Calcutta Corner

Six Phases

West Bengal is the only state — out of the 5 going to the polls this month — where elections will be held in 6-phases. This is in recognition of the law and order problem in the state. In order to evade violence, there would be heavy deployments of police and security forces. Election dates are as April 18, 23, 27 and May 3, 7 and 10. Counting is on May 13. Seats: 294

34 Long Years

Elections happen. Governments change. So what’s the big deal about it happening in West Bengal? Well, think about this: while vast changes were taking place all over the country and the world in the last quarter century — new nations came into being, empires fell, in India new states were carved out of old ones, India itself grew from its "third world" status into an emerging economic powerhouse, sending up moon missions, finding extraterrestrial water — Bengal was being ruled by one party and its allies the entire time. Various permutations and combinations of the same faces have formed each new government year after year for 34 years.

Young Men Turned Old

Jyoti Basu has been the only chief minister Bengalis could call their own until he pleaded for release. Then Buddhadeb Bhattacharya took over. He too has been CM for over a decade now. Many of their comrades and colleagues had joined the party and the government as young men. Now they have aged. The policies remained more or less the same. They came to power with the promise of land reforms to poor farmers — who constitute 70 percent of the voters — and protection to the minority. They made good on these promises and the voters kept returning them to power, term after term. And it seemed that there was not a force on earth that could remove them.

Complacenct Commissars

But as with all monopolies, devoid of competition, complacency set in. The people of Bengal found themselves at the mercy of this complacent government, which had, with time, got the entire administrative machinery of the state — the bureaucracy, the police, the trade unions and the education system — to serve its interests, which were not always the same as the people’s interests. Secure in the knowledge that they had the support of the government and the party no matter what, officials at all levels started exerting a power that the people gradually began to feel was excessive.

Nandigram and Singur

Even so, large segments of the electorate — perhaps out of old loyalty or old gratitude — kept voting for them. But then something terrible happened. The very people who kept the party in power for all these years were suddenly under attack from the same party’s government. The poor and the minority communities — in the villages of Nandigram and Singur — suddenly found that their lands were being forcibly seized, ostensibly for the greater good of society.

These were peasants. They had always made their living from agriculture. Why would they even care about the distant promise of hypothetical industrial jobs (let alone be willing to give up their tried and true livelihoods for)? They didn’t care and they weren’t willing.

But the government had become too complacent to take anything but its own judgment seriously anymore and its judgment at the time was to promote industry at any cost. This meant acquiring lands for industry — at any cost. When the people refused to sell their land voluntarily, the government started taking it by force. When the people resisted, their protests, and sometimes they themselves — as happened in Nandigram in March 2007 — were shot down.

Enter Mamata Banerjee. The former Congress party member and a protégé of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who had formed a regional grassroots party in 1998 with the chief aim of removing the Left government, had been waiting for an opportunity to strike. The opportunity presented itself in Nandigram and Singur. Mamata seized it. It also didn’t hurt Mamata’s chances that this happened to be the CPIM’s weakest hour. The glue that held the Left Front together for decades — the awe-inspiring personality of one Comrade Jyoti Basu — was gone, and the cracks within the front were beginning to show.

Unfortunately for the Left Front, it was thus, when they were at their most vulnerable state, that they faced the parliamentary elections (2009), assembly-by elections and municipal elections (2010) — and now face the assembly elections.

Big Brother

While it is Big Brother CPIM (Communist Party of India — Marxists) which has always raked in the numbers — 176 out of 294 in the last Assembly Elections — the contribution of the other three parties has played a significant part in retaining power for 34 years. Last time, together they contributed 51 MLAs to make up a total of 227.

Nevertheless these other partners — CPI (Communist Party of India, which was the original party from which the CPIM was formed in the 1960s), AIFB (All India Forward Bloc, the party that follows the principles of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose) and (RSP) Revolutionary Socialist Party — have always been somewhat in the shadows. Key portfolios such as the Chief Minister’s post or that of important ministries like home and finance in the left government always went to the CPIM. Even the Left Front chairmanship is held by CPIM.

United Left Front?

If the smaller parties felt resentful or stifled, they hid their grouses well. Insiders claim that it was Jyoti Basu’s awe-inspiring personality that dwarfed them further and prevented them from voicing their dissent, if they had any.

Among the steps being taken by the Left to regain lost ground is that the partners are trying to recover their image as a unified front which they hope to project as one that could continue to provide a stable government.

Obviously in doing this the role played by the other partners in the Left is crucial.

2006 and After

While the Left Front’s biggest strength has always been unity amongst the partners, things changed dramatically beginning 2006, a year or so into Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s second term in office as CM. Left partners alleged that the CPIM didn’t always consult them before taking crucial decisions and actions and when they did, they didn’t necessarily pay heed to their advice.

In public interviews, Forward Bloc and RSP leaders lashed out against the Chief Minister and the government’s forceful land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram.

The Parliamentary elections of 2009 took place when the inner squabbling — and its subsequent spilling out into the open — was at its peak. Though the left parties did run for election as one front, their ‘unity’ showed signs of severe stress, further weakening the image of the Left (which had hit rock bottom post Singur and Nandigram).

It was felt around this time that the Left front might finally really fell apart.

Mamata Banerjee’s alliance with the Congress, which was very strong at that time, took full advantage of that and won the Parliamentary elections.

United They Stand

Because of the foregoing, the Left partners this time around are making sure that their image as a united front is strong. But what of the problems that they had with Big Brother CPIM? Have they forgiven and forgotten those? Left partners explain to Outlook:

Kshiti Goswami: Revolutionary Socialist Party leader and Minister of Public Works in the Bhattacharjee government.

Lashed out against the CM and revealed that there were orders to open fire on the Nandigram protestors against the wishes and advice of left partners. Expressed his unhappiness with CPIM-led government even expressing the need to bring in changes in leadership. Subsequently it was thought that his party or at least he himself would either pull out or not allowed be to contest elections. But he is contesting the crucial Alipurduar constituency (and will have to tackle issues such as Gorkhaland and the division of Bengal, which the Left opposes).

What he told Outlook at the time of Parliamentary Elections:

"I had warned them repeatedly. I told them that this would cost us dearly. But they went ahead (in Singur and Nandigram). The CM should apologize to the people of Bengal."

What he told Outlook now:

"Even today we are paying for it. It will be a hard task for us to convince the people of our goodwill. But the CM has apologized and we have admitted our mistakes. So I am confident of a Left win again."

Ashok Ghosh, Forward Bloc leader

He has led his party into victory from behind the scenes. A follower of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, is principally against gaining power for himself and has never contested elections nor ever stepped foot at Assembly, the Secretariat or any traditional power centre.

What he told Outlook at the time of Parliamentary Elections:

"We were not consulted on many crucial issues. What transpired in these areas (Singur and Nandigram) is a grave blunder and the electorate will punish us. The government owes the people an apology."

What he told Outlook now:

"The Left Front convened a meeting and it was decided that we would confess our mistakes and we would ask for forgiveness. That was the only way to salvage the situation. I am happy that CM and the government has apologized. And we have promised the people that their land will never be taken by force."

Manju Kumar Majumdar, CPI secretary

He has insisted on settling disputes of the front in closed doors.

What he told Outlook at the time of Parliamentary Elections:

"We are different parties and therefore it is expected that we will have many differences. Otherwise we would be the same party. We don’t always agree with the workings of the CPIM."

What he told Outlook now:

"We have a common minimum programme unlike the Congress and the Trinamool. Ours is a real front. The TMC-Congress tie-up is a compromise, a desperate attempt to keep us out and it will crumble."

Crucial Candidate

Among the more high-profile candidates in the fray is former Communitst Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) leader Purnendu Bose, whose inclusion in TMC has often been the reason behind the much-talked about link between Mamata and the Maoists The 58-years-old Bose a political activist since his student days and was a member of Kanu Sanyal’s CPI (M-L) and was in the thick of the Naxal movement of the 1960s. Jailed in 1970, he was released seven years later when the Communist government came to power.

Bose first met Mamata Banerjee in 1993, five years before the Trinamool Congress was formed, while he was leading a workers’ strike against the closure of the Kanoria Jute Mills.

At the time of the Singur agitation he had formed the independent anti-land acquisition farmers’ organization Krishi Jomi Jiban Jibaka Raksha.

It was in Singur that Bose and Banerjee joined hands to fight the Left.

He was made president of the Trinamool Congress trade union wing INTTUC. Notworthy: It is Banerjee’s association with the former Naxal leader that is at the crux of allegations of a Mamata-Maoist connection. Speaking to Outlook, Bose, who is contesting the elections from a Calcutta constituency, rather than the Maoist belt of Jangalmahal, revealed TMC’s plans on how to tackle the state’s militancy menace:

Why are you not contesting the elections from a Jangalmahal (Maoist belt) constituency?

There are 40 constituencies in the Bankura, Purulia, West Midnapore districts, and we have put up candidates in each. They all come from those regions and know the people and the problems of that area well.

If Mamata Banerjee comes to power will she ask the centre to withdraw joint forces from Lalgarh and other areas of Jangalmahal?

Yes. Joint forces are not going to be able to solve the problems of that area. Development will. The communist government has denied them their basic rights and neglected them for all these years. Basics like drinking water, healthcare, education, employment and the rights to their own land and livelihood. We want to change that.

What about the presence of Maoists in that area?

I don’t blame the Maoists as much as I blame the CPIM. They could take their ideology there because the people wanted an alternative. But we reject the Maoist ideology of violence and we will ask the people to give up arms. But for that we have to give them development.

You have a Naxal past. Does that give TMC an edge over CPIM where the Maoists are concerned?

Yes it does. We will be more approachable and a dialogue will be possible. Peace will be our objective.

What is your position on political prisoners like Chhatradhar Mahato?

We are going to review the cases of political prisoners and free them if we find that there has been wrongful detention and arrest. There will be fair trials for those who are accused of crimes.

What about the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities, with Chhatradhar as the leader?

It was a democratic movement against the torture of innocent men and women in Lalgarh. When an arrest warrant was put up against him he was in the process of holding dialogues with the government. Eight of their 13 demands were also conceded by the government. A simple apology from the police or the Chief Minister on behalf of the police as the head of the Home Ministry would have solved the problem. But the government breached its promise.

Our Netas

If I didn’t see it with my own eyes I wouldn’t have believed it. I was waiting to talk to a politician at the party offices of one of the two key political parties which, depending on the outcome of the Assembly elections next month, will form the next government in West Bengal. A middle-aged man stumbled into the room and practically threw himself at the feet of one of the party leaders. "Arre, thak thak," (‘It’s ok, it’s ok’) said the party leader superciliously to the groveling man, adding "Apni khushi toh?" (‘Are you happy?)

"Yes, yes. So happy," said the groveling man, smiling sheepishly, as he wrung his hands in a gesture of extreme gratitude. The groveling man was one of the candidates who will be contesting the upcoming Assembly elections. He was groveling in gratitude because he was given a ticket.

One day this man might be an MLA. Sad but true.

Photo credits: Sandipan Chatterjee