As Bengal poll approaches, Mamata's TMC has a lot to ponder over

Over the last few years, the usual decorum and decency associated with political engagement between the Centre and states in a federal structure have sadly degenerated in West Bengal.

On occasions — like when CBI personnel were intimidated and physically assaulted by the West Bengal and Kolkata police during the Sarada chit fund/Narada scams, or when Governor Jagadeep Dhankhar had to rescue Union Minister Babul Supriyo from jeering crowds on the Jadavpur University campus after the local police refused to help — even the minimum official niceties were abandoned.

The level of estrangement between Delhi and Kolkata is unprecedented in post-1947 India. Both the national as well as the Bengal-based media have largely ignored the near breakdown in the Centre-state relations in a sensitive border region occasionally plagued by the activities of Maoists and Islamic extremists.

The latest vandalism led by Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs and local leaders at Visva-Bharati University — set up by Rabindranath Tagore with high hopes a century ago — is yet another example of the sordid state-against-Centre syndrome.

The TMC “protested” against the University’s decision to guard its campus better by demolishing the ceremonial front gate of the institution using tractors and a bulldozer, and by attacking the residence of a targeted professor — unmistakable signs of a deeper malaise that should be addressed without delay by national policymakers and parties.

As of now, Governor Dhankhar, a former minister and lawyer himself, seems to be the only person concerned over such matters. Whenever he felt it necessary, he has pulled up the state government (whose failures in the administration are legion) and has shown himself to be an expert in using social media.

During his short but eventful tenure, he has painstakingly drawn up a list of what he regards as the palpable shortcomings in the governance of the state. State ministers, as well as senior officials belonging to the central cadre, seem quite content to follow the TMC line. All studiously ignore invitations and messages, whether routine or otherwise, from the Raj Bhavan! So far, Dhankhar has played the protesting lone ranger against the TMC’s excesses without much apparent support from the Centre, although he sends regular reports to Delhi. He has been subjected to a daily barrage of contempt, insults and ridicule by the local pro-TMC media and the ruling TMC.

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This has resulted in a highly unusual situation: local policymakers and officials boycotting the state governor by obeying an unwritten rule of the ruling party, and by extension the central government the governor represents.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led the boycott by refusing to attend important meetings called by the Centre to discuss the Niti Aayog proposals, the smart cities programme, and other issues relating to education, public health and law and order. For good measure, she also forbade state officials from attending these meetings, or even from replying to routine enquiries from central ministries on matters relating to the implementation of various state projects and schemes.

This is something that has never happened between Delhi and any state government before. Naturally, the interests of the state have suffered grievously. There are numerous examples. ‘Is our CM trying to run an independent Republic of Bengal these days?’ is a query many Opposition leaders in the state have asked even in public meetings that were allowed by the police. Most proposed Opposition meetings were disallowed even before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Remarkably, the BJP-ruled Centre that goes out of its way to tom-tom its new hardline approach against China and Pakistan, has not asked Bengal for any explanation for its extraordinary political stance! It is not surprising that the BJP’s unusual reticence on the subject of Centre-state relations has caused Opposition leaders within the Congress and the Left to wonder whether unconfirmed reports of an “understanding” between it and the TMC are after all correct.

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Political spats and acrimonious dialogue between governors and ruling parties in different states are not uncommon. But the level of animus that prevails between Kolkata and Delhi has never been seen before.

There is much criticism of the governor who indeed has on occasion over-politicised and over-reacted on some issues. But the root cause of the bitter war of words and insults is the TMC’s unorthodox style of politics and functioning, especially with the forces the party opposes. It was never in Banerjee’s nature to work as a team member even when she was in the Indian National Congress, which split in Bengal in 1998, as she and a few others set up the Trinamool Congress. She had accused the local Congress leaders, including the recently deceased Somen Mitra, of suppressing her rise within the party’s ranks. But her real criticism was against the party high command, which she felt was always soft towards the Left Front led by the CPI(M).

However, even her worst critics will concede that eventually the TMC’s victory over the mighty Left Front, which had ruled Bengal for over 34 years, was an achievement for which she alone deserves much of the credit. No one had worked harder, suffered more or paid a higher price than Banerjee in her long, arduous struggle against the Left. No wonder that the people thirsting for a change in the state bowed to her sacrifice. Even today, she enjoys more support than anyone else despite a decline of late in her support base amid BJP’s rise.

But her personal magnetism may be put to a very severe test in the Assembly elections in 2021. The outcome of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, in which the BJP won 18 seats against the TMC’s 22, gave her a major scare. Winning 40% of the popular vote, the BJP, against all odds, was only slightly behind the TMC, which won 43%. Alarmingly for the TMC, the weeks and months since then have not been easy for it. It sensed an opportunity to take on the BJP during the nation-wide protests against the NRC in Assam and the Citizenship Amendment Act. But the coronavirus pandemic and the massive corruption in providing relief to people that led to many public demonstrations, not to mention the pathetic state of basic health services in the state, have all combined to give the state a very bad name.

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Angry voices have been raised against the TMC all over the state despite it resorting to the tactic regional parties usually employ to divert criticism — blaming Delhi when nothing seems to work in their favour.

But despite all the TMC’s efforts to spite the BJP and the Centre, even trying to work up a Bengali sentiment against “unfriendly rulers in Delhi or Gujarat”, the public response has not been encouraging. Suddenly, the common people seem unimpressed by the TMC’s posturing.

The nagging question remains: would it have been a better option for the TMC to cooperate and get along better with the ruling BJP, a la Naveen Patnaik and his BJD party in Odisha? Well, investors seem to regard Odisha as a better destination than Bengal.

Trampling on Constitutional norms or preaching reckless radicalism could have been avoided. The TMC leaders would do well to ponder this as the 2021 Assembly elections approach.

(Ashis Biswas is a Kolkata-based senior journalist. In his long career, he has worked in New Delhi, Kolkata and Guwahati for India’s reputed media organisations)

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