Bengal is up for change. And that has been in the offing and due for long. No multi-party pluralist liberal democratic largely capitalist system can and should have the same ruling dispensation for such a long time. It has been more than three decades in the case inWest Bengal! It is a case-study by itself, indeed.
But what we now need to debate is not whether the change is happening. That is written on the wall. The debate should be on what type of change, change to what new ruling dispensation, and to what short-term, mid-term and long-term impact.
On the one hand is the beleaguered Left Front led by its sulking Chief Minister, and with a disillusioned Party. The party and the leadership (not just the CM) must understand the mood of the people, brace up to accept the impending electoral defeat, not create further situation of intransigency now, and not use the remaining loyalty of police and armed cadre to further unleash terror in the country-side. Acceptance of the changing political reality will be graceful and in the long-term interests of the CPI(M) since the main opposition is not yet proven as rulers. Sitting in the opposition itself will purge CPI(M) of the myriad forces it now needs to distance itself from, while failure of the new rulers (if it so happens as in the case of Janata Party rule in Centre) will allow Left Front to catapult to power again (as was the case in Indira led Congress).
Acceptance of the changing political reality will be graceful and in the long-term interests of the CPI(M) since the main opposition is not yet proven as rulers.
But of much more significance to the average Bengali on the streets is the attitude and preparedness of the main opposition, Trinamool Congress and its effervescent leader Mamata Banerjee, to be the responsible rulers of a state where two generations have not seen any second set of rulers.
The promises made by TMC may be for the gallery: turning Kolkata into London, creating tourism paradise in the Bay of Bengal frontal areas, hill tourism of global standards in North Bengal, plethora of SMEs and the millions of small jobs they create, freedom of education and training, and the like.
But what is now necessary is first a Status Paper as to where does Bengal stand today in the light of whatever data that can be generated with the help of organizations like Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy and other bodies. And, then, where can the Mamata led government take the state to, say in the first hundred days, in the first two years, and then in the first tenure of five years. Statements of Visions 2015 and 2020 for Bengal with clarity on the way towards them shall be necessary to be created and put before the public.
On the other hand, goons have started their shift of loyalty, and so have the tainted police officers and bureaucrats, and even a section of local opportunist CPM and Congress leaders across Bengal today. Partly due to these same forces does the CPI (M) stand discredited today. In the hurry to crop short-term gains, locally, elements in TMC may end up rehabilitating these same elements and thereby ensuring the same type of poor governance and brutalized polity that has been the hallmark of the current government in the last few years. Some instances prove this apprehension, and the TMC leadership knows it.
Do Mamata and her immediate next leadership have the courage to say a big no to these elements? More importantly, does a section of TMC leadership have the desire even to say no, thank you, to these elements?
The candidature in local self governing bodies shows greater affinity of leadership towards long-standing grassroots cadres.
It is good that Jaago Bangla, a daily by TMC, has been launched with more than half a million copies going around the province daily, putting forth the direction for the party cadre at all levels, very much in the leftist tradition. There are talks of a television news channel being launched with the blessings of the effervescent Didi.
Also, the candidature in local self governing bodies shows greater affinity of leadership towards long-standing grassroots cadres. The positioning of Mamata among the intelligentsia has already been strengthened during the Nandigram agitation.
The tribals of the state under the siege of the Maoists and the joint para-military forces now need the support and succour from the next rulers of Bengal. They have for long been taken for granted, and as I write this piece, many of them are being arrested or killed and injured by these forces being branded as Maoist sympathisers.
Congress will attempt to stay relevant in Bengal which in effect means ensuring the limitations of TMC in future as well. However, it is the time for Mamata and her ilk to understand this, but still, come what may, stand firm on their own feet knowing it well that a divided opposition will not probably ensure TMC victory in Bengal in 2011 State Assembly polls. Mamata must personally ensure the Mahajot to continue in the interests of the Change she is talking about. Surely TMC must also carry along honourably all its left allies, like the SUCI and some smaller forces. Disgruntled left in favour of Mamata is a real good advantage in Bengal.
There are reasons to be hopeful. Mamata has started her series of actions to shed the dominant rebel-only image. Meetings with Chambers of Commerce, entrepreneurs, educationists, lawyers are being organized. Various quarters have been asked to forward their vision of Bengal a few years from now, and their expectations today.
The NGI Editorial board has also been requested by the leader of the opposition in the Bengal assembly to create a Bengal Tomorrow note putting forth all that the Bengali intelligentsia and business community outside Bengal would ideally want the new government to look at closely. We are currently developing the same.
