The true import of home minister P Chidambaram?s visit to Lalgarh is getting lost in a fight over semantics. Chidambaram?s terse remark that the ?buck stops with the chief minister? on handling the Maoist issue and the law and order situation in the state, stung Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee into action, who promptly began a verbal duel. ?Buck is not the language of politicians. I say, mind your language. This language is used in the game of poker. This is slang… I know my responsibility. Let me do my job and let him do his,? the chief minister shot back at PC, via media. The CM also blamed the lack of action on the law and order front on the Opposition: ?? I also told him it is very difficult to maintain law and order if the Opposition does not cooperate. I told him you should tell the Opposition to attend meetings called by the government.?
But the point is if CM Bhattacharjee and his administration had done their job, perhaps things wouldn?t have come to such a pass at Lalgarh in West Midnapore district in the first place. As Chidambaram noted during his visit, politicians haven?t stepped inside Lalgarh since 2008, when the area flared up after state government raids following an assassination attempt on the CM who was returning from announcing the launch of the Jindal?s showpiece steel plant in Bengal. With Maoists quickly moving in to gain control of the area, and the state administration looking the other way after the initial rounding up of tribals at random, local tribals (Lalgarh?s main population is Adivasi) are left to fend for themselves. So, when Chidambaram broke the cordon and began talking to the people during his visit on Sunday, he was the first politician in at least 15 months to engage with the local population. At least 500 had gathered impromptu and told him about the lack of development, high unemployment, non-existent health care, lack of roads and so forth.
A gesture the CPM hasn?t taken too kindly, as local tribal leaders tell us. On the ground, local CPM leaders are perpetually in a meeting and can?t be reached; Opposition and tribal leaders, however, allege that beyond land reforms, the ruling Left Front has done little for the region. True, the adivasis have been beneficiaries of the state?s landmark land reforms programme, but little has been done on irrigation, building roads, health care, water, power, transport and so on to take this forward. Earlier, the adivasis would sell sal leaves for a living, now Maoists have put an end to that.
With the government programmes collapsing in the region, the local police force being ?garaged? and the Maoists calling the shots in Lalgarh and the entire Jungle Mahal area, the locals are bearing the brunt of insurgency. Tribal leaders tell us that in 33 years of CPM rule, there are still large areas without power, drinking water, adequate policing and other basic amenities.
The state government may be reorganising security arrangements in the three Maoist-hit districts of Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore after an attack on an Eastern Frontier Rifles (ERF) camp at Silda in February when 24 ERF personnel were killed, but it could be a case of too little, too late. The state must learn from the Chhattisgarh CRPF killings, where the forces appeared to have walked into a trap set by Maoists, leading to high casualties. There are now 36 CRPF companies in the state tackling the Maoists but little help is coming from state police and local intelligence. Police stations are ill-equipped to handle even a theft, forget armed raids. In fact, on Sunday, Chidambaram warned that the Maoists were revising their strategy and regrouping.
Ask the tribals why despite all the ills, they have always voted for the Left, even in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, despite the anti-Left tide in the state, and they quip: ?Out of fear.? It?s an open secret that armed goons of the main political parties are fighting a bloody turf war in rural Bengal, especially after the anti-Left mood prevalent post the Singur and Nandigram movements. In fact, the Opposition Trinamool Congress had been clamouring for a visit by Chidambaram to Mangalkot in Burdwan where inter-party clashes have been terrible. The home minister kept away from Burdwan but said that he was unhappy with incidents there??party clashes must end.?
Law and order apart, Lalgarh?s local leaders harp about the development issue. That even central schemes haven?t quite percolated down to the poorest of the poor is evident from some statistics. For instance, the state government?s economic survey for 2008-09 shows that under the flagship National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, West Bengal, on an average, has provided work for 26 days to the needy compared to the national average of 44. Till October 2009, only 6,438 households got 100 days? employment. In 2007-08, if the state spent Rs 967.98 crore under NREG, it came down to Rs 940.38 crore in 2008-09. If Lalgarh lacks irrigation and road connectivity, one wonders why such successful schemes haven?t got off the ground in that area. Under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, the state government admits that the pace is just beginning to pick up. For the Rashtriya Sam Vikash Yojana, a special programme for developing backward districts, fund utilisation in West Midnapore and Birbhum districts are far from satisfactory. For instance, the state government got Rs 45 crore for West Midnapore but as of March 31, 2009, it had utilised only Rs 35.7 crore.