Kolkata Korner

Remember McNamara?

Yeah, remember those days when institutions like the World Bank and the IMF were worse than the 'F' word in Bengal, thanks to passions whipped up by our Marxists? To jog your memory a bit, in the early 1970s, an aircraft carrying a high level World Bank team led by its president Robert McNamara couldn't land at (then) Calcutta due to massive demonstrations organized by the commies against the visit. Our present Chief Minister, who was the general secretary of the DYFI (a CPM affiliate), was in the vanguard of those protests and one of the shrillest cries of 'World Bank Murdabad' and 'McNamara Go Back' is attributed to him. The World Bank team had scheduled the visit, on the invitation of the then Congress government in Bengal, to study prospects of backing some industrial projects as well as a vital civic plan to overhaul Calcutta's sewers. Thanks to the protesting commies, Bengal lost investments and funding worth a few hundred crores of Rupees to Maharashtra. Ironically, just last week, Kolkata's Marxist Mayor (and an underling of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who must have taken part in those anti-World Bank demonstrations) announced that a Rs 10,000 crore plan to overhaul Kolkata's archaic sewage lines and lay fresh ones has been prepared. And the World Bank has been identified as the prime institution that would be approached for funding. Our Mayor says he's ready to accept the World Bank's conditions since, as he puts it, those conditions (like greater transparency in, and stricter monitoring of, World Bank funded projects) are "people-friendly". Incidentally, these have always been the World Bank's conditions and haven't changed one bit since the early '70s. What has changed is the ideological moorings of our Marxists. But then, do these bunch of opportunists and hypocrites have any ideological moorings at all?

If only…

That Kolkata's century-old sewers are clogged by silt and have broken down at many places, and that large parts of the city don't have any sewers at all, are the reasons why even a moderate shower results in severe water-logging. Had the existing sewers been maintained properly and new sewer linesbeen laid, waterlogging wouldn't have become so regular. But that would have required massive funds. And that's why the then Congress government in Bengal approached the World Bank. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and people like him ensured, through their antics, that Bengal, and Calcutta, was denied those funds. Had Robert McNamara been allowed to visit Calcutta and approve of the civic project, Kolkata would have been a different city today. Even the heaviest of showers would not have led to waterlogging for hours and even days at a stretch. The World Bank funding would have resulted in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation becoming more efficient and transparent (for those would have been some conditions imposed by the institution) and, hence, much more responsive, slimmer and free of corruption and wastage. That in itself would have led to better civic development of this city and, in effect, a better Kolkata. But thanks to the Marxists' collective myopia, that wasn't to be. It's only today that these Marxists have shamelessly woken up and have started making noises. While that's welcome, Kolkatans should never forgive them for having brought the city to such a shameful state.

Undeserved glory

Bengal's Marxists have been basking in a lot of undeserved glory. After Prime Minister Manmohan Singh called up CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to seek help in dealing with the intransigent Prakash Karat & Co over the Indo-US nuclear deal, CPMwallahs here, all puffed up with bloated egos and self-importance, have gone to townclaiming that Marxists have restored Bengal's pride. Which other prime Minister had ever called up a Bengal CM to seek help in managing affairs at New Delhi? When was the least time Bengal was so important in Delhi's scheme of things? When did the rulers in Delhi ever depend on Bengal for their survival?OK, that may be the case today, but its no thanks to Marxists who are in their current enviable position due to nothing but an electoral accident in 2004. And before Bengal's Marxists start arrogating to themselves thepower to decide India's destiny, they'd do well to remember that in 2004, the CPI(M) polled 5.6 percent of votes cast. That means of the 38.99 crore people who cast their ballots in 2004 (58% of the 74.14crore strong electorate), just 2.18 crore voted for the CPI(M), an overwhelming majority of them from West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala. Since most of those who voted for the CPI(M) are committed CPI(M) supporters who make it a point to exercise their ballot, we can safely assume that had all the voters of India cast their votes, the CPI(M)'s vote share would have declined to, at best, 3.5 percent. And the CPI(M)'s vote share was less than one percent in 11 states across the country, including major ones like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Assam. For a party with such scant support, the CPI(M) surely wields enormous power that's not at all commensurate with its vote share. But do our egoistic Marxists in Bengal realise that?

Cutting a deal

The good thing about this (Bengal's rulers being accorded so much importance) is that Bengal is also gaining in the process. Our Marxists have been leveraging their newfound importance with the Centre to cut deals, some of which at least are beneficial to the state. This time, for putting in a word and intervening on Manmohan Singh's behalf with his hard-line comrades, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will ask the Prime Minister to grant immediate approval to a new site selected by the state for a chemical hub. After Nandigram, the state government was finding it impossible to locate a huge, contiguous area near a port till it set its sights on Nayachar, a huge island formed with silt deposits on the Hooghly delta near the Bay of Bengal and quite close to Haldia. This island is not habited and, hence, there are no problems of human displacement. The only problem is a vital piece of legislation that prohibits setting up of any structures, leave alone industrial units, on any coastline. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would want this legislation to be set aside or relaxed for setting up the chemical SEZ at Nayachar. He would also force New Delhi to bend vital environmental norms and laws for his dream project. And his party may justifiably tout it as a major achievement. But then, will bending laws ultimately do any good to Bengal. The strict environmental and coastal regulatory zone (CRZ) laws that have been laid down are for the greater, long-term good of the country and to ensure the protection of the environment. Forcing relaxation or even violation of such laws can spell danger to Bengal.

Forensic sense

Bengal's cops suffer from a lack of this sense. At each and every crime scene, we see cops ham handedly sifting through clues and evidence and allowing all and sundry access to the place, thus resulting in destruction of vital evidence. No amount of pleas by forensic experts have made any difference. It was no different at Park Street last Sunday. Soon afteran explosion at a fast food eatery, cops reached the place along with fire brigade personnel. They trampled all over merrily, removed pieces of furniture and shifted other articles with their bare hands and then allowed TV camera crews unhindered access to the place. After that, even people passing by were allowed to get inside and have a peek at the mangled restaurant. The last to come in were forensic experts who, by that time, had little to go by. This is in stark contrast to what happens in the western and developed countries: the police secure a crime scene and, after putting out a fire or rescuing people, wait for forensic experts to reach the place. Bengal's police, being the thoroughly unprofessional force that it is, seems to care little for such niceties. To make matters worse, Kolkata's police chief shot off his mouth and said a gas that's a coolant in air-conditioning machines had caused the explosion. He had egg all over his face the next day when experts said this gas, far from being explosive or inflammable, actually has fire-extinguishing properties. So much for the police chief and his bumbling force.

Déjà vu

It's that time of the year again when we all start looking forward to the advent of the festive season. Puja shopping has started with gusto and the incessant rains have sparked hopes of an early onset of the salubrious winter season with all its fairs and festivals. And in the midst of all this, the oldcontroversy--Kolkata Book Fair--is erupting once again. Having been forced to hold the event at Salt Lake Stadium early this year, the blighters of themaidan (that is, the Publishers & Booksellers Guild that organizes the fair) are once again eyeing our patch of green for their annual jamboree this year. They've already approached the army, themaidan's custodian, for permission to hold this pointless event. Having been turned down, they've again approached the CM, who will no doubt request A.K.Anthony to instruct the army authorities here to acquiesce. But there's hope forus--environmentalist Subhas Dutta will petition the Calcutta High Court with a vital piece of data culled by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (Neeri). Neeri monitored air quality at Victoria Memorial, a few hundred metres away from the venue of the book fair, in 2006 and found the levels of suspended particulate matter (spm) and respirable particulate matter (rpm) nearly three times the permissible levels. At the venue of the fair, the spm and rpm levels were at least ten times the permissible limits. That means visitors to the book fair inhaled a lot of dust and other pollutants and, say experts, had run the grave risk of contracting serious breathing disorders. Inhaling air with high levels of spm and rpm could even prove fatal. This being the case, do we need to have the book fair at a place like the maidan? Apart from mauling and permanently damaging this patch of green that also serves as the city's lungs, the fair accomplishes no purpose other than helping Bengalis reinforce their claim to being a cerebral community. Which is all bull, by the way; for more puchkas than books are sold at the fair where the greatest attractions are the 'Chingali' (that strange and abominable fusion of Chinese and Bengali food, like noodles fried in mustard oil with a dash of garam masala) dishes.

Why 'West'?

Why should the name of this state be pre-fixed with 'West'? It made sense immediately after the partition of Bengal to have a east and a west Bengal. East Bengal became East Pakistan and then Bangladesh, but this part of Bengal has retained the 'West' prefix quite unnecessarily. It is time we dropped it and call our state only Bengal. There are a whole lot of gains to be had from this. Imagine the time and money we would save if we drop the 'West' from Bengal. We'll save time whenever we take the name of our state.And it'd be one redundant word less, and, if multiplied by the number of times we in Bengal, and all those outside it,use the name of the state or write it (or rather, key it in), the savings in terms of time and money would be enormous. And since Left-inclined Bongs love to hate the West, it would make perfect sense to jettison this word. Also, doing so would elevate our state to fifth position in the list of states and union territories of India, up from its presentalphabetical position at the bottom of the heap at 35th. Won't that be a huge leap?