In an election that has been touted as ?crucial?, ?historic?, ?path-breaking?, ?harbinger of change? and so forth, there has been a shocking lack of debate on the many issues that should have kept candidates of all the 294 seats busy. Four rounds of polling are over in a six-phase election, but there hasn?t been a single discussion of note among the leaders on land acquisition, industry, agriculture, state of finances, lack of infrastructure, quality of education or failing rural healthcare.
Each of the above had the potential to make or break an election, but while the Trinamool has been harping on how it will storm a 34-year-old Left citadel riding on a poribortaner hawa (winds of change), the Left has reacted to the campaign by mostly apologising to the people for past mistakes but, alas, not really laying down the roadmap for the future. Instead, we have seen a bitter, uncivil, rancorous campaign that has often threatened to get out of hand.
Recently, CPM MP Anil Basu, at a rally in his home town Arambagh, took it to another level. Accusing the Trinamool of getting elections funds from the US, he talked about a red-light area and mouthed words like ?client? in reference to Mamata Banerjee.
The reaction was swift, with chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee condemning the deplorable language and restraining Basu from further public rallies. Opposition leader Mamata Banerjee?s party members were justifiably furious and complained to the Election Commission. But this lack of civility has dogged both the parties for years now.
Jyoti Basu, who held the party and the Front together for two decades, once called Mamata a cheat (420) and often refused to address her by name. The two became close later, with Mamata dropping in several times at the hospital when Basu lay on his deathbed, and there hangs a tale. Mamata would visit the hospital only after Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee left the premises and vice-versa?the two are not on talking terms. When Basu died and there was an outpouring of grief at his funeral, Mamata refused to pay homage publicly because she would have to share the stage with the chief minister.
The fact that the two most well-known leaders in the state don?t communicate with each other doesn?t augur well for West Bengal?s future. Even if the Trinamool were to come to power, there is apprehension about how the two main parties will work together for the development of the state.
The Trinamool was born in 1998 and ever since then, it has mostly tread the path of agitational politics.
The Left, on its part, was arrogant, and often refused to recognise the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress. In the 2006 elections, the Left won 235 seats, the Trinamool only 30. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee may have condemned Anil Basu?s statement now, but even during the Singur movement, Basu had talked about dragging Mamata by her hair to her home in Kalighat to check her dharna, and no one in the Left even uttered a word.
Former transport minister Subhash Chakraborty often mocked the Trinamool?s Maa, Mati, Manush slogan, saying Mamata, who is single, doesn?t know anything about Maa. Such gender prejudice is shocking, but the Left has often revealed this side in dealing with Mamata. During the 2011 campaign, its leaders lashed out at Mamata in most of their speeches. The Trinamool too speaks this language, often launching personal attacks on Left leaders. In an ostensibly bhadrolok state, politics is far from genteel.
During this campaign, even when Trinamool and Left leaders have been pitted against each other in TV studios, for example, they more often than not have refused to speak to each other directly, instead opting to try to out-shout the other on claims and counter-claims?the Left pointing out that its 30 year rule had many positives, the Trinamool obviously saying just the opposite. There has been little talk about the future. Both campaigns harp on the past. The Trinamool manifesto promises a lot but most promises seem far-fetched. For instance, transforming Darjeeling into Switzerland and Digha into Goa is easier said than done. The Left, under which tourism, to name just one sector, has dwindled drastically, scoffs at the Trinamool Congress?s plans.
To its credit, the Trinamool Congress changed its temperamental course slightly following the 2009 Lok Sabha win, after which it refrained from calling bandhs and bringing the state to a standstill. But the bandh mindset is deeply etched in the Bengali mind, so much so that Kolkata virtually shut down on April 27 when it voted. During any shutdown, a chamber study recently reported, Bengal loses close to R800 crore per day in business. Both parties?in this they act as one?have merrily delved in bandh politics so far, and civil society has happily gone along with this. Whoever sits at the Writers? Building after the elections will face a tough time from the Opposition since the two key parties refuse to acknowledge each other.
sudipta.datta@expressindia.com