JOIN USIt is often seen that a successful agitator flounders when given the charge of governance. Mamata is now facing that problem.
Politics has become a dirty game
Earlier it meant great fame
Now politics mean big business
Party offices have become
commercial complexes
When a man is hungry
He is always angry
How can the hungry man recognise beauty
And understand what is his duty
There is no prize for guessing the poet who composed these rustic rhymes loaded with simplistic moral values. Mamata Banerjee, as she believes to see herself as a renaissance person, delves into painting, poetry and prose writing, singing and also politics.
In a state with long tradition of politicians coming from the elites of the society, Mamata is different. Unlike her predecessors in Bengal politics (Dr B C Roy, Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Jyoti Basu and Buddhdev Bhattacharjee), Mamata hails from a plebian background, with very little education, and far less social connections. Yet, with sheer doggedness she could lead a mass movement which eventually dethroned the Left from the seat of power in the state.
The Left Front had (led by CPI-M) in its first decade of rule presented a pro-poor government to the people of Bengal. The pro-poor measures like land reform, ‘operation barga’, introduction of three tier Panchayat system in rural Bengal, and regular salary from the state exchequer for the school and college teachers were all taken in that period. In most of the cases, the government had taken the people into confidence through popular campaigns launched by the ruling party.
As a consequence, the Opposition (the Congress) became mostly ineffective, bereft of any political agenda. This emboldened the Left and also made them complacent, resulting into over reliance on government bureaucracy to deliver the deliverables to the people. Moreover, at the behest of the ruling party, the panchayat was used to buy allegiance and create a patron-client relationship in rural Bengal by punishing or rewarding the people.
Thus, over a period the rural society was vertically split into two: those who got something from the ruling establishment, and those who did not. With the disconnect between the ruling party and the people increasing, the ruling CPI(M) started relying more and more on money and muscle power to mobilise votes in both urban and rural areas. Exasperated with the tyrannical ways of the ruling party, the people started looking for a viable option. They found it in Mamata.
Mamata had taken the Left (albeit CPI-M) too seriously. She, in her wisdom, thought the best way of retaining power was to do the way the CPI(M) did it. So, she started mimicking the Left in her agitation programs. The songs made popular by IPTA (Left’s cultural organisation) started to resonate from the Trinamool Congress stage. The martyrs’ families, who gave their lives taking part in the peasant movements of yester years, were brought onto Trinamool stage and were honoured by Mamata. Explaining this act, Mamata had herself said that Leftism was not bad, only the CPI(M) version was.
After becoming the chief minister, Mamata continued her pro Left posturing with opposition to opening up of retail sector and insurance sector. Keeping in mind that anti-Left peasant movement at Singur and Nandigram catapulted her in the seat of power, Mamata tried to position her party as an anti-capital, pro-poor one. Thus, her first act after assuming power was to take back the Singur land from the Tatas, an act which has been challenged in court. Also, a “Hands Off’ policy on acquisition of farm land for industry resulted in a drought in investment in the state.
Only face of govt
But unlike the Left political organisations, in Trinamool Congress, all the power is vested in Mamata and Mamata alone. She became the only face of her government and party. In that she went the way of other regional party leaders like Mayawati and Jayalalitha. She continued to address the people directly. Like her poetry, she communicates to people in a very direct but rustic language. Her election manifesto of 2009 was a case in point, wherein she made promises to people of turning Digha into Goa, Darjeeling hills into Switzerland and Kolkata into London. The elites in Kolkata laughed at her, but that did not deter Mamata from reiterating the promises as she knew the poor rural folk shared her ‘absurd dream’. In parliamentary democracy, number counts most, and the rural folk have numbers with them. ‘Mamata Magic’ worked among them and brought her into power.
Negative response
It is often seen that a successful agitator flounders when given the charge of governance. Mamata is now facing that problem herself. The recent spate of rape and killings in the state, and the negative response of the government in general and of the chief minister in particular, did not go well with the urban milieu. The Saradha chit fund scam and the alleged involvement of some of the important leaders
of Trinamool in it did not augur well for the image of the government.
The rampant cases of extortion by the ruling party leaders and partisan attitude of the government became brazenly evident in these and other day to day matters. The disenchantment of the urban intelligentsia became palpable when a silent protest march in the heart of Kolkata was led by poet Sankho Ghosh and some other leading lights of society against the insensitive approach of the government towards the growing menace of rape incidents. In coming days, the voice of protest would only increase.
(The writer is a senior journalist and political analyst. The verses quoted at the beginning of the article are from Motherland, a collectionof poems by Mamata Banerjee.)
Related Stories