Where is the change?

People say it’s not time yet to pass a judgment on Mamata Banerjee’s regime. The current trends may change any moment. The previous government ruled for 34 years, and has a lot to account for. I would, therefore, like to point out the trends that should change. We must, therefore, appropriately begin with an account of the failures of the past regime.

 

While Jyoti Basu represented the whole Left Font as the chief minister of Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee eventually became the chief minister of the CPI-M alone, having fallen out with the partners. We expected Mamata Banerjee to be the chief minister of all the citizens of the state as she, as the opposition leader, gave the call “dolotontro noi, gonotontro chai” (we want democracy, not partisanship) and “bodla noi, bodol chai” (we want change for the better,
not revenge).

 

But has she been true to her words so far?

 

Take this example. At Betberia, close to Baruipur in South 24 Parganas, a gentleman called Akhilesh Misra happened to be an organiser of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). He complained to his party bosses that some workers of the CPI-M were getting increasingly involved in the buying and selling of land and girl trafficking and that the party ought to restrain them. He was told that the CPI-M had enough workers like him for doing the kind of work he was doing and that he would do better minding his own business. But Akhilesh continued to oppose human trafficking and real estate development. He was killed in broad daylight and the CPI-M government just looked the other way.

 

Unlike Akhilesh, Dr. Amal Samaddar of the same place had joined the CPI-M, but couldn’t work much for the party as he had his practice to look after. He was killed by a few Trinamool Congress activists, who were actually turncoats. These people had recently left CPI-M and joined TMC. His wife, Bhanu, complains that she sees the killers roaming around freely but the police say they are absconding. So much for the law and order and justice. 

 

There is another example that throws some light on the state of affairs in Bengal. Damayanti Sen, an IPS officer, headed the detective department of Kolkata police and was instrumental in resolving the Park Street rape case. She has been transferred to Police Training Department, which, as everybody understands, is like practically sidelining an officer. She had been in the detective department for eight years, so her transfer was due. But couldn’t she have been considered for a more action-oriented role?

 

When the Nandigram movement started, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee ordered his troops to “blow up” the agitators. These agitators were our fellow citizens, not enemies. The previous chief minister had divided up the polity into us and them – between those who opposed his party, and those who didn’t. We expect the present chief minister Mamata Banerjee to be more humane and kind as she has promised by declaring her love for ‘ma, maati, manush’. In a way, the people of Singur and Nandigram are the architect of her fortunes. But what is the reality? Senior TMC leader Dola Sen didn’t allow Radharani Ari, twice raped by the CPI-M cadres at Nandigram, to meet the chief minister after the victory. Radharani was trying to meet the chief minister to seek justice. I’m not sure the rape victims of Nandigram can expect justice even after the change of government.

 

Does Mamata Banerjee look like ensuring the rule of law, as she had promised, and which is a precondition to democracy? She even promised the de-politicise education. What is she doing to keep her promise now that she is in power?

 

It’s good that some of the false charges against the TMC leaders and workers are being withdrawn in East Medinipur, Burdwan and Hooghly, but that alone is not an assurance of the rule of law. Here’s the proof. At Raiganj University College, during student union election, Trinamool activists harassed the teacher-in-charge, Dilip De Sarkar, who eventually resigned. The SFI activists of Majdia Sudhir Ranjan Lahiri College, Nadia, indulged in similar activities. But the police preferred to slap bailable charges on students in the Raiganj case, while it slapped non-bailable charges against the Majdia students though the crime was of similar nature in both the cases. Result: the Students Federation of India at Majdia College won hands down. If it’s an indicator of something, Mamata Banerjee had better be careful. 

 

(The views expressed by the author are personal)