Reason acquired

Yet another complication is that we do not believe in contracts. A willing contractual agreement between buyer and seller should be binding, unless it is an unfair contract between two unequal partners, in which case it can be challenged in court. But once we accept that contracts need not be binding, and development leads to subsequent increase in land prices, a seller who was originally willing turns unwilling.

One shouldn8217;t dismiss these problems, since they are legitimate concerns, including the possibility of giving the local population a stake in the development project. A democratic system provides certain forums for resolving and debating such concerns, such as courts, Parliament and state legislatures. But we are caught in a double bind.

First, given our obsession with control, planning and vertical hierarchies, we dislike markets and think we are experts in what the appropriate price should be and this unhappy trait also characterises some court judgements. It is a separate matter that stating that the price is the moon is neither here nor there, since any suggested price is purely fictional until an actual buyer comes along and offers that price.

Second, we are probably innately an anarchist nation and don8217;t quite believe in democracy and its institutions, despite proclaiming ourselves to be the largest democracy in the world. Witness the curious behaviour of the Trinamool Congress, in particular its leader Mamata Banerjee. This has led to the rather perverse situation of the CPM having to defend policies and institutions that it doesn8217;t necessarily believe in.

After all, where did the Trinamool learn these tactics? But that story of chickens coming home to roost can be ignored for the moment, while we focus on chicken legs. Thanks to the spread of the media, especially the electronic media, and globalisation, images of Indian democracy at work are now disseminated throughout the world at the press of a button. And mind you, the ladies and gentlemen in question are not revolutionary leaders who hold no truck with democracy, but are 29 elected MLAs belonging to the Trinamool.

Misgovernance in West Bengal places the state more or less in the same league as Bihar and UP, and one shouldn8217;t forget the images from UP in the not-too-distant past. Trinamool8217;s vandalism in the assembly rivals those UP images, although in all fairness Trinamool has already had plenty of practice with chucking tomatoes and running away with maces. This time it was eggs and chicken legs, with tables and chairs being broken for good measure. The strength displayed in breaking that gigantic table single-handedly suggests that at least one gentleman has chosen the wrong profession. Privilege motions against Trinamool legislators and temporary withholding of their salaries and allowances still means that citizens have to bear the cost of damages.

Every country doesn8217;t get the government it deserves. Every country, and every state, also gets the opposition it deserves. Under our electoral system, West Bengal8217;s voters have elected both the Left Front and Trinamool, with the consequence that we have a kleistocracy rather than a democracy at work. Or to be more charitable, our post-Independence democracy was an elitist aristocracy of sorts. Our democracy is now more representative of the true character of the population. If 35 per cent of the population is illiterate, 35 per cent of any legislative assembly must also be illiterate. Because of warts in our criminal justice system, the conviction rate is only 5 per cent, from which one can presumably deduce that 7.5 per cent of the non-juvenile population consists of criminals 8212; 7.5 per cent of MLAs and MPs must also be convicted criminals, excluding those who have merely been charge-sheeted.

The point is not criminalisation of politics, but politicisation of criminals. In the 1990s West Bengal has been one of the middle-rung states that has jacked up its growth performance, together with Kerala and Karnataka. But that growth was fundamentally based on an agricultural performance, industry and services having failed to really take off so far.

Yet in the last of couple of years, with the East no longer that red, there has been a lot of vibrancy in Kolkata, if not everywhere in West Bengal. Haldia is an exception. The bandhs, not all of which can of course be ascribed to Trinamool, have dented that image. But as Mamata Banerjee will perhaps readily admit, histrionics and political opportunism are her myopic short-term objectives, not the long-term development of West Bengal. Her stint in the Railways was no different. Someone who believes in the rights of a permanent leader of the opposition without accepting the responsibilities that come with it, can know no better. Hence her posturing about being unwilling to talk about the issues, having got the CPM by what she thinks are the short and curlies.

If, in the process, Tata Motors is forced to exit, it will be a strong negative signal about the investment climate in West Bengal. Outside of Haldia, this was the only major showcase project. The cars will eventually be produced somewhere else. But, for a change, the opposition a motley brew of activists, the Congress and the BJP, in addition to Trinamool rather than the Left Front government will be to blame.

The writer is secretary-general PHDCCI