34 long years later Bengal is set to get a new party at the Writers’ (Mahakaran). Mamata Banerjee has done what leaders from Siddharth Shankar Ray to Pranab Mukherjee have been trying to do so for long. They were up against a party which was just impossible to dislodge. The man from Indira Bhavan, Jyoti Basu, was the shrewdest adversary they had ever faced. Even after his retirement, he was a prominent force behind the CPI(M)’s gains in Bengal. At that time it seemed impossible to remove them from the Writers’. But the deaths of Jyoti Basu, Anil Biswas and Subhas Chakraborty have really affected the party and ultimately have led to such a downfall.
My uncle’s family has been staunch anti-CPI(M). My grandfather seldom used to eat without cursing the incumbent government. I found it amusing and used to ask him what the reason of his anger was. He explained to me that people of Bengal love intelligence, education and prosperity. While the CPI(M) leaders were highly educated themselves, they were hindering the paths of the educated youth who were not toeing their line. Adding insult to injury, they were also closing down industries, mostly small-scale, which could have taken Bengal to new heights of prosperity. This led to mass exodus of educated and uneducated, skilled and unskilled persons out of the state. Thus, Sonar Bangla (Golden Bengal) was turning into a garbage dump. And it was not only him but was the voice of many Bengalis who were living inside and outside Bengal. I reasoned with them if they were unhappy with the regime, why they don’t throw it out. They explained that CPI(M) was known to employ strong arm tactics and resorted to rigging during the elections. And hence it was impossible to remove them. And there rested the case.
In the last assembly elections, I was in Bengal. I am an ardent fan of Barun Sengupta, the late editor of Bartaman. He used to write elaborately about the misgivings of the government and how the public resented it and what they wanted was a change. Bengal was a case of trouble and even the Election commission accepted it as the last election was also a multi-round affair. Mr. Sengupta as well as all the Bengalis who wanted a change were sure that CPI(M) was to make an exit after 29 years. But the result stupefied us all. Not only the Left front won but it won with such a majority that the opposition was all but eliminated. Conventional rigging could not have taken place as the security arrangements were elaborate. Anti-CPI(M) people came with theories that “Scientific rigging” was the reason for the win. They said that the EVMs were tampered and whatever button you pressed the vote went to CPI(M)! Nothing could be proved but the joke about the tampered EVMs are doing this time as well. On Facebook you will find people commenting, “EVM gulo kharap chhilo” (EVMs were faulty)!
So, the result of 2006 proved one thing that CPI(M) were irreplaceable for whatever reasons that existed. But then Mamata came with her “Maa, Maati, Maanush” (Mother, Land and People) slogan and a successful Singur agitation helped her dent the prospects of CPI(M) in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. From that time, it was becoming apparent that a change was inevitable. Her stint as railway minister where she doled out sops to her home state helped her as well. But still there was a chance that CPI(M) could have stopped it’s derailment. Nobody knows Bengal better than them and nobody knows better than them how to rule Bengal! Also the Rajas and the Kalmadis provided enough opportunities to exploit (AIADMK has removed DMK on that factor) but it seems the death of the aforesaid leaders have crippled them beyond recovery. Mr. Karat would now need to answer a lot of questions as they have lost Kerala by a whisker as well.
“Badla noi Badal chai” (We want change and not revenge) were doing the rounds and they have got what they wanted. For the next 5 years they are officially going to be there. But now the million-taka question is that whether the new fellows will be able to rotate the wheels of prosperity which have been stationery and stuck for so long. Will the mass exodus of Bengali intelligentsia stop? Will the common man get better living conditions? Will the industries reopen? Will Bengal be back among the top states of India? Will Bengal change? Will Bengal again become “Sonar Bangla “?
13 has proved to be a unlucky number for CPI(M). Hope it doesn’t prove to be unlucky for the Bengalis. Let’s hope that they have not replaced one daemon with other.
Jai Bangla!!!
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