By
Pratim Ranjan Bose
The Hindu Business Line
29th December, 2012
Kolkata, Dec 28: Ideally, 2012
should have been a honeymoon year for the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool
Congress Government in West Bengal.
For a party formed in 1998, Trinamool had not
merely won the May 2011 elections with absolute majority but had also displaced
a three-decade old CPI (M)-led Left Front Government.
The credit for this change in regime goes
entirely to Banerjee. Ever since her victory in the 1984 General Elections (as
a Congress nominee), she had emerged as the most credible face of the
Opposition in the State.
She studied each and every move of her arch
rival carefully and, repeated the same tactics in her favour. And, since she
has not been indoctrinated with any known ideology, her doors were open to
everyone, from far Left to Right, as long as they opposed the CPI (M).
So, when the former Buddhadeb Bhattacharyya
Government, in its haste to industrialise the State, antagonised the party’s
rural support base, Banerjee utilised it to build a strong anti-land
acquisition campaign — more or less on similar lines as the Left did in the
1960s.
Careful to protect her image, she had always
held extreme positions — as in declining the last ditch attempt of the Left
Front Government to strike a compromise deal with the agitating farmers at
Singur — but promised to have a model in store to make everyone happy.
Though there is lack of clarity in the new Act,
land should be returned to unwilling farmers in Singur. Government will not
acquire land but investment should come in droves. The State coffers may be
empty but development will happen through PPP model and so on.
Cookie crumbles
But, the world clearly did not move the way
Banerjee wanted .
The court struck down a slew of legislations
ranging from the Singur Act (for taking over land from the possession of Tata
Motors and redistribute it to unwilling farmers) to amendments in the
cooperatives Act.
A series of Government actions, such as closing
down a private medical college or disbanding police unions were reversed by the
judiciary.
Investments — except those initiated during the
Left regime — have largely eluded the State. On the contrary, West Bengal had
lost committed investments from at least one IT major, due to Banerjee’s anti
SEZ policy.
Collective investment schemes (popularly
referred as ‘chit funds’), each mopping up thousands of crores of rupees a year
— either illegally or using legal loopholes — have mushroomed, promising sky
high returns from the investors.
The end result is that the State’s small savings
inflow has taken a hit, leading to further impact on West Bengal’s dwindling
finances.
On the firing line
It would be incorrect to say that Banerjee was
all wrong in her actions and assumptions. But, she suffered from two major
shortcomings: Intolerance to opposition or criticism and, major inadequacies in
party administration.
The result: Within one and a half year in power
and, another few months to go before Panchayat polls, the Trinamool is now
facing allegations of widespread corruption, from within.
News of clashes between different party factions
keeps pouring in. Examples of multiple Trinamool unions — owing allegiance to
different leaders — in the same organisation, are aplenty.
In Singur the party leaders are now faced with
angry protestors. The farmers are now left with neither money nor land.
Rabindranath Bhattacharya, three-time MLA from the constituency, since 2001,
has quit the State cabinet.
One MP fell out with the leadership almost a
year ago . Another MLA criticised the one-upmanship in the party and was
recently suspended. In-fighting is spreading even at the block levels.
And, expectation is rife in the political
circles that even a slightest decline in Trinamool’s electoral fortunes in the
Panchayat polls may accentuate the troubles.
Lessons not learnt
Going by the feedback on social networking
sites, Trinamool’s popularity is waning especially among the urban youth. Even
some party veterans admit to these concerns, albeit behind closed doors.
But, it is difficult to gauge whether Banerjee
takes such concerns seriously. For the moment, she is banking on distributing
bicycles to girls from minority sections or donating sickles (used in harvesting
the crop) and agri tools to keep her rural vote bank intact.
Though the fiscal strain has intensified, she
recently announced more jobs as well as higher pay (DA) to Government
employees. She could have offered more if the Centre had allowed the State to
pile up more debt disregarding the fiscal responsibility pact.
And, every embarrassment to her Government — be
it rape incidents or tribal protest against land acquisition by a coal miner —
are readily described as “conspiracy” of the CPI (M) or “sections of media” to
malign the Government.
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