KOLKATA:West Bengal may be cash-strapped and debt-ridden, but that hasn’t stopped Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee from moving office as per the dictates of Vastu Shastra and irrespective of the expenditure incurred.
After an unlucky stint at Nabanna building in Howrah, where she had moved the State Secretariat towards the end of 2013 on advice of her astrologers, Mamata now wants to return to the old secretariat Writers’ Building in Kolkata at the earliest.
Her “astrological move” cost the state exchequer Rs 50 crore that was spent renovating the HRBC Building. The British-era Writers’ Building is under renovation at present and Rs 200 crore has been spent on its repairs, work for which started soon after she moved office.
CPI(M) Lok Sabha MP Mohammad Salim said, “People unnecessarily condemn Mohammad bin Tughlaq but actual Tughlaqi style is followed by Mamata. Her priority is her personal interest.”
A strong believer in astrology and a devout follower of goddess Kali, Mamata had switched office to Nabanna, situated on the western bank of the Ganges with an intention to improve the influence of the planets on her political fortune, say sources.
But Mamata’s shift to Nabanna proved to be far from lucky. She could not foresee the ‘Modi wave” and her hopes of playing kingmaker at the Centre were dashed. To top it all, the multi-crore Saradha scam which affected around 18 lakh people in the state has raised questions on the TMC supremo’s integrity. The Supreme Court ordered a CBI probe into the Saradha scam despite strong opposition from her government and her own name was dragged with allegations that Saradha group chairman Sudipto Sen had purchased one of her paintings for a whopping Rs 1.86 crore.
Her own party leaders started raising uncomfortable questions and the CBI along with the Enforcement Directorate interrogated several TMC MPs and even arrested state transport minister Madan Mitra, a close lieutenant of the CM. The summoning of TMC national secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Roy rattled her further.
Her party hasn’t fared as she would have liked it to in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls and there has been a lot of infighting within the TMC with a state minister even quitting to join the BJP.
Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya, who also dabbles in astrology, said, “There is a limit of tolerating her whimsical attitude. Tax payers’ money has been wasted.”
In May 2011, Mamata Banerjee had stormed to power ending the 34-year-old Left Front rule in the state. However, within a year she faced issues which started affecting her public image negatively and she could not get along with her political allies. She soon parted ways with UPA II and the state government was left with a huge burden of debt which the UPA II government refused to waive off.
Her first two years in power in West Bengal have been rocked with scandals and have seen a rise in crimes against women. The state has failed to draw any industry because of her land policy while she has failed to return land to farmers in Singur where the Tata Motors factory still stands.
Around this time, Mamata began consulting various astrologers who are said to have advised her to shift from the age-old British-era Writers’ Building to the Hooghly River Bridge Commissionerates (HRBC) building in Howrah, which is on the western side of the Ganges, and would prove lucky for her. In August 2013, Mamata visited the HRBC building, which was supposed to be a garment park, and tallied the opinion of her astrologers and Vastu experts.
Her astrologers also suggested a new name for her office—Nabanna, after the Bengali paddy harvest festival dedicated to Laxmi, the goddess of wealth and fertility. Numerologists advised her to occupy the 14th floor as she was born on January 5 and the number 5 was therefore auspicious for her.
On October 5, 2013, the day “Navratri” began she moved into her spacious office which had an adjoining conference room and a terrace garden. On one side, a studio was set up with an easel to mount canvas if she felt like painting while enjoying the beauty of the nearby Ganges.
Employees working in Writers’ Building had protested against the move citing lack of infrastructure and transport facilities to the HRBC building in Howrah. They further complained that while the state government was yet to pay their 38 per cent dearness allowance in arrear, this expenditure was nothing but “whimsical on part of the chief minister”.
After she moved to Nabanna, renovation work started at Writers’ Building. Mamata had wanted to paint the Writers’ Buildings blue and white, but that could not be done as it is a heritage building. So the HRBC building was painted in Didi’s favourite colours. According to experts who work on renovation of heritage buildings, Banerjee’s decision to demolish six blocks of the Writers’ Building in one go was risky as the building had no pillars. The renovation, they said, should have been carried one block at a time.
Recently, Mamata consulted a fresh set of astrologers and decided to move back to the 238-year-old heritage building, where she asked that renovation work be expedited. All constructions in her office are being done in accordance with Vaastu Shastra. Mamata will not be sitting on the first floor but on the second floor in a new, larger room which will also be decorated and have all the facilities that existed in her chamber at Nabanna.
BJP legislator Shamik Bhattacharya said, “This proves the state government is not accountable to anyone. With industries leaving the state, no economic development, unemployment on the rise, retired government employees not getting their pension and the state burning, the CM if behaving like Emperor Nero.”
Ranjit Mohanty, retired DG of West Bengal police, condemned Mamata’s decisions, saying, “It is a waste of public funds and an insult to the tax payers in the state. Can astrology be the determining factor for governance?”