200 Days of ‘Change’:Promises are Always to be Broken

Why Target?

200 days are not sufficient time to evaluate the work of any State Government. The target-based campaign was first started by the bourgeoisie political parties of United Sates of America and Eastern Europe as a part of their election campaign. Though the targets are often forgotten after the election and those parties are least interested to fulfill the targets once the election is won. This electoral tactics has been blindly copied by TMC before the 15th Assembly Election of West Bengal. In reality TMC has even plagiarised the slogan "Change We can believe in" from American President Barrack Obama.

Target of 200 Days

Prior to the last Assembly Election of the State TMC could not publish any English translation of their Election Manifesto. Instead of doing so they have created another separate document called as 'VISION DOCUMENT'. The documents set the target of the work to be completed within 200 days of the new Government. That document contained mainly a little section of the Election Manifesto and the list of the works, which shall be done within first 200 days from the formation of TMC led Government in West Bengal. A Careful reading of two documents brings out the dissimilarity and contradiction.

In some aspect by using the jugglery of words against the Left Front, TMC has informed that they will continue with the work done by the former Left Front Government. In many aspects they could not dare to reject the truth. We shall look into few declaration made by TMC and try to see how far they have been fulfilled.

False Claim on Investment

TMC led Government has maintained its heritage of False claim of success in Industrial Development in the state. In reality the Government has failed to draw any new flow of investment in the State. The new Government has failed to bring out its new land policy yet. This failure has resulted in massive set back of the Government to bring any new investment in any of the major sectors. Above all the CM has clearly declared that the Government will place all seek industries in auction for sell whereas it was promised in TMC's election manifesto that it will resurge seek industries and save them.

Farmers Suicide: Bengal Enrolls Itself in the List

West Bengal has not witnessed with the instance of farmer's suicide where other states in India had laths of incidents of such kind. The farmer policy of the earlier Left Front Government could successfully tackle the situation by providing adequate support to ensure the price of the crop by way of continuous land reforms. The Government changed; TMC came to power and brought a shift in the policy towards farmers, which has forced the farmers to get into the crisis, and made suicide as the only resort to the marginalised farmers. Till the date under the new regime 6 farmers and field workers have committed suicide with the burden of huge loan. Compared to the last year the farmers have suffered a huge crisis. They have been even forced to distress sale the crops. Since the Panchayat have been paralysed by the new Government, the job under NREGA has been stopped. The so-called Government of maa-mati-manush has reversed the success of land reforms of earlier Left Front Government by issuing directive (memo no. IRC/624/11).

The Neoliberal Solution in Transport

The TMC led State Government has started to enforce the neo liberal economic policies in State owned transport system. It has already stopped the payment of pension to the retired workers of the state transport corporations. Even the current workers are not receiving the regular salary in those corporations. In August a CESTC pension holder lady has committed suicide after the non-payment of pension. More serious situation aroused when the almost 18,000 current workers received their salary for the month of October, not before 30th November. The Transport Minister Subrata Bakshi has told that the Government shall offer the VRS package to the transport workers to resurge the sickness and also it will stop the bus service from all non-profit making roots.

The Poor Financial Situation

Before the Assembly election the TMC used to complain against the earlier Left Front Government that it is responsible for the huge debt of the State, after the election the same has been boomeranged against them. Even the situation is so grave that West Bengal has been elevated at the top among the states in the amount of debt. In last six months the new Government has taken a loan f Rupees 10,000/- from the market, which is almost double of the loan amount taken from the market in last year (Left Front Government). The Finance Minister of the State Dr. Amit Mitra has promised that the Government will increase 30% at the average earning of the state, but in reality the growth rate is only 15%. It is quite impossible to reach the target level before this year ending.

The Action for Seek Industries: CM

TMC had declared in their Election Manifesto that 'All Seek Industries will be resurged' but on contrary to that declaration On 4th November the Chief Minister has declared the declared that the seek industries of the state shall be sold in auction. It shows the dual policies of TMC before and after the election.

Land Reforms Stopped

The new Government by issuing a direction (memo no. IRC/624/11) has declared that the Government will come out from the path of Land Reforms and the distribution of lands to the landless people. The memo has been issued on 18th October. The Policy determination Committee, appointed by the new Government has termed the policy of land reforms followed by Left Front Government as 'Robbery of Land'. The Committee has also stated in their draft recommendation that the Government will take punitive measure against such robbery of land.

Net Failure in Rural Development and NREGA

During the time of Left Front Government in West Bengal the state had secured its position out of first five states in implementation of NREGAs (National Rural Employment Guarantee Act). The new Government has brought down the state out of last 4 states. In the financial year 2010-11 the number of job days created under NREGAs was total 15 crore and in this year the number has reduced to only Rs.2 crore. The failure has drawn the attention of the Central Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh that he has written a letter to the Chief Minister (no. FTS-66592/2011) where he has written that the state is currently having Rs.1823 crore but out of that Rs.900 crore have been left unutilised.

Reduction in the Expenditure on Minority Welfare

In the last financial year the budget allotment in minority welfare under former Left Front Government was Rs.664.46 crore. The new Government has reduced Rs.30.66 crore the allotment in minority welfare drastically in the first budget itself. The budget maintained silence on the large section of minorities left out of the purview of the Multi sartorial Development Project of the Central Government. The budget has not spent a single word on the English Medium Madrasas of the State. The programmes taken by the earlier Left Front Government to provide the rehabilitation packages to the divorced, homeless and helpless minority women have been completely ignored in the budget. These forgetfulness shows that the so-called minority friendly attitude of TMC was just like a mask, which has been already taken off.

Fascism: The Late Realisation of Mahasweta Devi

The honeymoon period of TMC-and so called 'CIVIL SOCIETY' (Sushil Samaj) is over within first six months of the new Government. At least the statement made by Mahasweta Devi On 21st November indicates that. The conflict raised due to the refusal by the Police to grant permission for a public meeting called by APDR at Metro Channel. While condemning such action Mahasweta Devi asked whether they have knowingly invited fascism in State or not. The conflict has also attracted the statement of Kabir Suman, a TMC MP, which has reminded the CM that as an opposition leader she made a continuous 26 days dharna at that Metro Channel only. Late is better than never. Although late, but the so-called Susheel Samaj has started to realise the original face of TMC.

How Many Days Singur shall Wait to Get Back the Promised Land?

TMC had declared that their Government will return the lands belong to the UNWILLING FARMERS of Singur after the formation of the new Government. With the lapse of time those farmers are also realising that the promise was nothing but a pre election gimmick. 100 days, 200 days... no one knows how many days they wait to get back the land.

Return of Power Cut

One of the major successes of the Left Front Government was that it could reduce the power cut in the state. The change in the Government has taken back to the time of Power cut. The Government has failed to make a plan to maintain the supply of electric in the state. Over all they have indicated that it might have to increase the price for electric under the compulsion.

Syndicate, Promoters and TMC

The evil nexus between Syndicate, Promoters and TMC has been revealed after the murder of TMC worker Swapan Mandal at Keshtopur, 24 Parganas (North). The main accused Partha Sarkar and others are also the well-known TMC leader of the area. The situation indicates that the evil nexus got strengthened during the first six months of the change. Unfortunately the Government is doing nothing to break such nexus except the verbal attack and counter attack among the TMC leaders.

Curtailment of Panchayat Right

Panchayat of West Bengal was considered as a model to rest of India under Left Front Government. It was West Bengal, which was the real torchbearer of decentralisation policy and the three tiers Panchayat system to ensure peoples participation in local Governance. But the new Government has done nothing to consolidate that success. Instead of doing so they have taken initiative to curtail the rights of Panchayat by empowering the executive. In order to do so the CM met the BDOs and SDO and issued the direction to them.

The University Ordinance

The new Government has already proclaimed an Ordinance to destroy the democratic system in the Educational Institutions. They are trying to adopt the nominated managing committee system. This amounts to an attack on democracy established in the state by Left Front in last 34 years.

CM at Police Station

On 6th November the CM herself had visited Bhowanipur Police Station to resolve a criminal dispute, which is not only unprecedented but also dangerous for a democratic system.

Police Firing

On 1st December the Police of the new Government has fired on a peaceful protest at the demand of electricity at Nainan of Magrahat, 24 Parganas (South). 4 People including three women and a twelve years old girl died in that firing. In last six months police has fired several times at Asansol, Pandaveswar, Haroa and Bagula. One person died at Asansol incident and one woman died at Bagula by the bullets of the police of new Government.

Alteration of Charge Sheet to Save a Minister

The CID under the Home Minister and Chief Minister Smt. Mamata Banerjee has deleted the name of one of the ministers of her ministry, Mr. Arup Roy, from the charge sheet filed in connection to the murder of a TMC leader of Bally, Howrah. This incident is also unprecedented and dangerous for an impartial judicial system. In another incident under the direction of the law minister of the new Government police has withdrawn a murder case against the congress anti socials at Krishnanagar. The Police have also shown partiality to arrest a TMC councilor who was connected to a murder at Tarapeeth, Rampurhat.

Falsification Continues…

There are thousands incidents in last six moth duration of the new Government which revels the inefficacy of the Government to run the state. The declarations at Election manifesto remained unfulfilled and the Governments action does not indicate its willingness to fulfill them in near future. So the writing of the CM in a document to mark 100 days of the new Government that it has finished maximum work of 200 days within 90 days only tells us that Falsification continues... either in opposition or in Government, because the name of the party is TMC.

 SOURCE: http://www.cpimwb.org.in/feature_details.php?features_id=13

Isolate ‘Maoists’ Politically for Enduring Peace in Jangal Mahal

By Nilotpal Basu

ULTIMATELY, the truth has come out. Not that it was not known;  but now that it has come straight from the, so to say, horse’s mouth;  the chief minister of West Bengal and the Trinamool Congress supremo has eventually lashed out at the ‘Maoists’ for their heinous crime of engineering the Ganeshwari Express tragedy  which took the toll of 148 innocent lives. Contrary to what she has been claiming all this while that the CPI(M) and the Left was responsible for the tragedy to defame her and the Railway ministry – she has ultimately conceded that it was clearly the handiwork of the ‘Maoists’. 

What is the provocation for this belated ‘discovery’? Two activists of the Trinamool Congress had been gunned down by a ‘Maoist’ squad in a hamlet on the foothills of Ajodhya in Purulia district – an integral part of the jangal mahal area in West Bengal which continues to remain infested by ‘Maoist’ activity. There is no doubt that these were murders most vile and all right thinking people would condemn these with all the strength that one can muster.  The bodies of these hapless victims were brought to Kolkata and in front of the statue of Mahatma Gandhi – the `apostle of peace’ – that the chief minister blurted out her ‘pearls of wisdom’.     

The travails of the TMC and its maverick supremo are not only bizarre as one would think. It is at the same time extremely sinister. The growth of the ‘Maoists’ – obviously, not in terms of popular support but its depredations and mindless violence in the districts adjoining the Jharkhand and Orissa borders – was quite strange. Any avid reading of the history of Left adventurism in the country makes one to come to an interesting conclusion. While Naxalbari was the cradle of the Left adventurist movement in the country and the CPI(M) and  the Left suffered most due to its violence in the late sixties and early seventies, the movement completely petered out, particularly after the Left Front assumed office in West Bengal in 1977.  The agrarian reforms and the protection and consolidation of the democratic rights of the working people completely isolated the Naxalites in the state.  The resumption of their activities in early parts of the first decade of the new century started as armed incursions from Jharkhand initially and later on from Orissa. The thickly forested jungles on the borders of these states provided the natural cover, as well as, the strategic base that the ‘Maoists’ needed to move on to West Bengal. 

The Left had from the very beginning, maintained that the ‘Maoist’ movement cannot be treated merely as a challenge to law and order.  Their involvement in these forest fringe areas was not because of their compassion for the poor and the tribals who suffered from locational disadvantage and consequent comparative lack of development.  Despite this, the agrarian reforms and other benefits of decentralisation had expanded social sector development.  It is because of this, the Left had always been politically strong in these areas.  Premised on these experiences, the Left, therefore, argued for facing the challenge of ‘Maoist’ violence through a three pronged response; first, on the question of targeted socio-economic development, secondly on the question of political-ideological offensive to isolate them from the people- and finally, based on these two, to initiate administrative actions of the security forces that would finally be successful in containing the violence.

As opposed to this, the central government had always pitched for all out administrative confrontation.  The home minister, P Chidambaram, the fountainhead of such an exclusively confrontationist approach even mooted the idea of deploying the military and the air force to snuff out the ‘Maoists’. 

However, the maverick TMC supremo was totally opposed to the very idea of taking on the ‘Maoists’.  Because she understood that in order to undermine and weaken the Left in these areas which have traditionally been the bastion of the Left, the ‘Maoists’ could prove to be her hatchet men.  The ‘Maoists’ – the opportunists that they are – found these to be extremely convenient.  Their complete ideological bankruptcy and penchant for military strategy created conditions for the coming together of these two forces. West Bengal’s recent history – from the ‘Maoists’ involvement in the Nandigram agitation and the present West Bengal chief minister’s open dalliance with the ‘Maoists’ in Lalgarh - the alliance was eventually made official.  The media savvy ‘Maoist’ Polit Bureau member Kishanji announced from behind his masked face that the ‘Maoists’ would love to see the TMC supremo as the next chief minister of West Bengal in an interview to Ananda Bazar Patrika before elections. 

This was music to her ears.  This made her to claim that there are no ‘Maoists’ in West Bengal.  And, she was not even acknowledging the killings of hundreds of CPI(M) and Left activists and leaders who were being snuffed out by these ‘Maoist’ marauders.  And, she did everything possible to politically delegitimise the operation of the state and central joint security forces to protect the life and livelihood of innocent citizens who were at the receiving end of the mindless ‘Maoist’ violence. 

The complicity was so complete that while the ‘Maoists’ had hijacked a train, the Rajdhani Express, the Railways under her charge did not even mention the ‘Maoist’ involvement in the complaint that the department filed.  And, finally, came the shocking allegation in the wake of the Gyaneshwari tragedy. Not only did she claim that these gruesome deaths of the Ganeshwari passengers were not the result of ‘Maoist’ depredation but actually they have been done by the CPI(M) and the Left to discredit the Railway Ministry! The intellectuals – the `civil society’ her close band of trumpeters for `political change’ in fact went a step further.  They actually called a press conference on the eve of a crucial municipal election in Kolkata and directly charged the CPI(M) of engineering the tragedy.  These intellectuals – of whom some are now even part of the cabinet of the present West Bengal government – justified their position by claiming that ‘Maoists’ did not explicitly take the responsibility for the incident. 

Now that the TMC supremo has assumed the chief minister’s office, she has to reconcile with the harsh cold reality. She thought that the zeal with which the ‘Maoists’ had worked overtime to see her in the office that she holds today would continue to do so even after the objective has been secured.  But, as we know, the ‘Maoists’ show extreme opportunism in siding with this or that bourgeois political party for carrying on with violent methods to physically eliminate all political opposition.  The ‘Maoists’ clearly had an agenda that they would use the TMC to ensure the physical elimination of the CPI(M) and the Left  to facilitate their own physical stranglehold over a region which had remained a bastion of the Left.

CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST

But, now the chickens have come home to roost.  The latest dramatic turn of events saw the felling of that very ‘Maoist’ leader who once wanted to anoint the TMC supremo as the incumbent chief minister of West Bengal.  This is the real irony.  The operation of the joint security forces which was held back for almost five months had to be ultimately allowed since the ‘Maoists’ were not sparing the TMC functionaries once they had been able to regroup with the relief that the new government had provided.  The process of the so-called negotiations which was bound to fail because of the pan Indian nature of the ‘Maoist’ activity also further emboldened them. 

It is in this background that the gun battle ensured in the forests of Burisole which has by now become a household name – as the site which marked the elimination of Kishanji.  In a way, this was inevitable.  Far from being a revolutionary movement, which the ‘Maoists’ claim to lead, apparently he found himself thoroughly isolated and encircled – that is what the security forces had claimed. 

But strangely, neither the chief minister nor any of her top ranking officials from the police or the general administration had come out with any authentic version over the sequence of events which led to the elimination of Kishanji immediately after the announcement of the incident. More than anybody else, it is their supporters – particularly those sections of liberal persuasion – some of them even sympathetic to the ‘Maoist’ cause have come out quite sharply against the same government and the security forces for having done what they did. 

In doing this, they seem to have taken a leaf out of chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s book of records. She did exactly this in questioning the elimination of Azad – the spokesman of the ‘Maoists’. She had actually demanded enquiry into Azad’s `murder’ not only outside but also in the parliament itself. In fact, directed by the court, an inquiry is still going on about this incident.

Now that Kishanji has been eliminated, the same charges are being leveled.  It is being alleged that the security forces had him in custody and this amounts to a `cold blooded murder of a prisoner in custody’.  It is now for the state government to clarify the real course of development transparently.  Rule of law would require that of her government.

However, in a public meeting recently, the chief minister has claimed that the security forces had encircled Kishanji for three continuous days.  The forces had also made an announcement over a public address system that he would be allowed a safe way out . But according to her, he did not respond positively and fired back.  This is what led to the armed confrontation which saw her one time `well wisher’ dead.

SINISTER RELATIONSHIP

The convergence of purpose which brought the TMC and the ‘Maoists’ together to eliminate the Left – does no longer exist.  The functional alliance appears to have come unstuck.  And, therefore, this belated admission over Gyneshwari Express tragedy and this renewed restoration of the joint security forces’ operation leading to the elimination of Kishanji. 

But the tenuous exercise to try and balance the relationship between these two sinister forces had continued for the last few months since the new government in West Bengal had assumed office, now seems to be finally over.  The group of interlocutors who had been officially appointed by the state government to carry out the discussions with the ‘Maoists’ have finally thrown up their hands. And, in the statement issued recently expressing their inability to carry on the process, they have squarely blamed the state government for having killed Kishanji `in cold blood’.

The course of the sinister alliance has really come to complete its vicious circle.  Sadly, the TMC and some of their grassroot level activists who are also poor and vulnerable have also now come to suffer from the mindless violence of the ‘Maoists’. 

But the chief minister is not prepared to accept the reality. While she has lambasted the ‘Maoists’ and their liberal sympathisers who don the mantle of  the human rights organisations for failing to condemn the death and killings of hapless victims of the mindless ‘Maoist’ violence – even going to the extent of pointing out that a large number of activists of the Left had  suffered – she failed to concede that she herself had shown similar proclivities.

To compound her almost criminal negligence in shielding the ‘Maoists’ – she is actually still maintaining that the CPI(M) and the ‘Maoists’ are in league.  This is not withstanding the fact that after the Lok Sabha elections alone almost 250 CPI(M) activists and leaders mostly poor and tribals laid down their lives in the course of taking on the political and ideological challenge of the ‘Maoists’.  But still there is time. The  threat that ‘Maoist’ violence poses to the life and livelihood of the most downtrodden sections of the society in the remotest jungles of West Bengal can only be repulsed by the joining of forces. The unity of all political parties who believe in the rule of law and securing life of the people must act together to isolate the ‘Maoists’.  It is the only enduring way to establish peace.   And, elimination of a single individual – however important he may be – cannot mark the end to the mindless violence which the ‘Maoists’ had been perpetrating.  The restoration of legitimate political activities of all political forces in the affected areas of jangal mahal area is the only rational course to achieve that objective.

People’s Democracy, December 04, 2011

Mass Civil Disobedience by LEFT FRONT in Kolkata

THOUSANDS of people assembled at Rani Rashmoni Road in Kolkata on November 28 to protest against the anti-people policies of the Trinamool and Congress run central and state governments; against price rise; against the reign of terror in West Bengal and the undemocratic ordinance issued by Mamata Banerjee government on education. Streams of people gathered in downtown area in large processions. After the protest meeting, more than 6000 people courted arrested led by the Left Front chairman, Biman Basu, the leader of the opposition in West Bengal assembly, Surjyakanta Mishra, and various other leaders of the Left Front. The leaders appealed to the rest of the gathering to refrain from going forward.

Before courting arrest, the Left Front chairman said in his speech that prices are continuously increasing because of the faulty policies of the central and the state governments. A systematic attack is taking place on democracy in West Bengal with the government trying to take back through undemocratic means the hard won rights of the people of West Bengal. 

At the same time, a reign of terror has been unleashed in the state whereby 48 Left activists have been killed in the recent past. It is in protest against such anti-people policies of the government that the Left Front has taken up the movement of mass civil disobedience. In his speech, Biman Basu also stated that the Trinamool Congress has always supported the policies of the central government both during the NDA as well as UPA rule. In the case of increase of petrol and fertilizer prices, the Trinamool was present in the cabinet meetings in which the decisions were taken.  Therefore they must also take the blame of the anti-people policies of the central government.

In his speech, the leader of the opposition, Surjyakanta Mishra said that the state government is resorting to illegal decisions sitting in the Writers’ Building. They are trying to curb the rights of the panchayats. On the other hand political opponents are being killed and farmers are being evicted from their lands. Surjyakanta Mishra also said that the chief minister broke all laws when she personally went to a police station to release supporters of her party. In protest against all these, the Left Front has taken to the streets and will continue the movement for furthering the interests of the people.

CPI state secretary Manjukumar Majumdar, RSP leader Kshiti Goswami, Jayanta Ray of Forward Block were among others who addressed the meeting.

The mass civil disobedience movement was the culmination of many such programmes which were taken up in the districts. The Left Front and Kisan Sabha have organised mass protest actions throughout the state. All sections of the people participated in large numbers in the call for civil disobedience. The central programme in Kolkata was in fact the biggest such mobilisation after the assembly elections in the state.

People’s Democracy, December 04, 2011

UPA's most vociferous critic may script her own political decline in the state

West Bengal's Madame NO

By Aditi Phadnis / New Delhi, Business Standard, November 12, 2011, 0:28 IST

Later this month, Mamata Banerjee will have been chief minister of West Bengal for six months. Time for a balance sheet?

First, all the things she’s managed to get done — only because they’re easier to count. She’s taken some positive steps to revive the glory of the Presidency College of Kolkata, the institution that has given India some of its best thinkers. She’s managed to defuse the Gorkhaland crisis by offering a tripartite agreement, paving the way for the setting up of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) — an elected body for the Darjeeling hills.

But most of all, she has managed to establish a reputation as the most vociferous critic of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) within the UPA.

When the Centre increased the price of LPG earlier this year, Banerjee first resisted (“the Centre did not take us into confidence…” and so on). Then she took on a mien of martyred indignation (“the state government will bear the burden of the increase in LPG prices”) unconcerned about the fact that the state government’s finances are in no shape to take on the burden. She threatened to withdraw from the UPA over the current round of petrol price increase, only to recant later.

A Union minister has referred to Banerjee as a compulsive populist. It is hard to dispute this description.

Take her government’s attitude towards the price of electricity. West Bengal is considered a role model in power sector reform. The West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) was trifurcated as part of power sector reforms that began in 1985. In 2005-06, the state also corporatised transmission and distribution. There are three power companies in the state now, carved out of the electricity board that together showed a profit of over Rs 300 crore for 2010-11. The government did not privatise: and those employed by power companies (30,000 or so employees) are the only ones to get their salaries regularly because they don’t depend on the state government.

But things can change very fast. Demand for power has been rising and so has the price of coal in a state that depends mostly on thermal power. With the massive electoral victory in her pocket, Banerjee could have increased the cost of electricity in the first week of assuming power without any difficulty. Instead, after she took over as chief minister, one of her first meetings was with the power secretary and her bottom line was: electricity prices will not be increased. In Kolkata, the only area where a private sector entity provides power, the cost of electricity was increased in April 2011 in sync with the cost of coal, and it is likely to increase again. In the summer of 2010, West Bengal had a peak demand shortage of between 500 Mw and 700 Mw, which is expected to go up to between 800 Mw and 1000 Mw this summer. A perfectly healthy sector is going to be driven to sickness: because Banerjee doesn’t want to become unpopular.

But what she doesn’t realise is her troops are making her extremely unpopular. Somen Mitra, a Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP, took the unprecedented step of bypassing his own party to complain to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a letter about the activities of chit fund operators in Parliament — an important MP from his own party is a big chit fund “entrepreneur” and was admitted to the TMC by Banerjee only recently.

The biggest problem (although it is not clear if she sees it as such) is: Banerjee is TMC and TMC is Banerjee. Take her handling of the Maoist problem in the Junglemahal region. Subhendu Adhikari, described by TMC watchers as the man of the future, organised the TMC’s victory in east Midnapore. Adhikari ensured the Left was routed in this area using his supporters, but also the rather more persuasive powers of the gun. He is considered intelligent, popular and ruthless. In Banerjee’s dictionary this spells threat. So, she bypassed him and asked another leader Mukul Roy to handle the Junglemahal problem. Roy made no headway. So now Adhikari is back.

The thing is: no one knows who is in and who’s out. So the impulse is to ensure there is enough for dinner tomorrow, for who knows what might happen at breakfast today?

For the moment, Banerjee has little to fear from the parliamentary opposition. The Left Front’s disarray is embarrassing. Ill-health dogs former Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, especially ahead of party meetings. The Left trade unionists are lethargic, missing even the opportunity to mobilise state government employees who are now beginning to get annoyed at the fact that their DA has not been revised because the state government doesn’t have the money.

But the challenges are snapping at Banerjee’s heels. West Bengal will see panchayat elections in 2012. How will the TMC fare? Will these elections represent the first glimmers of a Left comeback?

If Banerjee goes on like this, she will be the one to have scripted it!       

                                               

Didi’s dadagiri: Storms thana, gets arrested partymen freed

By Madhuparna Das 

Posted online: Indian Express, Tue Nov 08 2011, 02:20 hrs

Kolkata : In an unprecedented intervention, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stormed a Kolkata police station late last evening and forced the release of two members of her party arrested for rioting, arson and ransacking the police station about an hour earlier.

The police action came after the men — along with a mob of 300 — clashed with policemen from the Bhowanipore police station who had asked them not to burst high-decibel crackers late in the evening outside a cancer institute and a children’s hospital, and block both carriageways of S P Mukherjee Road, a major south Kolkata thoroughfare.

The men were part of a boisterous Jagaddhatri Puja immersion party. The puja is controlled and managed by one Jagannath Sau, a close associate of Baban Banerjee, one of Mamata Banerjee’s brothers.

Jagannath Sau has six cases — including extortion and cases under the Arms Act — against him, said the officer-in-charge of Bhowanipore police station. Sau was present at the spot — as was Baban Banerjee. Sau allegedly supplies building material to local Congress and Trinamool leaders and men engaged in real estate promotion.

Chief Minister Banerjee — who rushed to Bhowanipore police station from her Harish Chatterjee Street residence nearby — reportedly shouted at Kolkata Police Commissioner R K Pachnanda, Divisional Deputy Commissioner (South) D P Singh, and the head of the police station for stopping the immersion party. The chief minister also has charge of the state home department, and the police report directly to her.

Trouble began at around 9.30 pm. Local club Bhowanipore Players Association was taking its Jagaddhatri idol for immersion in a procession that was led by a loud band from the Sebak Sangha club, which is located at 14/1 Rani Sankari Lane, very close to where Banerjee lives.

A DJ was playing “masala Hindi numbers”, witnesses said; and both carriageways of S P Mukherjee Road were blocked as club members set off loud crackers right in front of Chittaranjan Cancer Institute.

A police request to club members not to disrupt traffic and disturb patients quickly degenerated into an argument, and the policemen were pelted with stones and bottles. Police retaliated with a lathicharge, and the mob entered the Bhowanipore police station, destroyed property and tried to set fire to several vehicles parked outside the police station. Private vehicles on the road were attacked as well.

The chief minister arrived on the scene at around 10.45 pm — apparently walking all the way after receiving news that some of her party members and supporters had been attacked by police in what is a Trinamool stronghold. She allegedly rebuked the Bhowanipore police station OC for having obstructed the Puja procession, and got the police to release two men who had been arrested for the rioting.

Tapas Saha and Sambhu Sau were allowed to go without cases being registered against them, sources said. No case has been registered against the procession organisers either. Officially police denied having taken anyone into custody.

Saha works full-time at Banerjee’s Kalighat party office. He is secretary of the Bhowanipore club, and has recently got a job with the Indian Railways. He was reportedly taken to hospital with injuries on his legs.

Sambhu Sau said, “Police arrested me and Tapas, threw us in the lock-up and began beating us. We are members of Trinamool Congress. The police refused to release us even after our leaders, Dr Nirmal Majhi, Dulal Sen, and Minister for Urban Development Firhad Hakim reached the police station. They relented only after Didi arrived. Didi is God to us. Didi arranged for my treatment and sent Tapas to hospital.”

Ratan Malakar, Trinamool councillor from Ward No. 73 where the club is located, said, “When our appeal to the police failed, Didi intervened. Her brother Baban Banerjee also reached the police station.”

Subhajeet Goon of Sebak Sangha club said, “After police told us to stop bursting crackers and playing loud music, we told them to take a look at our club banner and the address. Our club is located just beside Didi’s residence. But the officer started abusing. After that we could not control our rage.”

Goon added that Sebak Sangha members had gone to Banerjee’s home at around 10.30 pm to complain. “Didi did not waste time and rushed to the police station. Didi got our brothers released.”

D P Singh, DC (South), said, “We are yet to identify the people who ransacked the police station. We have started an inquiry. Some people were bursting loud crackers in front of the hospital and they were asked to stop doing that. In no time, they attacked our officers and the police station.”

An inquiry has been ordered into the alleged police failure, it was learnt from official sources.

Of threats and pressure tactics

By Marcus Dam

THE HINDU, November 5, 2011 01:22 IST  

Is the Trinamool Congress' reaction to the recent hike in petrol prices about its ‘tolerance' wearing thin or about fending off charges of complicity?

By threatening to pull out of the United Progressive Alliance government over the recent hike in petrol prices, the Trinamool Congress leadership is trying to wriggle out of a politically deleterious situation in which the Centre finds itself, as disaffection mounts over the spiralling prices of essential items.

Needless to say, the threat is being made from a position of strength, the Trinamool Congress being the second largest constituent of the UPA. If carried out, it could pull the rug from under the feet of the government.

Whether the threat will be carried out or not is, of course, another matter. But the Prime Minister is certainly in for some hard bargaining on his return from his overseas tour if the apple-cart is not to be upset. For, all such threats — by definition in political parlance — are, for all practical purposes, pressure tactics.

Under attack in recent times from both the Left parties and, albeit with less stridency, the Bharatiya Janata Party, for not speaking out against economic polices of the scam-tainted Congress-led government at the Centre, the Trinamool Congress has found in the fourth hike in petrol prices this year an opportunity to express its resentment over not being consulted by the Congress in matters of major consequence, despite being a constituent of the UPA.

And in one fell swoop, it would also invalidate claims by her political rivals that she, by being a silent spectator in the government, is apathetic to the problems of the common man buffeted by the rise in the prices of essential commodities.

That the Trinamool Congress is peeved over the Congress riding roughshod over it was made clear in the reminder by its chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee that while a pullout by the party would result in the toppling of the government at the Centre, it enjoyed a majority on its own and was not dependant on the Congress to stay in power in West Bengal.

Doubtless, the Congress in West Bengal plays second fiddle to the Trinamool — a political liaison that has rarely been harmonious but has survived because of the Congress in New Delhi insisting that it has. One can already see some more disgruntled sections of the Congress in the State secretly delighting in Ms. Banerjee's most recent posturing.

“Somebody has to bell the cat. If we are outside the government, we can at least speak in the interests of the people,” Ms. Banerjee has remarked. But it would be politically naïve to assume that the rise in the prices of petroleum products, the growing rate of food inflation and the consequent burden on the common man are the only reasons for her grouse.

Ever since assuming power in May, she has been expressing her displeasure over the Centre for failing to provide her government with a special financial package that would bail the State economy out of the bankruptcy it has allegedly inherited. The issue dominates her rhetoric. Is the pullout threat also a pressure tactic for extracting from the Centre the financial assistance?

By her own admission, the government of which her party is a part, has been responsible for the rise in prices of petroleum products “eleven times in twelve months” which she feels is “intolerable.” This begs the question why the Trinamool Congress was not as assertive of its opposition to the price hikes then, the way it is now. If one goes by what Ms. Banerjee has to say, it is the party's “tolerance” which is now wearing thin.

Or is it that the Trinamool Congress is finding it difficult to fend off charges of complicity each time there has been a rise in prices and of pursing an economic line that is no different from that of the Congress? For that has been the argument of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), its principal adversary in West Bengal.

At least the threat of a pullout from the government and all the hype it generates could be designed to project the impression that the party is not just sympathetic to the common man's concerns but that its position in the government should be taken more seriously by the Congress.

After all, over the past two-and-a-half years “we have not even been given a room [for the party] in Parliament,” not to talk of “we not willing to accept the burden [price rise] being thrust on the people,” according to Ms. Banerjee.

And even before one can doubt the seriousness of intent, she pre-empts any questions that could be asked in reference to it. The Trinamool Congress is not “blackmailing or bargaining” as might be made out by some, Ms. Banerjee, who has always had a penchant for histrionics, has said. “Forgive us, but we have not done any wrong,” she says, her hands folded.

Why is WB CM Mamata Banerjee silent?

TIMES NOW, 29 Oct 2011, 0937 hrs IST, AGENCIES

30 infants have died in 72 hours but that has still not prompted West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to come out and clarify on what her government is doing to stop babies from dying in government hospitals.

Thirteen newborns died in the Burdwan Medical College and four more at Kolkata's B C Roy Children's Hospital, which has witnessed a series of crib deaths, taking the toll in the two government hospitals in West Bengal to 30 on Friday.

Though the deaths have raised a question mark on the standard of healthcare in paediatric hospitals in the state, authorities claimed that it was not unusual.

Since Thursday, four babies died at the B C Roy Children's Hospital and 12 at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital, which also saw a death yesterday. "The one-to-three day-old babies were underweight and suffering from jaundice, encephalitis and septicaemia," Burdwan Medical College and Hospital Deputy Superintendent Tapas Kumar Ghosh said.

Deputy Director of Medical Education Susanta Banerjee and Health Commissioner Dilip Ghosh were sent by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to the hospital.

Banerjee said that there was no medical negligence in the death of the babies as they were referred in a moribund stage and that one or two deaths occurred daily. He said that in two and half months the number of beds would be increased to 190 from the current 60.

The Deputy Medical Superintendent of the hospital said the doctors did their best to save the lives of the babies at the hospital where 160 infants were being treated against its capacity of 60 beds.

At the B C Roy Children's Hospital, another four babies died taking up the toll there to 17 in the last three days. "Four babies, referred to us in a critical condition, died since yesterday," its superintendent D Pal said. There was "nothing abnormal or unusual" in the death of babies, mostly below one month, Pal said, as they were admitted in extremely critical conditions.

Pal said on an average, five infant deaths occurred in the hospital of the daily admission of nearly 300, mostly referred by district hospitals.

Noting that the hospital was overburdened with patients referred from district hospitals, Pal maintained that the best of care was given to the babies admitted.

The health department earlier gave a clean chit to the B C Roy Children's Hospital after an internal inquiry. The Director of Medical Education said no lapse was found in the treatment of the babies, who were brought in a moribund state.  


http://www.timesnow.tv/videoshow/4387550.cms

Sixteen more babies die in WB govt hospitals; toll 29

The Asian Age, 28 Oct, 2011

Four more babies died at Kolkata's B.C. Roy Children's Hospital, which has witnessed a series of crib deaths, besides 12 newborns in the Burdwan Medical College, taking the death toll in two government hospitals in West Bengal to 29 today.

Though the crib deaths have raised a question mark on the standard of medical care in paediatric hospitals in the state, hospital authorities claimed that it was 'not unusual'.

Twelve babies have died at the Burdwan Medical College and Hospital in Burdwan district and four at the B.C. Roy Children's Hospital here since yesterday, authorities said today.

"The one-to-three days old babies were underweight and suffering from jaundice, encephalitis and septicemia," Burdwan Medical College and Hospital Deputy Superintendent Tapas Kumar Ghosh said.

Doctors did their best to save the lives of the babies, but all were born with critical complaints at the hospital where 160 infants were being treated against its capacity of 60 beds, he said.

In Kolkata, at the B.C. Roy Children's Hospital, another four babies died taking up the toll there to 17 in the last three days.

"Four babies, referred to us in a critical condition, died in the hospital in the last 24 hours," its superintendent D Pal said.

There was 'nothing abnormal or unusual' in the death of babies, mostly below one month, Pal said, as they were admitted in an extremely critical condition.

Pal said on an average, five infant deaths occurred in the hospital of the daily admission of nearly 300, mostly referred by district hospitals.

Stating that the hospital was overburdened with patients referred from district hospitals, Pal maintained that the best of care was given to the babies admitted.

But The health department yesterday gave a clean chit to the B.C. Roy Children's Hospital after an internal inquiry.

Director of Medical Education Sushanta Banerjee said no lapse was found in the treatment of the babies, who were brought in a moribund state.