“Revenge is history, change is victory. The target is not to just overthrow CPM. It is to get Bengal back its glory.” Going by these comments of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader Mamata Banerjee, her victory in the recent West Bengal Assembly elections is just the beginning. She has been successful in unseating the CPM for the first time in 34 years. But the goal of ‘regenerating Bengal’ will get underway only when the red bricked Writer’s Building (State Government Secretariat) turns green from inside on May 20. [Red is the color of the Left Front while TMC, the grassroots party, is identified with green in the state]. Mamata Banerjee’s victory is by itself a huge change for West Bengal but the people of the state look forward to better education and employment opportunities, increased industrialization and improved infrastructure. For Didi (sister) as she is lovingly called by the people of Bengal, the job has only begun. TMC’s Election Manifesto outlines a “blueprint of the regeneration and rejuvenation of West Bengal.”
The slogan for Didi’s election campaign was ‘maa, maati, manush’ – mother, land and people. Interestingly, the slogan is drawn from a famous Bengali jatra (folk-theatre) originally scripted in 1975 about the time when the Left Front came to power, defeating the Congress. With changing times, not only is the original script of the jatra being reworked by the author’s son, its central message is being used to end the three decade long Left rule in the State.
The people of Bengal have endured the goon culture for long and some fear that new government simply implies a change in the party affiliation of the trouble makers. In an attempt to allay such fears, Mamata issued a model code of do’s and don’ts for her party members. “Do not beat up anybody. It is very easy to beat up someone…. The CPM goons had beaten me so many times, now the people of Bengal have taught them a lesson,” Mamata said in her first full-fledged address after the election results.
The greatest challenge for Mamata will be on issues of governance. She has promised to solve the political crisis brewing in the Darjeeling Hills within three months. She will have to balance the industrial and agricultural revival of Bengal. The proposed economic approach sounds flexible, “We will not get into a situation where for the development of one, the other will be sacrificed. Under our rule, another Singur or Nandigram will not happen. At every stage, welfare of the state and its people will be most important. We will not say no to anything that contributes positively.” Amit Mitra, expected to become the Finance Minister in the new Cabinet, is certain that Tatas would return to Bengal. Mitra holds that businessmen did not have sentimental issues and looked at returns on investments, adding the Tatas would come and invest once the industry’s confidence in Bengal was restored. Though the approach sounds impressive the challenge remains in implementation.
The real test of Mamata’s political ingenuity will be her approach towards the police and bureaucracy –the two institutions she has often criticized for supporting and perpetuating the Leftist ideology. Her emphasis on reviving the ‘work culture’ in Bengal could result in a confrontation with the State bureaucracy. According to Sumit Ganguly, “more than a generation of individuals and groups who were the acolytes of the Communists are well-ensconced in key positions within the bureaucracy and other institutions of the state. Despite the loss of their long-standing patrons, they won’t take kindly to the new political landscape. Instead, they can be counted on to stir up trouble for the new government in the weeks and months ahead. Though the Communist bastion has finally been breached, their members won’t go gently into the good night.”
