Our own house has to be in order before we strut on international stage
Not all is well in the state of West Bengal. Mamata Banerjee may not have been responsible for all the stinking rot but she can’t wash her hands of the explosive brew she has been stirring recently. Her handling of the rape and murder in by now a notorious hospital in Kolkata has been disgusting and disgraceful to say the least. In the past, Didi has succeeded in deflecting all the barbs hurled at her by deft footwork. This time she appears not only to put her foot in the mouth but shoot herself in that limb.
The long-serving CM of the state has been called a loose canon and an unguided missile who can cause unimaginable collateral damage in friendly fire. What has saved her time and again is her cleaver identification with maati and manush. Her image as a brave selfless fighter for the poor and vulnerable, and protector of women has rendered invisible the economic stagnation, bad governance, large-scale corruption, sycophancy, nepotism, etc. The lady has managed to project herself as the last defender of Indian federalism and a strident voice of dissent that can’t be silenced. The taunts targeting her have boomeranged to haunt her tormentors.
This larger-than-life mythologised image has served her well. The breakdown of law and order in the state, the pathetic state of infrastructure, and the comatose economic development, all have become irrelevant in West Bengal’s context.
To be fair, the treatment of the central government appears glaringly step-motherly when it comes to states ruled by the Opposition. It unabashedly favours ‘double engine ki sarkar’. It also can’t be claimed that misgovernance, corruption, subversion of institutions, and crimes against women and minorities are absent in BJP-NDA-ruled states. This, however, can’t be pleaded in defence by anyone.
Why has West Bengal not been put under presidential rule despite the provocative, almost incendiary, statements made by an enraged Didi? She is an expert at playing the victim card, but this time she appears to be fighting with her back against the wall. She has escaped constitutional dethroning only because this may make her a martyr with a hallow around her head.
Things are changing fast. Elections have been reduced to sideshows not even providing entertainment relief. Why waste time, money and energy on battle of the ballots when the majority can be engineered via defections afterwards? Consent can also be manufactured with more than a little help from the media. Mamata Didi may retain a large chunk of her mass base after the latest fiasco and consider herself safe due to the strategic sensitivity of the state she rules with an iron hand but her vulnerability is increasing by the day.
Let’s not keep our focus on an individual however charismatic and controversial, or a single state. Partisan politics is not going to decide our future. It’s the state of the economy that concerns over a billion Indians. To those subsisting on a monthly dole of food grain, it matters little where India ranks in GDP terms. The claim of a world-class infrastructure ring hollow to those who live in waterlogged wannabe smart cities or travel hazardously on potholed highways. Our leaders’ loudest laments and apologies are reserved for tumbling statues. The search for scapegoats takes priority over all else.
Seldom is a criminal brought to justice. Cases closed for decades are revived only when a distraction is required. Jagdish Tytler, we learn, is finally going to be tried for murder abetted during the anti-Sikh genocidal riots in 1984. A closure is certainly needed, but can such delay bring an iota of relief to survivors?
Past is full of nightmares. None of the horrors should be erased or forgotten—not to perpetuate divisions in society, but to strive for reconciliation. The challenges that we face are complex and the window of opportunities available is constantly shrinking. The neighbourhood is volatile and the milieu is not likely to improve in the near future.
China is a hostile adversary that hasn’t ceased to put India in a secondary place in Asia. This effectively cuts it to size at the global level. We may well leapfrog to the rank of the third largest economy, but the gap between us and China will remain very large. Our technological prowess and comparative advantage in cheap skilled labour haven’t succeeded yet in making India a viable option for those who wish to reduce their dependence on China.
At the same time, the tightrope walking to keep the US and Russia happy is becoming increasingly perilous. We can’t afford to remain indifferent to wars distant from our borders. Our economy is entwined with what is unfolding in West Asia, Europe and the Americas. But it would be naive to persist in the belief that we are the lone voice of the global south and others are waiting to follow our lead.
Our own house has to be put in order before we can strut on the international stage.
Pushpesh Pant
Former professor, Jawaharlal Nehru University
pushpeshpant@gmail.com