ravishingravi Posted May 13, 2011 Posted May 13, 2011 By Arnab Ray ‘I remember an uncle of mine saying loudly, ‘Two things I will not see before I die– India winning the soccer World Cup and the Left front getting voted out. Well, dear uncle: You have just witnessed the more improbable of the two.’ It was sometime in the late 80s. The Red Baron of the Left Front Jyoti Basu ruled supreme in West Bengal. Bang in the middle of summer, Kolkata was in the grip of yet another apocalyptic spell of power cuts, so severe that even those enamored of the anti-imperial state government could not help from quipping —“I will take you from darkness to light said Jeesu. I will take you from light to darkness says Boshu,†(Jeesu is Bengali for Jesus and Boshu is how Bengalis pronounce Basu). One evening, as our entire locality plunged into darkness, I remember an uncle of mine swearing loudly, “Two things I will not see before I die– India winning the soccer World Cup and the Left front getting voted out.†Well, dear uncle: You have just witnessed the more improbable of the two. For our generation, which grew up in the poisonous shadow of nearly three-and-a-half decades of Communist Party India (Marxist)/Left-front rule, the coming to power of the Trinamool Congress is a Berlin-wall-breaking moment. Once upon a time one of country’s leading regions, under Communist rule West Bengal has lagged behind nearly every state on almost all indices of development. Yet it didn’t seem to matter to the electoral fortunes of the Reds—they had dug their tentacles so deep into every institution in Bengal that it seemed impossible to wrench the state from their lifeless hands. Now, the Left’s bastion has finally been breached. On Friday the 13th, no less. For this dramatic collapse, we can thank Mr. Basu’s successor, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya’s severely botched attempts to industrialize the state and his administration’s continued use of violence to push forward his reckless developmental agenda. That this time state violence was one of the factors that led to the party’s defeat, was largely because of the united opposition, under the banner of the indefatigable Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the Trinamool Congress. Famous all over India as the Railway Minister who makes all trains run through Bengal – even those going from Mumbai to Chennai – Didi, as Ms. Banerjee is affectionately known, has promised to bring the state back on the path of progress. No not just that: She has promised something even more far-fetched—to turn the moribund city of Kolkata into London. Looking into my crystal ball though, I don’t see Kolkata looking remotely like London any time soon. But I see Buddha-babu pouring over Communist tomes under dust-covered portraits of Lenin, writing on a piece of paper a hundred times, Bart Simpson-style, “I shall not hobnob with big business.†I see the CPI(M) brain-trust realizing that being in the opposition is not such a bad thing after all; one can throw a spanner in anything constructive, a privilege Ms. Banerjee enjoyed for decades. They will also rediscover the joys of the disruptive political techniques that they brought into Bengal politics. I see cease-work and strikes, most of which will be on Fridays and Mondays – since revolutions are best attempted on long weekends. In the ball, I also see a thundering Didi unleashing more rhetoric of the “Ma Mati Manush†type (Bengali for mother, earth and human), a random juxtaposition of words that sounds profound but really means nothing. I see reckless populism like when she asked for a public holiday after India won the cricket World Cup – quite oblivious to the costs of an unplanned day-off on the economy. What I do not see, however, is any kind of step-by-step rescue plan, free of political hot-air, but with realistic goals – like, for instance, aiming to become more like Ahmedabad rather than London. http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2011/05/13/west-bengal-through-the-crystal-ball/# Sums it up nicely
Sachin=GOD Posted May 13, 2011 Posted May 13, 2011 What I do not see, however, is any kind of step-by-step rescue plan, free of political hot-air, but with realistic goals – like, for instance, aiming to become more like Ahmedabad rather than London. Sad but true.
Prakat Posted May 13, 2011 Posted May 13, 2011 Wow, I remember those power cuts! There was also a joke doing the rounds about "Jyoti" and the absence of light.
Sachin=GOD Posted May 13, 2011 Posted May 13, 2011 ^No chance. If I'm not wrong, Left still controls the Unions etc in the State and as the article said - they have dug their tentacles deep into every institution in Bengal - it will be very, very difficult for her to try and change things. Also, she's an opportunist and a bit volatile/unstable type of a leader so I don't expect much to change in WB for quite some time.
ViruRulez Posted May 13, 2011 Posted May 13, 2011 can she do the same what Nitish Kumar did in Bihar she is the biggest opportunist and will be worse than left ... she would never even come near to Nitish or Patnaik
Sachin=GOD Posted May 13, 2011 Posted May 13, 2011 The man who let it go Sumit Mitra May 12, 2011 In Blink, American author Malcolm Gladwell’s popular book on snap judgement — “the power of thinking without thinkingâ€â€” there is the curious case of Warren Harding. In the ‘Warren Harding error’, the Republicans got carried away by his irresistibly distinguished look — his biographer compared him to Julius Caesar — and pushed him all the way to the White House in 1920. As President, he was an unmitigated disaster and when he abruptly died midway through his term, the nation was not particularly sincere in its mourning. In Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who replaced Jyoti Basu as chief minister of West Bengal in 2000, his party, the CPI(M), found a man who, they thought, would not only pass off as ‘cultured’, but also reflect the generational shift in the concept of ‘bhadralok’, the Bengali word denoting a class with multiple shades. In other words, a home grown ‘bhadralok’ was wanted, as Basu was at times too subtle, if not foreign, for the comprehension of the rather thuggish men who filled the CPI(M)’s ranks. They got a Harding instead. Of course that does not mean that Bhattacharjee is the sole author of his party’s debacle, or rather he’s some kind of a dhoti-clad Gorbachev. Maybe the CPI(M) would have trooped out of the exit door a decade ago if the Election Commission (EC) were as non-partisan then as it now is. Or if LK Advani, the then home minister, in his typical convoluted thinking that makes him think of Muhammad Ali Jinnah as secular and CPI(M) a gentlemen’s club, hadn’t been so reluctant to release enough central paramilitary forces to help the EC prevent the CPI(M) brigands from hijacking voting machines. The party would then have been over long ago, and correctly so. Instead, it stayed on and put Bhattacharjee in the saddle, and the man, by his monumental incompetence, made the party a hate object in its exit. Under the CPI(M), there was never a distinction between the party and the government. But in Bhattacharjee’s tenure, the state party virtually disintegrated in a few years, with power slipping into the hands of a clutch of local goons. While he as chief minister held on to the additional charge of the home department, the police superintendents were taking orders not from him but the local party toughs. The police would not entertain a complaint without a nod from the local party. Lawlessness bred a fresh eruption of Maoist violence. The CPI(M) hired killers in its own backyards to keep the opposition on a short leash. Bhattacharjee was too much of a wimp to stop all that. Besides, he lacked the practical sense of Basu, his predecessor, who, never ventured to acquire land for industrialisation by coercing the farmer. In fact, the CPI(M) earned its popularity initially by distributing surplus land among the landless. In other words, it created a propertied class. But Bhattacharjee dug his own (and his party’s) grave by ordering forcible acquisition of land at Singur near Kolkata for the Tatas’ Nano factory. It made his antagonist Mamata Banerjee smell blood. Her successful campaign to block the Nano project was the beginning of the CPIM)’s end. Bhattacharjee, 67, had grown in a Calcutta of too many problems and too much ambition, which had made leftism a sort of popular religion of the city. But he became his party’s face in a different Calcutta — Kolkata rather — where ideology didn’t matter anymore and the place was reconciled to its mediocre status in post-Independence India. He thought his chair gave him the power to wish history away. So, dreaming up a Bengal that would be part Guangdong and part Silicon Valley, he chirpily called Ratan Tata by his first name and signed away land to him. In a blink! If Stalin was his boss, instead of Jyoti Basu, he would have long since been sent to the Gulag for being a bourgeois windbag or, well, a ‘thought-criminal’. Hindustan Times
CSK Fan Posted May 13, 2011 Posted May 13, 2011 Doesnt matter how bad Mamta's performance as a CM is. WB needed change and this is change. Once the CPIM stranglehold has eased, in the future, development will come sooner or later. Hopefully this is the first step towards future prosperity by a state with so much potential
saneindian Posted May 14, 2011 Posted May 14, 2011 The left parties are at crossroads now. They have two options before them: a. reform themselves and adopt the china model of economic development which supports private enterprise under government supervision b. Continue to entangle itself in the diacrded and outdated marxist and leninist theories of economics For a to happen, the moderates like Sitaram Yechuri have to come to the fore but given the stranglehld that hardliners like Karat and co have in the left parties, most likely we will see the leftists stick to point B. They will do all they can to block any development activities, unionism, strike, chakka jams will become a commonfare at least for initial years. This is where Mamta needs to be a little more prudent and ensure she has got the congress in the WB govt depite having her own majority. The sagacity and networking of someone like Pranab Mukherjee guiding a rookie like Mamta Bannerjee is something that will work the best for Bengal.
kubrickian Posted May 14, 2011 Posted May 14, 2011 I dont understand how Bengal can remain backward for so long and people never wanted any change of rule for 30 + years. Its mind boggling.
Texan Posted February 8, 2015 Posted February 8, 2015 Mamata govt staring at Rs 10k cr tax deficit http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Mamata-govt-staring-at-Rs-10k-cr-tax-deficit/articleshow/46160989.cms Mamata took a delapidated state of WB and made it even more miserable it seems.
CSK Fan Posted February 8, 2015 Posted February 8, 2015 Doesnt matter how bad Mamta's performance as a CM is. WB needed change and this is change. Once the CPIM stranglehold has eased' date=' in the future, development will come sooner or later. Hopefully this is the first step towards future prosperity by a state with so much potential[/quote'] I was so wrong. The state has gone even more backwards
adi B Posted February 8, 2015 Posted February 8, 2015 I was so wrong. The state has gone even more backwards As yoda says 'worst Bengal' .she is worst than the commies and the people of rural Bengal are dumbasses of the highest order!!
Yoda-esque Posted February 8, 2015 Posted February 8, 2015 Mamata govt staring at Rs 10k cr tax deficit http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/Mamata-govt-staring-at-Rs-10k-cr-tax-deficit/articleshow/46160989.cms Mamata took a delapidated state of WB and made it even more miserable it seems. wait and see...when she starts giving free wi-fi :giggle:
Sachin=GOD Posted October 2, 2015 Posted October 2, 2015 Bengal On The Brink Of A Second Partition Says Tapan Ghosh http://swarajyamag.com/politics/bengal-on-the-brink-of-a-second-partition-says-tapan-ghosh/
randomGuy Posted October 3, 2015 Posted October 3, 2015 Bengal On The Brink Of A Second Partition Says Tapan Ghosh http://swarajyamag.com/politics/bengal-on-the-brink-of-a-second-partition-says-tapan-ghosh/ State-wise fertility rate in India in 2013 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_states_ranking_by_fertility_rate If these figures are true, it would be strange that a state without high prosperity or literacy rate has such low fertility rate (1.6 children per woman). In this case, I guess it would be essentially the difference between Muslim and Hindu fertility rates which would be causing the demographic change.
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