If you ask someone from Bengal what they feel about their state, their sentiments will express deep frustration and concern. The deterioration in the democratic process and the ethical standards of governance in West Bengal has become a fact of life. The use of violence, intimidation, and other unfair tactics during elections and outside of election periods, is indeed a serious issue that undermines the principles of democracy and damages the social fabric of society.
Sadly, Bengal’s political culture has deteriorated.
Most TMC cadres are a law unto themselves. They often indulge in unlawful and undemocratic acts, including attempts to capture booths, terrorise voters, burn and destroy properties, burn livestock, divide people, oppress the Hindus, allow the Bangladeshis to enter illegally, etc.
The list of atrocities is endless. Polling booths are guarded by her punters and while this is done under the sharp eyes of the state police, the police turn a blind eye, for they work under the home minister, Mamata Banerjee herself.
In the euphoria of polls, these hooligans can go to any extent like beating people up, chopping off their fingers, throwing bombs and stones at them, threatening to sexually harm the women folk, damaging their home or their businesses by setting them ablaze, burn livestock, fire guns, etc. What can be more ironic in a state with a woman chief minister who likes to be called ‘Didi’ by all, but allows her brothers and sisters in the state to become political victims of her violent politics?
They say that if you want to box, you must have a fist. If you want to dance, you must have feet and if you wish to fly, you must hold a license. Mamata Banerjee has nothing to show for, as her achievements in the 12 long years she had been in power in West Bengal. The intelligent voter has seen through her shenanigans, for after all, 12 long years are years too many, to not be able to gauge the leader they had mistakenly voted in. Unable to bring about any development or eradicate poverty by improving living standards, West Bengal remains backward and under-developed. West Bengal lacks infrastructure development and market energy.
In Bengal, there is an absence of a robust and vibrant job and business environment and its volatile and discomforting political environment shuns industries and industrialists to venture into business there. No one wishes to invest in the state. Hence, the job market is deficient and has left the youth with perished dreams. Such an environment has made Bengal lose out on its youth workforce to other states. Once gone, the educated, the skilled, the intelligent, the entrepreneurs and the peace lovers, never return to Bengal. Once gone, they are relieved of the fear of the omnipresent goons who do not hesitate to ask for ransom for every business in a common man’s life. But why should Mamata care?
Getting rid of the Tatas from Singur had already alerted people about Mamata Banerjee’s opposition to creating a healthy and stout industrial platform in Bengal. Industrialisation would have meant plentiful jobs and jobs would give good sustenance to the common man and would exit him from poverty. This is exactly what Mamata Banerjee did not want. The Singur incident exposed her mindset, making it obvious that she was anti-business. To control the poor, one needs to keep the people impoverished and begging for alms. She gives them alms through the money the Central government generously provides for the development of West Bengal, which Mamata Banerjee then packages as her social schemes under a vernacular name, to popularise her Robin Hood image with the rural public and the poor.
The large-scale West Bengal School Service Recruitment scam will go down in history as one of the most deplorable scams, affecting both students and teachers of Bengal. The arrest of TMC State Education Minister Partho Chatterjee for his involvement in the scam involving the operations of a well-established network of touts and agents, collecting money on behalf of the government, to provide jobs in lieu of bribes and money, has no equal elsewhere. To indulge in such a scandal, any party would have to be devoid of any conscience or integrity, to allow the future and development of the children of West Bengal fall into the hands of teachers, not qualified or capable of teaching, but who were given jobs in state-run schools.
The other financial scandals of Narada, Sarada and Rose Valley chit funds, the ration distribution scandal which sent state minister Jyoti Priya Mallik to jail, the arrest of a key Mamata aide, Anubrata Mondol and his daughter who were embroiled in the cattle scam and now spending time in jail are some of the scandals that have exposed Mamata’s leadership of West Bengal.
Mamata also alleges that the Centre does not give her funds to run her social and development projects in West Bengal, when in reality, her government has failed to provide certificates for projects around Rs 2 lakh crore in West Bengal and the Comptroller and Auditor General of India’s report has exposed the financial misappropriation of the money from the public exchequer by the West Bengal government.
Instead of apologising to the public with folded hands and asking for forgiveness for leading a dacoit and bandit-led party, Mamata Banerjee remains unfazed, in her arrogance and hunger for power. Whenever her government’s corruption gets revealed, she blames the BJP government for indulging in revenge politics!
When people wonder where the TMC gets their funds from or how their ministers have become rich, it is from the corruption and cut money they have been earning during their tenure. The TMC has ruined the mindset and the culture of the people of Bengal, making them believe that bribery is a way of life and is collected as a success fee and so it is neither a matter of conscience nor crime.
Mamata has learned to camouflage her fears well, particularly during elections when she fears that the people’s mandate will not be for her. She exudes aggressiveness and shows off a false aura of confidence at public rallies and election events. As and when required, she quickly replaces aggressiveness with defensiveness laced with helplessness to give martyrdom to her image and sell to the crowds that all her woes are the creation of Opposition, her bete noire, the BJP.
Mamata Banerjee has become a leader with little or no credibility for she has no reservations about telling on-the-spot lies to an audience who are sometimes not her genuine supporters, but are brought to her political events on payment of money. Her speech knows no boundaries and she does not hesitate to spew lies about the Election Commission or the central forces or the prime minister or the BJP’s policies. She will stand on a stage and arouse Muslim sentiments and fan their fears by telling them to be alert against the Hindus on any important Hindu festival day, warning them that the Hindus might attack them.
She often likes to alert the Muslims of West Bengal that the UCC, NRC and the CAA are detrimental to their future in India; that it is the way of the Modi government to evict Muslims from India forever. To pretend to be a follower of Islam, she will read the ‘Kalma’ in public to appease her Muslim voters and maintain her pro-Muslim imagery and also mention Allah’s name every now. On many an occasion, she has pulled the cover of her sari and tucked it behind her ears, to look very much like a Muslim lady. Then, when she realises she might have overdone her character as an actor, Mamata Banerjee begins to recite Hindu verses and mantras, often making a mockery of her own self, by making mistakes in her rendition of them.
Modi’s word of ‘guarantee’ this election season is giving Mamata Banerjee sleepless nights. The ‘sab ka saath, sab ka vikas, sab ka vishwas, sab ka prayaas’ line is a googly ball that she does not know how to duck. This potent, all-inclusive tagline encouraging all the people of India, irrespective of their caste, religion, or region, to join hands to avail a developed Bharat, is beyond Mamata Banerjee’s grasp. A developed Bharat would include a developed West Bengal and a developed West Bengal would need vote-bank and identity politics to go away.
The author is a columnist, educationist, social worker, advisor to Indian and foreign organisations and trainer and mentor of senior executives in corporate India. She is also a member of the BJP. Views expressed are personal.