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Why The Left did not see red |
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Brinkmanship in West Bengal
A vote for ‘change’ but has Amma changed ?
Kerala is in for tough times
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Why The Left did not see red There’s virtually nothing left of the Left in Bengal. A cyclone seems to have wiped them out. Two years back in May, another cyclone called ‘Aila’ had struck South Bengal. Humongous dark clouds rolled in without warning and a fierce gale storm erupted in the Sunderbans – the world’s largest mangrove and home to more than a thousand villages that live off fishing and farming, wherever possible. About 5 lakh people were rendered homeless as their mud and straw homes were flattened. Saline water inundated the villages as rivers breached mud embankments, thus further damaging crops and all fertile land. The only concrete embankments in the Sunderbans were those constructed by an NGO; Independent India, it seemed, did not have enough resources to fortify its river banks in six decades. Seven days after the storm, people in village after village were starving and in a state of shock. Sanitation and water purification tablets were urgently needed to prevent an epidemic since there was no potable water at all, nor any power whatsoever. But while the Block Medical Offices were sitting on huge stocks of bleaching powder and water purification tablets, they lay undistributed. To top it all, food was scarce and rice had rotten. People had lost everything: their roofs, clothes, utensils, books, lanterns, mosquito nets, and all else.
Law unto themselves
But some houses remained. Brightly coloured cement structures in pink and green and blue, they stood out amongst the desolate watery stink. Complete with DTH connections, these dwellings seemed unconcerned with the misery surrounding them. As one village urchin pointed out, they were homes of ‘party- dadas’. No wonder there, after all the ‘Party’ had been in power for over 33 years. Even in their darkest hour though, the villagers were divided between those belonging to the ‘Party’ and those who didn’t. It was impossible to fathom the reasons for this thorough politicisation of even weather beaten, old and shriveled women with barely a sari on their back, and who belligerently demanded more rice since they belonged to the ruling dispensation. On being told that it was neither the government nor the ‘Party’ that was distributing the rice, they frowned and sulked. A rather enthusiastic and well-meaning group of youngsters from Kolkata collected large quantities of relief material, hired a bus and drove to Basanti, where they were looking for a boat to ferry them to the affected villages. As they were to unload their wares, along came some toughs who claimed to belong to the local ‘Club’, and offered help in unloading the relief material in a nearby school. Once the unloading was completed, they nonchalantly locked the school saying that they would distribute the relief material as they deemed fit and asked the dumbfounded youngsters from Kolkata to leave, and would hear no word of protest. No policeman was in sight and the youngsters could do little to prevent the local goons from brazenly betraying their own people by looting relief material.
The joke on education
Equally damaging was what the Left Front did to the education system by abolishing English from primary schools. Whether it was done to keep the masses insulated from the world outside, or whether it was to protect their own English-challenged-party-cadres and-workers-turned-primary-school-teachers is not known, but this one policy deprived several generations of intelligent Bengali students from succeeding in an English dominated world. The joke doing the rounds in Kolkata relates to a massive government teachers’ rally that the Left front organised earlier this year. A reporter asked one of the teacher’s in the rally whether his own son studied in the school he taught in. “Naturally not”, replied the man, placard in hand, adding that, “government schools have nothing: no rooms, no sanitation, no blackboards, desks or chairs and to top it all the teachers never attend school….” realising too late that his gaffe had been recorded for posterity! What probably hurt the ‘Party’ most was that while it was supposed to be the party of poor people and by the poor people, it had turned into a ‘Party’ of the elite. How else does one explain the children and grandchildren of all the ‘Party’ bigwigs getting educated in English medium schools and foreign universities and even settling abroad?
Dadagiri rebuffed
Six months back, a junior clerk in a state government department was trying to update government records in painstakingly slow English. In barged a rather arrogant senior clerk who ordered the junior to be present at a ‘party -meeting’ in the office premises that afternoon at 3pm. Very tentatively, a visitor asked the junior if he belonged to the ‘CPI (M)’. Yes, he said, adding,” I’ll have to attend the meeting but do they think they’ll get my vote? Never.” Asked why he would bite the hand that had fed him, he paused before answering. He hadn’t been given this job for nothing, he said. His uncles had slogged for the ‘Party’ for far too long and he’d also greased some palms. Yet what turned him away from the Left was the fact that in the 30 years since he finished school in rural Bengal, the situation had just not improved but deteriorated so badly that not a single government school was worth anything: absentee teachers who would attend party rallies instead of school, dilapidated school buildings that at times doubled up as homes for party workers, and to top it all, his biggest grudge was the lack of teachers who could impart English, a language banished from primary schools by the Left government for the past 30 years.
Couple trouble
A young couple - an Indian wife and a foreigner husband - bought a flat in a middle class Kolkata suburb. Within days, the local ‘club’ demanded a five figure donation from them. They refused. What followed next was a nightmare. The woman was consistently harassed and cat-called every time she stepped out of home. No amount of complaints to the cops helped. Finally, it became so unbearable that the couple sold their new home and moved out of the locality. Today’s Kolkata is a somewhat unplanned, untamed creature that’s growing without any rationality in ways that defy logic. All kinds of unions and petty muscle-men abound: from the para (mohalla) boys of yore who once took care of the locality to the ones now, who forcibly collect heavy subscriptions that pay for their late night binges, to the auto drivers who simply flout every possible rule book with impunity thereby causing damage to pedestrians and other vehicles – and never mind the embarrassed hapless police who dare not touch them for the auto union shall then create havoc on the roads - to the state government employees who barely attend office between noon and 4 pm because they, after all, are members of a union that no law can question. The grip of the Party is so strong and complete that almost every household in Kolkata went maid-less on the day the neighbouring regions and the city had polling. A friend’s cook and maid too took off for 2 days each to travel to their remote villages to vote. Such dedication to democracy, she thought with pride. But the cook brought her down to earth by revealing that they were each paid by the ‘Party’ to cover their travel and food and this was a practice being followed since long. And if they didn’t go to vote, they’d be harassed through the year. So did she vote for the Party that gave her the money, she was asked after she’d resumed duty. Of course not, she replied smugly. She wasn’t going to vote for a party whose big wigs had made pucca houses and bought motorcycles for themselves, whilst the others remained dirt poor! The Left hasn’t lost because the TMC is admirable. It lost because for the first time in the last 30 years, a sincere and perseverant Mamata Banerjee finally cobbled together a credible opposition. People in West Bengal believe that the degeneration of Bengal also happened because of the complete and tacit support of the Congress, which steadfastly refused to provide any real opposition whatsoever, to Left Front. This is also the reason why the Congress is popular only in some pockets of Bengal and no more. Further, this also explains why the Left kept ‘winning democratically’ over the years. Fact is there was no one else the people of Bengal could vote for. — The writer is a columnist based at Kolkata
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Brinkmanship in West Bengal The Left Front rule in West Bengal could not have been devoid of any good or else they would not have remained in power for so long. The 'operation barga' was a big success in land reforms. The small farmer was given ownership rights; much of the land which were under cash crops like jute were brought under food production, making the state self sufficient in food. A secular outlook kept West Bengal away from any communal riots and in the development parameters - in health and education - the state was high up in the ladder, as far as official records are concerned. Off with their heads
But the problems lay elsewhere. A party professedly for the poor, over the last three decades turned into a party for the rich. Or the 'nouveau rich'- the coterie, who through their association with the party, amassed wealth or stature. Like Lewis Carroll's queen, they developed the 'off -with- their- heads' attitude ! Otherwise, one cannot imagine Nandigram or Singur or Netai incidents to happen in a politically mature state like West Bengal. Such incidents turned the tide against the leftists. People in urban areas have traditionally been voting against the Left for some elections now. It was once famously said about Jyoti Basu that he was ruling the government from 'urban' Calcutta (which voted against him) with support of the 'red votes' of rural Bengal. Nandigram-Singur-Netai changed the scene completely. One by one - the panchayat elections, the municipality elections and finally the Lok Sabha elections of 2009 - saw the Left lose its grip over the state. More than the rise of the Trinamool Congress, it was really the Left's mishandling of vital issues of state - like industrialisation, education, the centre-state relations etc.- that alienated the people. While Mamta Banerjee was mending her mistakes - her alignment with the BJP and her bandh-agitation oriented politics, for example, the Left kept repeating mistakes. Its decision to ditch the Congress at the Centre on the nuclear issue turned out to be a strategic disaster as it paved the way for opposition unity in the state. Mamata filled in the vacuum and gained popularity from the 'negatives' of the Left. The Congress supported Mamta to the hilt in the present crucial assembly elections, including supplying helicopters for her whirlwind campaigns and conceding to almost all her demands, including only 65 seats to contest for the state Assembly with 294 seats. The Left all along was on the defensive, with the chief minister seeking 'forgiveness' from people for the mistakes. It was a pathetic sight. The Left manifesto looked pale against the Trinamool manifesto. Left's attempt to malign Mamata's agitation as the reason for driving Tata's Nano out of the state couldn't hold good because of the bunglings by the government machinery itself in the matter of 'forceful' land acquisition. Strikes and bandhs
Mamata has been able to campaign successfully that she is against strikes and bandhs. Public memory is short - and she has taken full advantage of it. But can she hold on to all the advantages that have been served to her on a platter? And all this comes with tremendous hope of the people that something better will happen to the state. Almost all the new industry promises of her manifesto come from the railway ministry which she holds at the moment. The ministry itself is not in the pink of health. And Mamta's Trinamool Congress remains a motley crowd consisting of mostly bureaucrats unhappy with the Left administration and many of the expelled members of the Left parties. She has won a majority of the panchayats in the recent elections and the reports of panchayat administration for the last one year or so under her leadership are not at all encouraging. The Trinamool manifesto has hordes of promises - what the party will do in '200 days' in short term and then in '1000 days' in the long term. The Left promises over the years have been even richer; but they never took place on the common excuse that the 'centre' did not cooperate or release funds. What will Mamata do - when her projects fail ? Blame the opposition of the Left? The state is in real need of a big shake up - be it in the lackadaisical administration, or party-dictated education, or a near-breakdown of the health system and needs to convert MOUs into real industry and re-activate the once successful but now stagnant land reforms. The promise of 'empowering the informal sector' and setting up of clusters and 'collective marketing structures' sounds good on paper and in manifestoes. More medical facilities for the poor are welcome indeed; but 10 more medical colleges in 200 days? The state waits with bated breath. — The writer is a Kolkata based senior journalist |
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Concerns of a fractured polity solidified votes for Gogoi Poll pundits and exit polls had predicted a fractured mandate. Even the ruling Congress party had talked of post poll alliances that might become necessary. A hung verdict was expected till the actual outcome unfolded on 13th May. It not only gave the ruling Congress an absolute majority, but even rendered the alliance with its pre-poll ally Bodoland People's Front (BPF) seem unnecessary for forming the next government. The Congress government had in the last decade succeeded in building up a substantial support base in the form of beneficiaries of the various schemes that were launched.
Popular schemes
It had awarded computers and laptops to the thousands of students securing first division in the HSLC examination; many bicycles were provided to girl students; rice at Rs. 6/Kg were offered to BPL families; various other cash transfer schemes under the NRHM schemes were already there; schemes like Mamoni, Majoni, etc., that benefited the women folk, - the list is in fact quite long and significant. Even if sixty percent of these beneficiaries were to vote for the ruling party, there would still have been an edge in their favour. If one adds to that the economic stability ushered in by the Congress during the last decade and the advancements in the peace process especially with the ULFA, there could only be further gains for the Congress. The people of Assam had bitter experience of the AGP governance before on both these counts - in the form of financial crunch and the much detested secret killings. Perhaps, for these and for many other reasons the voters voted for a status quo. A change for them could be a descent to an uncertain future. The organizational weaknesses of the AGP, the main opposition party and its failure to attract the youth to its fold, cost them dear. The dozen young candidates fielded by the Congress, in contrast to the old guard of the AGP that fought these elections, indicate the difference in vitality in their ranks. There was a perceived anti-incumbency wave which now appears as the handiwork of a section of the media. This in a way baffled the opposition camp, especially the AGP, whose complacency in such situations is legendary. Division of votes among the opposition parties have helped several Congress candidates to scrape through. The increasing possibility of a fractured mandate actually worked in favour of the Congress as people wanted stability. It also helped polarise minority voters to the AIUDF as it was supposed to increase the bargaining power of this minority based party. Rabid electioneering by the BJP with leaders like Varun Gandhi and Narendra Modi led the minority voters in other constituencies to the Congress camp. There are now wild allegations of EVM tampering raised by the opposition and also allegations of large corporate funding by the dam builders. It is a matter of concern that the verdict is unfortunately interpreted by some as victory for the pro big dam lobby. Surprisingly, allegations of corruption against the government also did not appear to have swayed the voters as there were other issues. In the ultimate analysis, it may be interpreted as a mature verdict of the people for stability and continuance of the developmental work started under the leadership of Tarun Gogoi. The people could not confide on the alternative that was available. Unless the opposition, and especially the AGP, builds up their organisation in the coming years, chances for a fourth term for the Congress would be a distinct possibility — The author is a Reader in History in Dibrugarh University |
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A vote for ‘change’ but has Amma changed? After the landslide victory of the AIADMK-led alliance under her charismatic leadership, the challenges that J. Jayalalithaa faces are Herculean indeed. With her known antipathy towards outgoing Chief Minister and DMK supremo Karunanidhi, one cannot put it past her that she is exaggerating the ills under his rule but there is no denying that corruption was rampant, law and order had been deteriorating and the traditionally-strong economy was shaky. “Minor repairs to a house can be done easily. But if the house is completely damaged and knocked down, you need to clear away the debris to rebuild the house. It is not an easy task,” she told the media soon after her resounding victory. “Tamil Nadu’s economy is in a shambles. The exchequer is empty. The state has a debt to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore. This is unprecedented in the history of the state. Prices have sky-rocketed, industry is dead, agriculture has failed, unemployment is rampant. It’s a Herculean task to bring Tamil Nadu back on the track,” she added with characteristic sharpness, rejecting the claims of development by the DMK. Having seen what an extraordinarily gritty person she is, the masses are hoping, perhaps somewhat unrealistically, that she would work her magic to solve the State’s problems. Mindful of this, Jayalalithaa has already cautioned them against expecting miracles. She has no quick-fix solution to their woes. She has set an 18-month deadline for fulfilling all her electoral promises, besides restoring Tamil Nadu’s economy. With the next Lok Sabha elections scheduled in 2014, that would predictably be the time her record would be under the first major scrutiny through the ballot and she is determined to make a mark by then.
Rivals in disarray
The irrepressible Chief Minister-designate knows all too well that her bete noire Karunanidhi is too old to hold the reins of the DMK for much longer. The future of that party is a question mark with the patriarch’s two sons M.K. Stalin and M.K. Azhagiri at dagger’s drawn though outwardly friendly, his nephew Dayanidhi Maran quietly waiting in the wings to strike and daughter Kanimozhi seeking to carve out her own coterie. Jayalalithaa is hoping that DMK would split under the weight of its factionalism and personal egos, and with the Congress too weak to make an impression, she could lord it over Tamil Nadu for many more years. But having suffered in the past for her arrogance and over-confidence Jayalalithaa knows that she can’t take the electorate for granted. The manner in which DMDK leader Vijaykanth has gained ground in a few years after he quit films must surely be enough to put her on guard. This time, fighting the assembly elections in association with her, his party emerged as the second largest, relegating the DMK to third position. Though they fought the elections together, there is little love lost between Jayalalithaa and Vijaykanth. Yet, for now at any rate, Jayalalithaa holds all the aces. While she would doubtlessly take steps to beef up law and order with her reputation of being an ‘iron lady’ (it was during her last stint as chief minister that dreaded brigand Veerappan was gunned down) she would be watched for whether she takes to vendetta politics or leaves the DMK leaders to quarrel among themselves and further weaken their battered party. The economy needs a new impetus for which Jayalalithaa would need to bring in the best brains in the bureaucracy to formulate and implement a new economic agenda. Both the Dravidian parties—the AIADMK and the DMK—- have had a fine record in terms of social welfare measures but if it is true that the exchequer is near-empty, it would be interesting to see how she balances growth imperatives with social justice.
Economic imperatives
The pace of investment into Tamil Nadu has been tardy and infrastructure, especially power, water and roads deserve imaginative policies and more meaningful action. In her second stint in the early 1990s one criticism often levelled by prospective investors was that she was inaccessible and since virtually no one but she mattered in terms of decision-making in the state, her reluctance to meet important investors turned them away from investing in the state. Corruption is another factor that Jayalalithaa will have to rein in. The outgoing DMK regime was notorious for corruption but her rule too was not free from it. In her earlier two chief ministerial avatars Jayalalithaa had some efficient advisers in whom she reposed faith but by and large, she was generally distrustful of most people. It remains to be seen how much she has changed if at all. Jayalalithaa will also be watched closely for how she handles the Centre in this era of coalitions. Her recent statement that “The President of Sri Lanka must be tried for war crimes, and brought before the International Court of Law” and that the Centre must direct its efforts to that direction was chilling. Whether it was only election rhetoric or she would push for it hard remains to be seen. The Congress party may seek to woo her with the motive of dumping the DMK for the 2014 general elections and it would be of great interest to see how she seeks to extract her pound of flesh from the Centre in terms of assistance for projects. All in all, Jayalalithaa holds the trumps. But in this atmosphere of rising public expectations, the last thing she needs is complacency and arrogance of power. (The writer is Sr Associate Editor, The Tribune) |
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Kerala is in for tough times With a slender majority of two seats, the new coalition government to be formed by the Congress-led United Democratic Front in Kerala will have a tightrope walk ahead. The Congress, which heads the coalition with 38 seats in the 140-member House, has the uphill task of ensuring a stable government on the one hand and implementing the election manifesto that promises 'development with care' on the other. Though Oommen Chandy, who is likely to head the government, is highly skilled in managing a coalition, he may have to do lot of compromises to keep in good humour the allies representing diverse and narrow interests. In fact one of the reasons for the poor showing by the UDF in the polls is considered to be the disarray among its allies in seat sharing. The attempt by the Congress to resolve the feuds by yielding to the demands of the allies cost it dearly.
Appeasing allies
Interestingly, two parties that dragged the seat sharing process till the last day of filing the nominations failed to win even a single seat. The verdict has given too much bargaining power to the other allies, including those with one just seat each. The Congress may be forced to give ministerial representation to parties with even one seat and part with key portfolios. The UDF allies have traditionally held sway over major portfolios like Industry, Education, Revenue and Agriculture. In the given political situation, the Congress will be forced to concede more important portfolios to the constituents, especially the Indian Union Muslim League and the Kerala Congress (M), which have together won 29 seats. This will make the task of the Congress in implementing its policies and programmes difficult. The opposition with 68 seats may also make the going difficult for the new dispensation. The major task before the government is reviving the nearly stagnant industrial and agricultural sectors. The UDF has promised to achieve this by attracting private investments into the sectors. Though the Communists have shed their old ideological inhibitions towards private capital, the outgoing government could not make much headway. This is mainly due to the sharp divisions within the Communist Party of India (Marxist) over the private investments. The hardliners in the party led by Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan refused to follow his party's liberalised approach towards the private investors. He held up projects worth more than Rs.20, 000 crores. Some of these projects were initiated by the previous UDF government and any attempt to revive them may meet with strong resistance from the opposition, especially Achuthanandan, who is expected to lead the opposition. The high numerical strength of the opposition will make the going tough for the new government. It may not be able to make any major developmental initiatives without political consensus, which will not be easy considering the ideological differences.
Burdens from the past
Another major task before the new government is developing the infrastructure, which was mostly ignored by the outgoing government. Acceleration of the development of the state is not possible without developing the highways. The previous UDF government had proposed construction of an access controlled express highway from the north to the south to solve this problem, but the Left parties and a section civil rights activists forced the then government to stall it. Since the scope for reviving the express highway project is limited, the UDF will have to find an alternate solution. It may not be easy in a densely populated state like Kerala. The Congress may also not like to displace the people considering the fate of the Budhadeb government in West Bengal. The new government will have to bear the burden of several populist and welfare measures initiated by the Achuthanandan government during the fag end of its term with an eye on the election. It will have to look for additional resource to pay new pay scales to the employees and the increased pension to various sections of the people. The outgoing government has also announced several major developmental projects including a Rs.40, 000 road development project without making financial provision to implement. The new government will have to either shelve them or raise resources to implement them. Both will not be easy in the emerging political scene. Another area requiring the urgent attention of the new government is education, which was under stress through the term of the LDF government. The stakeholders in the sector were put in lot of difficulties due to attempts made by Education Minister M.A Baby to reform the sector. The UDF had alleged that these were part of a clever plan by the Communists to impose their ideology on the students. Attempts to reverse them may face stiff resistance from the opposition and their student organisations. The political equations in the Assembly do not give much space for the UDF to attempt any major changes in governance and developmental spheres. Hence the UDF may pursue a cautious line. (The writer is a senior
commentator based at Thiruanathapuram) |
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There’s virtually nothing left of the Left in Bengal. A cyclone seems to have wiped them out. Two years back in May, another cyclone called ‘Aila’ had struck South Bengal.
All eyes are on the ‘Iron lady’ who promises to clear the debris and rebuild the house.
