The Economic Times, 21 May, 2012
Forget damage control,after one year in the CMs office,Mamata Banerjee doesnt feel the need for even a course correction
It's not difficult to see why the urban intelligentsia so derides Mamata Banerjee. It is one thing to drapeKolkata in the blue and white of her trademark sarees or to banish humour from a culture anyway plagued with the po-faced, and quite another to claim that Bengal's most revered poet's Nobel-winning work was a novel.
On her party website, the Bengal chief minister maintains a diary. On May 16, she unveiled a Rajasthani translation of Tagore's Gitanjali. The corresponding entry in " Didi's Diary" reads: "...there is a need to translate and read more of such novels in all regional languages." That, in Kolkata, is a desecration nothing, even blaring Rabindrasangeet 24x7 at noisy traffic signals, can reverse.
It is not difficult either to see why didi could not care less. There are no public standards for aesthetics. Parliament has taken her cue and wiped textbooks clean of cartoons. Even the web diary is logged in English and a certain translator must have been lazy, or conspiratorial. Anyway, such issues, didi knows, antagonise mostly the urban middle class. And she knows better than to repeat the mistake that cost the Left Front its regime of 34 years.
THE LEFT COURSE
The Left remained invincible as long as it stayed focussed on rural Bengal. Its ministers lost elections in Kolkata and other urban pockets, but Jyoti Basu's regressive politics that drove everyone away, including many Bengalis, reaped rich harvests from the hinterland in successive elections.
Massive urban unemployment and empty state coffers forced Basu's successor Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to look away from villages and woo investors. While a few IT companies struck base in the cities, other industries required rural land, fragmented by small holdings since the success of Operation Barga. An inept acquisition drive backfired on Bhattacharjee, fumbling and high-handed in turns, leading to the poll debacle.
Not to let go of the opportunity, Banerjee, for all her volatile unpredictability, has been astutely methodical during her first year as chief minister. She began by returning land acquired for the Tatas to farmers. Next, her government banned SEZs. The Land Sealing Act was put in a limbo. She also refused to acquire land for industries and asked companies to deal directly with farmers.
While building confidence among the rural voters, these steps have virtually closed all doors for investment in the state. Infosys, Wipro, Jindal, among others, waited indefinitely. While India Inc simply shook its head, Assocham bosses voiced their disappointment in Kolkata. Didi, of course, still claims that investment worth Rs 80,000 crore is ready to be pumped into Bengal. But then she also claims creation of five to six lakh jobs in one year.
POOR MANAGEMENT
While the vernacular press, which caters to rural voters, was busy digging holes in her outlandish claims, Banerjee launched a PR blitzkrieg. She banned top-selling newspapers in government libraries. With her blessings, three pro-government dailies and two news channels have emerged to counter the critical press. Banerjee also offered pension to journalists.
Amid the comforting confusion created by this media squabble, her policy of subsidy continues to target rural Bengal. While cities have only got cosmetic makeovers, villagers are given rice at Rs 2 a kilo and 30% subsidy in Anandadhara scheme under the National Rural Livelihood Mission. Banerjee has also assured the rural poor of minimum 33 days' guaranteed work and fully subsidised crop insurance. After fast tracking the process of issuing Kisan credit cards and loans up to 50,000 without collateral, she has even barred banks from auctioning land if a farmer defaults on repayment.
While didi's supporters argue that such largesse for the poor is necessary in a welfare state, Banerjee has done precious little to ensure earnings so that her government can support such sops in the long term. Her only financial success has been to wring out a significant loan waiver from the Centre.
URBAN, WHO?
Banerjee's party workers in villages across the state eat away much of the subsidies she doles out. Already, the CPM raj in rural Bengal has been replaced by Trinamool's, indicating a similar stranglehold over this decisive vote bank.
In urban and semi-urban areas, Banerjee's couldn't-care-less attitude has so emboldened organised hooligans affiliated to her party that virtually every builder is being forced to accept supply of inferior construction material at an exorbitant price. Thanks to her refusal to acquire land for industries, party middlemen have stepped in to make a fast buck.
These "syndicates" are part of a larger anarchy that does not encourage investment. In an admission of party-cracy, Banerjee's latest appeal to Trinamool cadres includes: "Abstain from visiting schools, colleges, police stations etc, stop indiscriminate use of party letterheads and abide by the traffic rules."
Naturally, there is fear that the fragile law and order situation may worsen. Urban resistance to didi may also gain political strength. Otherwise, her second year in the office is unlikely to be very different from the first.
The only challenge now facing Banerjee is to sustain the regressive subsidy game in a bankrupt state because she has pretty much nothing else to do. She already claimed to have succeeded in accomplishing "99% of what she set out to achieve".
Or, maybe there is still that 1% chance of a miracle.
Forget damage control,after one year in the CMs office,Mamata Banerjee doesnt feel the need for even a course correction
It's not difficult to see why the urban intelligentsia so derides Mamata Banerjee. It is one thing to drapeKolkata in the blue and white of her trademark sarees or to banish humour from a culture anyway plagued with the po-faced, and quite another to claim that Bengal's most revered poet's Nobel-winning work was a novel.
On her party website, the Bengal chief minister maintains a diary. On May 16, she unveiled a Rajasthani translation of Tagore's Gitanjali. The corresponding entry in " Didi's Diary" reads: "...there is a need to translate and read more of such novels in all regional languages." That, in Kolkata, is a desecration nothing, even blaring Rabindrasangeet 24x7 at noisy traffic signals, can reverse.
It is not difficult either to see why didi could not care less. There are no public standards for aesthetics. Parliament has taken her cue and wiped textbooks clean of cartoons. Even the web diary is logged in English and a certain translator must have been lazy, or conspiratorial. Anyway, such issues, didi knows, antagonise mostly the urban middle class. And she knows better than to repeat the mistake that cost the Left Front its regime of 34 years.
THE LEFT COURSE
The Left remained invincible as long as it stayed focussed on rural Bengal. Its ministers lost elections in Kolkata and other urban pockets, but Jyoti Basu's regressive politics that drove everyone away, including many Bengalis, reaped rich harvests from the hinterland in successive elections.
Massive urban unemployment and empty state coffers forced Basu's successor Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to look away from villages and woo investors. While a few IT companies struck base in the cities, other industries required rural land, fragmented by small holdings since the success of Operation Barga. An inept acquisition drive backfired on Bhattacharjee, fumbling and high-handed in turns, leading to the poll debacle.
Not to let go of the opportunity, Banerjee, for all her volatile unpredictability, has been astutely methodical during her first year as chief minister. She began by returning land acquired for the Tatas to farmers. Next, her government banned SEZs. The Land Sealing Act was put in a limbo. She also refused to acquire land for industries and asked companies to deal directly with farmers.
While building confidence among the rural voters, these steps have virtually closed all doors for investment in the state. Infosys, Wipro, Jindal, among others, waited indefinitely. While India Inc simply shook its head, Assocham bosses voiced their disappointment in Kolkata. Didi, of course, still claims that investment worth Rs 80,000 crore is ready to be pumped into Bengal. But then she also claims creation of five to six lakh jobs in one year.
POOR MANAGEMENT
While the vernacular press, which caters to rural voters, was busy digging holes in her outlandish claims, Banerjee launched a PR blitzkrieg. She banned top-selling newspapers in government libraries. With her blessings, three pro-government dailies and two news channels have emerged to counter the critical press. Banerjee also offered pension to journalists.
Amid the comforting confusion created by this media squabble, her policy of subsidy continues to target rural Bengal. While cities have only got cosmetic makeovers, villagers are given rice at Rs 2 a kilo and 30% subsidy in Anandadhara scheme under the National Rural Livelihood Mission. Banerjee has also assured the rural poor of minimum 33 days' guaranteed work and fully subsidised crop insurance. After fast tracking the process of issuing Kisan credit cards and loans up to 50,000 without collateral, she has even barred banks from auctioning land if a farmer defaults on repayment.
While didi's supporters argue that such largesse for the poor is necessary in a welfare state, Banerjee has done precious little to ensure earnings so that her government can support such sops in the long term. Her only financial success has been to wring out a significant loan waiver from the Centre.
URBAN, WHO?
Banerjee's party workers in villages across the state eat away much of the subsidies she doles out. Already, the CPM raj in rural Bengal has been replaced by Trinamool's, indicating a similar stranglehold over this decisive vote bank.
In urban and semi-urban areas, Banerjee's couldn't-care-less attitude has so emboldened organised hooligans affiliated to her party that virtually every builder is being forced to accept supply of inferior construction material at an exorbitant price. Thanks to her refusal to acquire land for industries, party middlemen have stepped in to make a fast buck.
These "syndicates" are part of a larger anarchy that does not encourage investment. In an admission of party-cracy, Banerjee's latest appeal to Trinamool cadres includes: "Abstain from visiting schools, colleges, police stations etc, stop indiscriminate use of party letterheads and abide by the traffic rules."
Naturally, there is fear that the fragile law and order situation may worsen. Urban resistance to didi may also gain political strength. Otherwise, her second year in the office is unlikely to be very different from the first.
The only challenge now facing Banerjee is to sustain the regressive subsidy game in a bankrupt state because she has pretty much nothing else to do. She already claimed to have succeeded in accomplishing "99% of what she set out to achieve".
Or, maybe there is still that 1% chance of a miracle.
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