Letter from Kolkata: Behind Buddhadeb’s Fulminations

Even the most die-hard CPM supporter would now admit that his party is at present a sinking ship and is in extremely immature hands. At this critical juncture of Left politics when the need of the hour is honest self-introspection, Left politicians are indulging in jugglery and self- deception. At a time when the Mamata jugger-naut is rolling over West Bengal, Left leaders are loathe to admit that the Union Railway Minister has appeared as a titan in State politics in front of whom people like Prakash Karat, Sitaram Yechury, Biman Bose and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee look like pygmies. But instead of trying to enhance their own stature in the eyes of the common people, CPM leaders are now busy doing things which amount to nothing but political harakiri: they have decided to deride various development works of the railways which Mamata has announced not just for West Bengal but for the country as a whole.

There is a Bengali adage that even a loony understands what is good for him. But not so with Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the West Bengal Chief Minister. It does not need any mentioning how A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chowdhury, the late Union Railway Minister from Malda, could sway public opinion in favour of the Congress during the 1984 parliamentary elections by dint of his untiring efforts in developing railway infrastructure in West Bengal although the assassination of Indira Gandhi had also helped the Congress to a great extent. People of the State were witness to massive crowds which Ghani Khan could pull as the Railway Minister. This was the reason why Mamata had staked claims to the Railway Ministry although she had an almost open offer for any other important portfolio except Home, Finance, Defence and External Affairs.

It should not therefore come as a surprise to anybody, least of all the West Bengal Government and CPM in particular, that Mamata would try to speed up the ongoing railway projects in the State and launch new programmes. Her budget proposals carry this imprint. She has reason on her side as West Bengal stands deprived for a long time so far as Central investments in the State are concerned. So she quickly announced the inauguration of the extended portion of the Metro Railway network. She has also taken up proposals that are likely to generate employment like the construction of a coach factory at Kanchrapara, amalgamation of the Burn Standard Company, which produces wagons, with the railway etc. Quite naturally Buddhadeb Bhattachejee saw red. His nervousness is quite understandable. The story of Jyoti Basu, Buddhadeb and the CPM, is one of complete failure.Viewed from another angle, Mamata has really thrown a challenge to the CPM. The necessity for the CPM was to decide how to stand up in this situation and be counted.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee messed up as he had done at the time of Singur, Nandigram and the Aila (cyclone) related devastations. When the police had fired upon unarmed villagers in Nandigram the Chief Minister had said: “They (the villagers) have been paid in the same coin.†In Singur he chose not to listen to the cries of the poor farmers and instead fraternised with Ratan Tata. In the wake of the Aila related havoc and devastation he was seen in a TV footage almost challenging a poor and affected villager when the hapless man was complaining about the inadequecy of the government infrastructure. The result was reflected in the outcome of the parliamentary elections. But what is not publicly known is the fact that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has already become a highly disliked person in a significant section of the CPM. Before the last Lok Sabha poll quite a good number of the district committees of the CPM chose not to have him as a speaker in election meetings. After the poll debacle consideration was even given to the idea of replacing him as the Chief Minister by any other suitable person. It cannot be said that the idea has totally died down.

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In the present context one cannot but ruminate on the famous observation that some men are born great, some acquire greatness and some others have greatness thrust upon them. Jawaharlal Nehru belonged to the first category. From West Bengal Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy was certainly a man of the same genre. In spite of her many limitations Indira Gandhi, along with many other stalwarts upholding the legacy of the freedom struggle, could fill the second category. Let Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee themselves decide to which category they belong or whether they do not come close to any of the three categories. One interesting aspect, however, is that the client intellectuals of the Left had dutifully picked up, immediately after the installation of the first Left Front Government, the assigned job of placing Jyoti Basu over Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy in spite of the fact it evoked laughter from the people of the State. A little bird tells us that when all the talk of bringing about an ‘industrial revolution’ in collaboration with the Tatas and Salims was going on, some of these men again mustered sufficient courage to compare Buddhadeb with Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy. But then Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamul Congress suddenly jumped into the picture and sabotaged the grand idea.

Under the circumstances it is really difficult to explain Buddhadeb’s fulminations after Mamata inaugurated the extended portion of the Metro. He called it a ‘farce’, extremely peeved at the use of the names of some Bengali geniuses in Metro pro-grammes. He even came down heavily on Mamata’s ‘introduction of at least one new train every day’.

True, Buddhadeb and his party now feel threatened but it also brought to light the immaturity of the West Bengal Chief Minister. He was angry about not having been invited at the inaugural ceremony.He may be justified. But in the same breath questions may be raised about his govern-ment’s neutrality while arranging numerous such ceremonies in the State where the Trinamul Congress is generally given short shrift. Moreover his outbursts were ridiculed very soon by his own PWD Minister, Kshiti Goswami, and the Housing Minister, Gautam Deb.

Every human being has his limitations and he who understands his own limitations and tries to operate within it is a mature person. Both Jyoti Basu and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee do not understand this. This is their drawback. The Opposition has also its share of blame. They are out to denigrate the former and the present Chief Minister without realising that a more constructive approach would be to point out the right course of action.

Although a section of the garrulous local as well as national media portray Jyoti Basu as a patrician, in private life he is just the opposite man. He had always, in the Writers’ Building as well as during election campaigns, private moments for Gokul Bairagi, his election agent and quite a pedestrian person. While living in Hindustan Park he sometimes wished to hear Tagore’s songs from a teen-aged girl who was his tenant and whose father was his friend and one-time colleague in Left political movements. Twentyfive years ago Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee was also a winsome man, always ready to help young journalists. In 1984, during the height of the first Gorkhaland movement, this correspondent had received help from him in securing an interview from Saroj Mukherjee within a very short period of time. That in later days they moved away from sentiments of the common people is more due to the inherent fault of the communist system.

While the Chief Minister of the State is in neck-deep confusion, the state of his Ministry can easily be understood. There is virtually very little of government in West Bengal. Prices of essential commodities, on which the State Government can exercise control, are soaring. The law-and-order situation has deteriorated. Newspaper reports on corrupt deals involving instruments of the officialdom and CPM functionaries have become an almost daily affair. The Chief Minister admits that all is not well. But action is not forthcoming.

It is no use blaming Mamata Banerjee. She has proved that her individual acceptability with the people of the State is more than what the Left Front as a whole can muster.