Mamata is under siege!

Mamata Banerjee had to substantially compromise in critical aspects more than for the sake of vesting power out of the hands of the Left Front-led government of West Bengal. One was her rather immature act of driving the Tatas out of Bengal and the adverse impacts felt to this day with regards to her dreams of industrialization.

She had to rein in the left supporters, who controlled rural Bengal, who quit their party to join ‘Didi,’ but their political ideologies changed only on the surface, from the red hammer and sickle flag to the tri-coloured grass-flowers of the Trinamool party. The overzealous expansion of the party, admitting millions of workers in a job-starved state, had its flip side. They became law unto themselves, running syndicates, taking cut-money, etc., which soon started moving up to her cabinet colleagues.

The sudden change in the frugal lifestyle of Bengal politicians strangely raised a few eyebrows, limiting them to political opponents as the once-proud Bengal gave in to materialism. Palatial mansions and luxury cars of the leaders became the order of the day, none questioning the source of income, way beyond the declared amounts. A proud Bengal was converted into a corruption-steeped state, competing with many other Indian states in just about a decade.

Be that as it may, two senior cabinet colleagues have been arrested, along with many other officials. The corruption seems to have spread into a variety of areas: coal, appointments in the education sector, MGNREGA, rations, and now housing and municipal appointments. There could be more, as the ingenuity of the state with the highest Nobel laureates is beyond doubt.

The Bengal CM has challenged the arrests and says they are all political vendettas. Her voice seems to have been lost in the roar of the ED’s convoys zooming into the state with raids and more arrests. The precision of the attack by the investigating agencies seems to raise serious doubts about an insider’s job. With more ministers likely on the list of the ED, surely the beleaguered CM needs to do some conjuring trick to turn it to her advantage, which may be difficult.

The tattered state BJP seems to be busy being in the good books of the center, reminding the famous ‘Bengal-crab story,’ each leader pulling their other one down. Mamata, despite the fall of a few wickets, is still confident of an easy win over her rivals in the 2024 elections. However, if the noose tightens over her family members, she might have to step down and call for the assembly elections, though right now it seems to be the devil’s option.

Posters and statements of a newly revamped Trinamool party to ‘Serve’ Bengal have started appearing, pointing at a change of guard to lead, just as the CPM party dumped Jyoti Basu and brought in Buddhadev Bhattacharjee as the new CM face, their style of change, or ‘Poriborton. The change then brought dividends. It seems it’s now time for an action replay by the Trinamool.

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix