West Bengal seems to be getting deeper into the financial mess, with most developments coming to a halt and most programmes like the MGNREGA, housing finance under the PM Awas Yojana, PM Poshan (the mid-day meal scheme) Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (the rural roads scheme) and health reimbursements held up due to the stoppage of funds from the Centre to the State. The condition is so critical that the Chief Minister has announced she is seeking an audience with the Prime Minister of India to demand ‘dues to her state.’
Known for her ability to turn every adversity into her advantage as a weapon to fight Modi-run Centre, Mamata has queered her pitch regarding the fund freeze as another instance of central discrimination against Bengal and Bengalis, which fight she thinks will sail her through the 2024 Lok Sabha polls with a comfortable win. If the state’s claims are to be believed, the Centre owes Rs. 1.1 lakh crores to the state.
The Trinamool MPs, under the leadership of Abhishek Banerjee, went to see Union State Minister Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti a few weeks ago to assert that the minister had fled through the back door when the MP delegation arrived. The minister, however, called it a lie and asserted that she was in her office and the delegation never came and met her. Later, the police dispersed the MPs who were protesting at the Gandhi statue.
Amid charges of deprivation and stepmotherly treatment of the state, the centre claims that there are large-scale anomalies in the disbursal of central funds, with funds usurped by Trinamool leaders and functionaries by creating fake beneficiaries who never existed. The free ration scheme has also allegedly been diverted, enriching leaders, many of whom have been arrested. The other charge against the state is that Mamata Banerjee has rebranded many central schemes and has obliterated the central names, which was a mandatory code.
This is not the first time that the Bengal CM is meeting the PM on the issue of releasing central funds. Armed with figures, the PM is reported to have confronted Mamata, who had to mumble to take action against those guilty. Her expected meeting with the PM on the 20th December may be no different, as the CM can exit and claim that she alone is championing the causes of the deprived and poor Bengalis against the villainy of the Centre.
However, hyper-active state opposition leaders like Suvendhu are itching to call her bluff and exploit a volatile situation in the villages, where people are waiting to get their overdue against the work already done under MGNREGA and other schemes. Whether the discontent of the people in the backdrop of scams of hundreds of crores of rupees by ruling party leaders converts into support for the BJP and, more importantly, into votes in the 2024 election is a question that has no answer.
Amid all this, Mamata could be happy at the huge cash and assets seized from a liquor baron Congress MP and has found it the best time to throw her hat into the gauntlet with a claim that she will lead the INDI alliance. That’s her characteristic mastery over timing in converting every adversity to her advantage, which very few politicians in India are endowed with.
Khela Hobe!
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
