Local corruption trumps ‘Vishwaguru’, ‘democracy in danger’ on Bengal poll street

It has reached a farmer in Singur, Rabindra Sadra, who says “the world is looking at India because of PM Modi”. And Dipesh Dhar, who lives in Salt Lake City and deals with stocks trading, who says “there is a sense among some of us that India has arrived… But beyond that, not much.” Says Pawan Kumar Harijan, a lawyer practising in Purulia trial courts: “Pakistan ko tight kiya (Pakistan has been taught a lesson), that is something people here feel good about. Not much more.”

Nitya Gopal Bhattacharya, a retired government official who lives in Asansol’s Kalyanpur Housing Colony, differs: “As far as I understand, the Western countries don’t have a very positive view of India.”

Barrackpore-based Shirshendu Mondol, who deals with supply of tractors in rural Bengal, laughs when asked why Modi’s foreign policy is not a talking point. What people are concerned about is corruption, lack of jobs and “the politics of doles for women”, he says.

Arnab Roy Chowdhury, who leads the technical team at a Kolkata-based company dealing in heavy machinery at power plants, says: “People in these parts of Medinipur, Bankura, Purulia are more concerned about bread-and-butter, local issues.”

If the BJP’s foreign policy hasn’t caught the public imagination in most parts of Bengal, the INDIA’s “democracy-in-danger” narrative also appears to have few takers. If it comes up, it is in terms of the action by Central agencies against Opposition leaders and parties.

Namita Ghosh, a former vice-principal of a school in Jharkhand, now based in Serampore, says: “Why are the Enforcement Directorate and CBI going only after Opposition politicians? The government is so opaque.”

At the same time, in the case of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government, few are willing to give it the benefit of doubt. Businessmen in Asansol to lawyers in Purulia, teachers in Medinipur to homemakers in Kalyani, express their anger and frustration over the TMC’s “Syndicate” of corruption, with several of its senior leaders fighting allegations.

Dhar, who lives in Salt Lake City, says: “West Bengal definitely needs a good Opposition. Many in Trinamool are plain opportunists, and they will shift if the momentum shifts and the TMC is at the risk of collapsing.”

There is more sympathy for Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal, who is supposed to go back to jail on June 2 over Delhi excise policy scam charges. Speaking for many, given Kejriwal’s past as an anti-corruption crusader, a sceptical Prasun Bhowmick, an official in the state Agriculture Department, asks: “Do you think he has taken bribes?”

In a swipe at the BJP’s “washing machine”, dubbed thus by the Opposition, Sankar Srivastav, a cab driver in Kolkata, says the AAP leader should have done what others did. “Kejriwal-ta boka. Or uchit chhilo Modi’r saathe haat miliye nitey (Kejriwal is dumb, he should have joined hands with Modi).”

As regards Modi, many TMC voters say they have not forgotten how he taunted Mamata during the 2021 Assembly elections, with calls of “Didi-o-Didi”. “The attack on a woman Chief Minister like this did not go down well with the people here, so Modi did a course correction,” believes Ambuj Gorain, a former Indian Air Force officer who currently works at the Punjab National Bank in Kolkata.

But Pawan Kumar, the lawyer in Purulia, wonders if the discourse has improved much. “Yahan democracy khatre mein hai is not the issue… Here, it is ‘Hindu khatre mein hai, Musalman khatre mein hai’ (Here, it is not about democracy being in danger. The talk is either ‘Hindu is in danger, or Muslim’).”