram carnage, and held the CPM guilty. They found that arms and munitions were supplied from local CPM units and it was not a battle as the state unit wanted all to believe, but a one sided murder, much like Gujarat carnage. However the people who shed crocodile tears for the Muslims in Gujarat and held the BJP Government responsible, did not bother much about poor peasants (most of them Muslims) dying a ghastly death in the hands of "champions of humanism" and "face of secular liberal democracy".

Another event went largely unnoticed or was deliberately ignored in national media. For the first time in 30 years of left rule, left lost a large majority of its Panchayat seats, mostly in South Bengal. It was totally routed in Singur and Nandigram. In Nandigram elections were held under CRPF and people were in all praise for Alok Raj, the dynamic CRPF DIG who ensured that there was no foul play. Infact CPM was so incensed by Alok Raj's unbiasedness, that they with a local inspector tried framing him in some molestation case. Fact was he was miles away when this incident happened, so he emerged unscathed. Here is an analysis of the election results by a journalist http://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article758.html

And then came the violent agitation at Singur. The violence grew everyday, with state showing no intention of quelling the same by talking to peasants. They blamed everything on an "irresponsible" opposition and let the thing get sorted out themselves. When the honourable Governor tried to mediate in the conflict, the state unit of CPM ridiculed and harangued the poor guy. His fault was he tried to portray the actual conditions of state and empathised with the people of West Bengal by shutting down power for two hours everyday in RajBhavan as a symbolic gesture to appalling power conditions in the state. Moreover he expressed his angst on Nandigram carnage. Therefore he was dubbed as an "agent" of the opposition.

Buddhadeb unwillingly participated in a tripartite negotiation on Singur issue and apparently agreed to the proposal of giving back the lands of agitating peasants and make available alternative land. But later he denied any such agreement and unilaterally declared a package, much to the chagrin of his opponent and bruising Mamata's ego. Peasants however were not relenting. They hailed the negotiation outcome as victory, but they rejected the package. Out of 1000 farmers, only 79 accepted the Government cheque on compensation.

Feeling betrayed, their agitation became intense. Now the workers and engineers of Tata at the construction site felt threatened. They had no protection either from police or from local people. CPM had claimed that locals wanted the Tatas, but without local support this violent agitation could not have been possible.

Eventually Tatas quit Singur. Nano production remained a dream to West Bengal. The state lost a good prospect and repute. Mamata Bannerjee should surely be blamed because she played a negative role, however she is in opposition and fighting for her survival in politics. These farmers had given her a means to rejuvenate her poll prospects, and she utilized them fully.

But who could have handled this responsibly? Who could have played a more positive approach and tried reconciliation? Who held sway over police and administration to ensure full protection to Tata workers and address the grievances of the farmers? The CM, no one else. And he failed miserably. He simply went on playing politics, blaming opposition and agitating farmers for every action, supporting or remaining silent when his cadres went berserk, justifying the dirty games that some of his party leaders played. Again he failed to rise above "Us" and "Them". He probably saw this as an opportunity to enhance his image, and bring down the image of opposition, he probably thought it was best to do nothing and gain political mileage out of this. Whatever his plan was, West Bengal lost out on an opportunity to reclaim her old glory. The glory that got faded under Buddha's predecessor's rule through rampant corrupion, nepotism and militant trade unionism. He simply fiddled with the hopes of millions of young aspiring Bengalis.

Another sensational case this time, which almost exposed Bengal Government's Fascist Stalinist face was the case of Rizwanur Rehman. A middle class Muslim boy who dared to fall in love with the daughter of an influencial Marwari businessman, Todi. Todis had connection at very high places, including police commissioner and probably even at higher places. So Rizwanur was found dead under mysterious circumstances. There was a huge public outcry. Initially Government did not pay much heed, and they would not have paid had it not been for Muslim votebank politics. So the police commissioner had to go and case went to CBI which chargesheeted Todi and the person was found guilty by Calcutta Highcourt. Case is still subjudice but the young police officer Arindam Manna who was originally investigating the case and who had a wealth of information was killed a few days back, and Todis are out on bail. The police wanted to wash away the death of their colleague by doing a nominal postmortem in a remote hospital but later relented to public pressure for a fresh post mortem.

Now a fresh trouble had erupted in Lalgarh, in the tribal area. The tribals had complained of police brutalities and atrocities and nothing has been done yet to address their grievances. This area is waiting to be another Nandigram in making and the state as usual is sending CPM cadres to teach the tribals a lesson.

How many more lessons will the CM learn before it is too late? Perhaps history will judge him better than the national media especially if that history is not written by Romila Thapar or Irafan Habib. However, to an observer far away, he seems to have lost the grip and control on state affairs. After all, a biased, partisan ruler dependent on a notoriously incompetent state administration and a ruthless party organization, can do no good for the state, even though he may have the best of intentions and vision.

There are some other facts of the dichotomy between his liberal face and his action. 1) He himself called for an improvement in work culture in Bengal and asked state government officials to do their work during office time. However when his party's coordination committee called party meetings and gatherings of Government officials several times during office hours and he not only participated, but also gave his lectures (not on work culture though). 2) Several times he opposed bandh but when his own party called for bandhs (several times a year) he made no efforts to thwart it and instead his administration converted those occassions into state sponsored bandhs. And despite all these he is dubbed as "visionary leader".
All the best Buddhababu!