Outlook – June 29, 2019

1 July 2019 OUTLOOK 33

clemen blocked potential opposition

voters. The TMC won some 34 per

cent panchayat seats uncontested.

Massive anger went untapped till the

BJP came as a viable support system.

There were graver flaws. Bengal saw a

proliferation of ‘syndicates’, unofficial

cartels that forced realtors to shell out a

percentage of the project cost against

the supply of low quality building mate-

rials. Active patronage of party satr-

aps meant the syndicates became the

face of the TMC. That meant extor-

tion. A legacy of the last decade of a dec-

adent Left rule, again, the TMC took it

to new heights. Even party leaders were

not spared. Sugato Bose, grandnephew

of Subhas Chandra Bose and former

MP, learnt it the hard way. One evening

in 2017, TMC extortionists went to his

ancestral house and demanded money

before he would be allowed to take up

renovation. He had to contact high-

er-ups, and the matter was leaked to the

press, before being resolved.

Meanwhile, industry was stagnating—

Mamata was, after all, the face of the

anti- Tata agitation at Singur. Revenues

were never enough—new superspecial-

ity hos pitals had no senior doctors.

Newly established universities had no

teachers or infrastructure. And govern-

ment employees, frustrated with tardi-

ness on the pay commission, have

started agitating. On top of that comes

the recent agitation of junior doctors,

signalling impatience in other sectors.

For many, BJP is not just a rabble- rou-

sing upstart but an alluring alternative.

A disheartened Mamata could take

lessons from the Left’s experience even

in this hour of moral defeat. In

their first two decades, they rode on

some good work—land reforms, rural

empowerment through pancha y-

ats, regularising teachers’ salaries

etc. But when agriculture started stag-

nating in the ’90s and growth halted,

they went down the neo-liberal path

ushered in by the Rao-Manmohan reg-

ime, forgetting that Bengal’s peasants

would not be beholden to them for-

ever. For the Left itself, curiously,

Mamata is still their ultimate nemesis.

Their own decimation notwithstand-

ing, they are more interested in seeing

Mamata fall. Even during the doctors’

strike, some Left leaders uncritically

lent support to it to corner Mam-

ata. Her appeals to the Left to rally beh-

ind her against the BJP are—as a

political positioning—too little, too late.

As things stand, the current gem of

counterintuitive politics—that Left

supporters went over to the BJP—has a

grain of truth to it. But that doesn’t exp-

SHOW-ALL

Mamata at an

Iftar in Calcutta

large number of students and a massive sec-

tion of the urban educated middle class have

become pro-BJP. The main reason for that is

because they see no alternative. The TMC

came with a popular mandate after the 34-

year rule of the Left Front was overturned.

But, in spite of having done some good work,

the TMC failed to bring about changes the

electorate of West Bengal expected.

Political violence and killings have become

par for the course in Bengal. Why is there so

little space for dissent?

The TMC worked hard at eliminating all oppo-

sition from Bengal, so much so that the

Congress and the Left have become practi-

cally non-existent. This is a great setback,

because you always need a strong Opposition

to check the excesses of the ruling party.

As a commentator and artiste do you think

dissent is essential for a society’s growth?

Of course! Dissent, debate and freedom of

expression are the pillars of democracy.

Actually, social media has been vocal in its

criticism of the ruling party, with many peo-

ple airing their views on Facebook, even

though the criticism is not always construc-

tive. But I doubt that the TMC has a cell to

actually monitor social media comments,

gauge the mood of the people and put the

feedback to effective use.

Do you think civil society in Bengal should

have played a pro-active role, staging public

demonstrations to condemn acts of violence?

Some of us did protest against many of the

wrongs of the ruling party from the start, but

the number wasn’t great. I think for quite a

while, people were expecting the TMC to de-

liver on their pre-election promises. Ordinary

people have their lives to lead and their liveli-

hoods to pursue. It is only when matters

come to a head like they did with the strike

of the junior doctors at NRS, that the whole

state sits up and people take to the streets.

An astonishingly large number of people

marched along with the doctors on June 14

to express their solidarity.

Civil society had taken the lead as con-

science-keeper of Bengali society during

Singur and Nandigram. Why was it silent in

the past eight years?

The atrocities in Singur and Nandigram had

shocked civil society. The Shilpi Sanskritik

Karmee Buddhijeebi Mancha was established

in 2007 to support farmers in their movement

against land grab. Everyone recognised the

need for industrialisation in Bengal, but not

at the cost of taking away fertile cropland.

The people who formed this forum were

mostly Leftist intellectuals. Sadly, most of

these towering figures have passed on. O

‘Trinamool failed to bring chan ges that Bengal’s electorate expected’

SANDIPAN CHATTERJEE