Blaming Banerjee

Dissent is to be encouraged. Obstruction is permitted as an instrument of last resort,to be sparingly used,without crippling governance. But there is no defending sabotage,which is what some of Banerjee’s strategies have amounted to. It is also blackmail since in her public utterances,Banerjee has linked them with the Central bailout package that she has demanded to dilute West Bengal’s huge deficit. In the case of the pension bill,it can be safely predicted that Banerjee will refuse to back down. In her home state,people still equate livelihoods with salaried employment and expect pension schemes to be traditionally structured.

Stonewalling is bad enough. But worse,Banerjee puts up the wall suddenly,at the very last moment. Unlike her opposition to fuel price hikes and FDI in retail,which she discussed in advance to build a consensus with other chief ministers,these moves are clearly designed to embarrass the government in which Banerjee is a partner,both domestically and in international fora. The pension bill was scuppered just when the government was trying to get its act together and respond to mounting criticism of policy paralysis by restarting the reform process. It is time the Congress drew the line and called Banerjee’s bluff. It won’t be easy to change partners at this stage,but it should at least threaten divorce before Banerjee damages its image beyond repair.