Violence: Mamata's leadership

The country admires Bengal for producing intellectual human resources. Unfortunately, the same talent has been of a little use for the state. When all Dadas failed to help the state to take off, Didi came to claim the throne; and succeeded. But surprisingly, she not only repeated some mistakes of the previous government, but also committed some more bigger and critical unforced errors.

To start off with, crimes against women are at their peak – or are being reported more, whichever way you look at it. A report recently released by the National Commission for Women said “rape cases in Bengal are twice the national average.” Another report by a New Delhi based NGO Maitree revealed that the state records “the second highest number of rape cases in the country and it has the lowest conviction rate.” Mamata Banerjee’s now famous comment on the infamous Park Street rape case perhaps epitomises the essence of her orientation towards such crime incidents. She had then said, “Everything has a positive and a negative side. Rape cases are exaggerated by a group of journalists. Such incidents are glorified by a section of news channels too.” In addition, her promises to put a stop to political clashes and violence – that have been part and parcel of Bengal politics since ages – have fallen flat; the incidents have continued.

The recent, deliberate police firing on the anti-land acquisition agitators at Loba village of Birbhum district on November 9, 2012 is another case in point. (Read a related Special Story in this issue of TSI.) Now, the mastermind of directing protests doesn’t seem to be ready to handle big land acquisition operations. Though the Loba firing is nowhere near to Singur, with the protest taking bigger shape, and media – including yours truly – being quite ready to point out each and every mistake being committed, Mamata requires an immediate PR intervention exercise. The Panchayat elections in May next year could well be a test she would wish to pass with flying colours. For that, she again has to get down to the level of people getting affected on a daily basis in Bengal. What wonders it would have done if Mamata had herself gone and met the rape victims, or met the Loda protestors immediately post the violence? A CM’s job is not just passing policy files (which she apparently does unilaterally), but also being the spokesperson of the government. Our suggestion to Didi, please stop talking to media, please start talking to people. If it took a few months for you to self-destroy your profile, it will take lesser to gain it back. Just follow what we said…umm, unilaterally if you please.