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EDITORIAL
Bengal's
Anti-Heroine
Mamata
has to grow out of an agenda set on the streets
 From
the Bengal alternative to Jyoti Basu to the national alternative to Jayalalitha
Jayaram is quite a journey but over the past week Mamata Banerjee has
accomplished it with unabashed ease. Her tantrum following the increase
in petroleum prices indicated a greater personal culpability that anything
Jayalalitha did during the NDA's previous term. The AIADMK leader, after
all, was not a member of the Cabinet; Mamata was a smiling participant
in the meeting that enhanced prices, a decision that will now be re-considered
later this month. In the one year since re-election, the Prime Minister
has treated Mamata with kid gloves. She elbowed her way into Rail Bhavan,
claiming it was the only job she was interested in. Her intentions, if
they weren't obvious enough, soon led to Indian Railways going on a recruitment
spree in West Bengal. That this was not quite what any business analyst
would recommend for the public enterprise that is the world's single-largest
employer was patently lost on the minister.
The obsession
with dethroning the Left Front in her home state is so overwhelming it
has stunted Mamata's maturity as a politician. Her stint in the Union
Cabinet should have been training ground for Writers' Building. Instead,
it has only reinforced her commitment to shrieking populism. A state that
prides itself as being among India's most enlightened is in danger of
electing a Bengali Mayawati. By distancing herself from the BJP and apparently
reaching out to the Congress and the CPI(M)'s rebels, Mamata may believe
she can cleverly form a grand coalition against Jyoti Basu's regime. Maybe
she is being too clever by half. These were the precise calculations,
don't forget, that were supposed to outdo Laloo Yadav in Bihar earlier
this year. Of course, Mamata can still draw hope—and electoral returns—from
the fact that her politics is as bankrupt as Laloo's.
Doctoring
the Report
The inquiry
into Kumaramangalam's death is a national disgrace
 On
August 25, the C.P. Singh Inquiry Committee was set up to look into the
death of P.R. Kumaramangalam. In submitting its report just over a month
after it began work, the committee has acted expeditiously. Nevertheless,
in the best traditions of Indian inquiries it has also obfuscated the
truth. For a start, it has exonerated both Apollo Hospital and the All
India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the two Delhi-based institutions
where the minister was treated. Since a virtual whisper campaign was carried
out against Apollo by sections of the political class, where does the
truth lie? Will Union Health Minister C.P. Thakur, who was quick to point
fingers at Apollo and now says he is not satisfied with the Singh committee
finding but grudgingly accepts it, clarify his stand?
The report
quotes Kumaramangalam's wife as saying he was in good health till the
end of March 2000. Next it has Kumaramangalam's official aides declaring
he was periodically unwell since October 1999. Yet the Singh panel does
not reconcile these contradictory claims. Between May 8, when he was released
from Apollo, and August 13, when he was admitted to AIIMS, Kumaramangalam
was easily fatigued and lost 10kg. That was the crucial period; that was
also the period Singh and his colleagues did not investigate. The closing
lines of their report say it all: "Overall the committee feels that
the most significant contribution towards the final outcome in the case
of Sri Kumaramangalam was the fact that the patient did not receive appropriate
medical advice for over three months following his discharge from Apollo."
Even a layman could have told you that. What a team of specialists is
expected to do is find out what happened in those three months. To do
otherwise is to hoodwink India.
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