The State needs to come out of lawlessness
The recent incidents of violence in West Bengal are fast turning the State into a disturbed place. Worryingly, somewhere or the other, the cadres of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) are either directly or indirectly involved in many of these conflicts. When she was not in power, then TMC leader and now Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had raised alarm bells across the State about the lawlessness brought by the left, but today she has failed to give respite to the people from the same. The last, but not the least, being the killing of a protestor in the South 24 Parganas, where the villagers are staging dharnas against the acquisition of nearly 16 acres of farmland by the State for the construction of a power plant by the Power Grid Corporation of India limited.
The villagers say it is ‘forced' occupation. With incidents such as the one that took place in Dhulagarh last month, the State is fast turning into a communal cauldron as well. More than that, the State has witnessed large number of incidents of political violence in the recent past, where the ruling party has been playing the role of ‘big brother’. Banerjee has been accused of polarising the State along communal lines. Perhaps she believes that with the kind of majority her party enjoys and the support base she has constructed over the years, will see her through any problem. But situations can change, with the BJP making its presence felt. The BJP has been slowly but surely gaining ground, with its organisation spreading across the State. The BJP’s rise may not be electorally visible now, but it can if things continue to deteriorate. The left has not been able to project a strong leader against Banerjee, and it is facing crisis from both within and outside. Out of power since 2011, after Banerjee ousted it from more than three decades of its rule, the left Front is facing an existential crisis in the State. On the other hand, the Congress, almost a dying force, can hardly challenge the TMC.
Combining all these, Banerjee may think that she can play around and turn the State into a place where only her diktat will reign. If she thinks so, she has been purely misled by her activist aggression and failure to understand the ground situation. Besides, she has been picking fights with the Centre, particularly with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for quite some time, and more belligerently since the unfolding of the demonetisation drive. She is on a confrontationist course, both with the Centre and with other political actors within the State. This will can seriously impact the development of the State. Considering the massive mandate that she won for the second time, she should focus more on lifting the State out of the mess left behind by the left rule. Rather, she is driving the State into lawlessness, where there can be no sensible development. This is sad. She must make a course-correction as early as possible. Else, the people of the State will teach her and her party a lesson or two.