A K B Krishnan

Through a series of strikes, shut-downs and blockades in the name of governance, they managed to reduce Kolkata from a highly industrialised and culturally vibrant city to a poverty-stricken, crime-infested basket case. The Marxists would brook no opposition to their skewed socialist ideology and if anyone dared otherwise, a visit from the “comrades” would settle issue once and for all. A body bag would float in the Hooghly that same night. An independent report by noted economists Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari, after evaluating the state’s inexorable slide into miserable poverty, had described West Bengal under the CPM thus: “This is not a democracy. It is a kleistocracy, an aristocracy for the the party.”

So, when Mamata Banerjee dared them in 2011 and came up with a thumping majority in the state assembly elections, the collective sigh of relief could be heard all the way up here in New Delhi. They danced on the streets of Kolkata. There was genuine jubilation that not only had the Bengali been rid of a poison that had affected him for a generation but had, in turn, managed to install a true people’s leader who knew exactly what ailed the state and how to remedy the situation.

Indeed Banerjee set off on the right note. One of her first decisions after becoming chief minister was to return nearly 400 acres to farmers of Singur, fertile agricultural land that was somewhat forcibly acquired by the Marxist government as part of a plan to establish a special economic zone for an Indonesian firm. Fresh regulations were brought in to help improve education and healthcare. A solution to the longstanding Gorkhaland issue was hammered out by establishing a new territorial administration. Considering how the Marxists had turned Kolkata into an unsafe city, law and order received special attention from the chief minister herself. Everything looked moving towards a resurgent West Bengal. Time magazine voted Banerjee as one of the top 100 most influential women in the world.

And then something snapped. Or so it seems. Banerjee, or ‘Didi’ as she is affectionately called by fellow-Bengalis and much of her admirers outside the state, started seeing demons, as it were, in anything and everything that was critical of her or her party. Even the 2012 gang-rape of a 37-year-old Anglo-Indian woman in a moving taxi - which eventually came to be known as the Park Street rape case - was, according to Banerjee, a conspiracy against her government whereas ultimately her own police force cracked the case after an year-long investigation and proved that there was no politics involved.

The chief minister’s post is an august one. You expect standard-bearing sense of decorum, both in action and words, from the chief minister. OK, that’s a bit much in the present Indian context. But you don’t want your chief minister to use language that could send film censors on overdrive. But the ‘Didi’ could not be bothered about such niceties. Her by-now notorious “bamboo” profanity to describe what she felt of the CPM has got much of Bengal outraged.

And rage has been the prime emotion on display in Banerjee’s interactions lately. Like her attack on the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for its actions against her minions in the multi-billion rupee ‘Ponzi’ scam that is currently hogging the headlines. It reached such a state that she led a protest against herself, in a manner of speaking. She got Kolkata to shut down as she and her legion took to the streets last week to protest against the arrest of her transport minister Madan Mitra. Apart from the giant gridlock it caused on the streets of that crowded, crumbling city, ‘Didi’s’ effort resulted in the loss of a few million man-hours, the economic impact of which, in the ultimate analysis, she herself would have to face up to. Crippling normal life in Kolkata was Banerjee’s way of protesting against New Delhi.

The last time a state chief minister sat in protest in his own backyard you know what happened. No, Banerjee is in no danger of losing her grip over West Bengal in the near future, unlike what happened to Arvind Kejriwal in Delhi. But you will end up shooting yourself in the foot if you react emotionally to what is strictly a matter of law.

The Supreme Court had entrusted the task of investigating the Saradha scam to the CBI. And although the court is not overseeing the day-to-day progress of the investigation, say, as in the 2G scam, it is well aware of what is going on. The case was assigned to the CBI as far back on May 9, 2013. That was more than a year before Narendra Modi became prime minister. But Banerjee would have us believe that Modi is behind everything that the CBI is doing. If the agency has arrested three of her close confidantes with what it claims to be incontrovertible proof of having their hands in the Saradha till, then it’s Modi who is getting it done.

In its defence of the arrest of Mitra, the CBI had produced, among other things, several photos of the minister with Saradha boss Sudipta Sen. Mitra had also publicly exhorted Bengalis to deposit their savings in Saradha schemes. But Banerjee took it upon herself to harangue the prime minister saying she had photos of Modi with discredited Sahara India boss Subrato Roy, who is now in jail, and wanted to know why the prime minister should not be arrested! That’s the level of debate she has brought the issue to.

It is OK if the matter is confined to allegations and counter-allegations. A rumbustious, disorderly democracy like India can, to a large extent, take such things in its stride. But it really hurts when the nation’s parliament is held hostage to the whim and fancy of a regional leader. Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress is leaving no stone unturned to disturb normal legislative business, especially in the upper house, under one pretext or the other. That fringe elements of the saffron brigade have been doing their best to add fuel to the fire should not diminish the fact that Modi himself had made it clear on the floor of parliament that his government’s focus on development will not be derailed. But small minds of Trinamool and its ilk have their own agendas.

Reports say that Banerjee had asked her party’s MPs to attack the ruling BJP for what she calls “vendetta politics” and they have been doing a very faithful job of it. For more than ten days now all that the upper house has witnessed is shouting and adjournments. The Congress, for its part, found the situation especially to its liking and has joined the shouting match. At least one Congress member of Rajya Sabha had to be named by the Chairman and expelled from the house. Trinamool spokesman and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brian has declared that his party would not let the house function.

Of course it is primarily the ruling dispensation’s responsibility to make sure that parliament functions to the best of its ability and that legislative work is never disrupted. But an opposition bent on disruption can leave even the best intentions of the government of the day in disarray. Several key economic policy reforms were to have been tabled in the ongoing session of parliament but the chaos in the Rajya Sabha has set everything back. But national interest and greater common good are not on the agenda of parochialist political formations. Parties in Tamil Nadu are perhaps prime examples of this.

If Banerjee has proof that charges against her partymen in the Saradha scam are baseless, she must defend them in court to the best of her ability and let the court decide one way or the other. (On the other hand, suspended Trinamool MP Kunal Ghosh has claimed he has evidence that even Banerjee is involved in the scam). Disrupting public life in Kolkata and obstructing informed debate in parliament are not the ways to defend alleged culprits in a Ponzi scam. Nor is it a path to progress. Getting rid of the communist yoke off the Bengali’s shoulders was a great achievement. But that was only half the battle won. The other half is to make sure that West Bengal becomes a healthy, educated and prosperous state. That’s still a work in progress. If Banerjee allows herself to deviate from this narrative then she will have only herself to blame.