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STATES,
WEST BENGAL
The
Humiliation and the Adulation
Banerjee
has obviously read the writing on the wall-that the Left is invincible
as long as it is in power during elections. Advani told India Today: "We
have problems of violence in other parts of the country relating to Naxalites,
caste, terrorism, fundamentalism, etc, but in West Bengal something different
is happening. It is political in nature stemming from apprehension of
the establishment that its political situation is shaky and the forthcoming
assembly elections may witness a change of guard."
The main
obstacle for Central intervention in a state hijacked by parliamentary
Marxists is the Congress, the largest party in the Rajya Sabha which must
support it. The Congress faces an unstoppable erosion of its base for
being "soft" on the Left all these years. However, on the Article
356 issue, there are many voices in the party. Former chief minister S.S.
Ray wants a limited application of the Article-unprecedented in independent
India-by which only the subject of law and order is taken over by the
Centre. On the other hand, Pranab Mukherjee, the newly appointed West
Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee president, wants a statutory amendment
by which the districts of Midnapore, Bankura, Birbhum, Burdwan and Hooghly
can be declared as "disturbed areas" and thus put under Central
supervision. Under the existing Disturbed Areas Act, only areas bordering
on the international boundaries are eligible for such intervention by
the Centre. All these constitute a phased approach to the basic objective
of making the voting "finger" move freely in West Bengal, without
being usurped by a party that preaches democracy but practises absolutism.
The demand
for this freedom is increasingly becoming strident in Bengal. In the more
enlightened urban areas and in the social circles of Calcutta, the Left
Front is treated with disgust. In the villages, where the CPI(M) has spread
its tentacles through the panchayati system, the feeling is more embittered,
if not desperate.
It becomes
evident in every tour of Banerjee, when partymen wait with garlands in
their hands, schoolchildren run up the path to wave to her, and even fence-sitters
want to catch a glimpse of the "didi" (elder sister, as Banerjee
is addressed by everyone in the state) phenomenon before they decide to
back her. Behind her adulation is the craving of a people for a change
of rulers after an entire generation was stifled by low growth, limited
opportunities and the soul-killing humiliation of suffering a one-party
rule.
-with
Labonita Ghosh
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The
Government should encash at least a part of its stake in LIC and GIC before
its too late, suggests INDIA TODAY associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar
in 
