Opinion Rivalry reloaded

As March draws to an end,we have seen press conferences by Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Industry Minister Nirupam Sen,humbly explaining to the electorate why Singur was a mistake and the lessons the Left Front learnt from it. In the districts,a Left rectification drive is on,but will it have an impact in this election with Mamata riding a wave for change?

Policy-wise at least,what should be a relief to people,after years of Left dithering,is that both parties have pointed out that industry is the way out to resuscitate the economy. But even if there’s a historic change in May,how much will Bengal change in its ways? According to an Indian Chamber of Commerce report released this week,West Bengal loses Rs 804 crore approximately whenever a 12-hour bandh is called. In 2009,if there were 351 strikes and lockouts in India,the total number of shutdowns in Bengal was 267,which is 76 per cent of India’s total. The perception of the state is not investment conducive,though the Left Front government did highlight the fact that,despite the Singur setback,it managed to attract Rs 8,500 crore worth of investments in 2009-10.

Poor image apart,there are serious issues at stake,primarily the state of finances,which will pose a challenge to whoever comes to power. The distress signals have been there for quite sometime now about the dwindling finances of Bengal,but things appear to have come to a head after the Left’s poor showing at the 2009 general elections. The government went into a limbo — it was already on the backfoot after the Nandigram and Singur setbacks — and Buddhadeb was almost forced to shed his pro-industry image which he had donned after the 2006 assembly win,inviting industry captains like Ratan Tata and Mukesh Ambani to invest in the state.

A section of Left leaders admitted that the government’s aggression on land acquisition had alienated it from the rural votebank and hence the losses at the Lok Sabha elections. Since 2009,the government has gone slow on land acquisition and let many troubled spots,from Darjeeling (Gorkhaland) to Lalgarh (Maoist),drift. With productivity in agriculture dwindling and not enough thrust on industry — though the Left has made some headway in the sunrise sectors of IT — the state hasn’t done enough to generate revenues. Most of its borrowings have gone into paying wages,pension and interest,not development. Something the Trinamool has taken cognisance of,but will Mamata Banerjee be able to deliver on the promises?

For one,her manifesto isn’t specific on revenue generation. She has other problems at hand,not least her cadres who have often played a disruptive role since the Trinamool’s good show at the panchayat,municipal and general elections. It may be tough to rein them in,though Mamata has been educating her workers on common courtesies and work ethic,banning them from calling bandhs at the drop of a hat as before. There are also rumblings within the Trinamool on seats,ties with the Congress,corruption,nepotism and so forth,and misgivings outside about the non-performance of Trinamool panchayats.

Change may be in the air,but Bengal is also tense about the future in more ways than one.

The writer is a senior editor with ‘The Financial Express’,Kolkata