The regrettable jostling of West Bengal’s finance minister Amit Mitra by CPI(M) student activists on Wednesday outside the Planning Commission in New Delhi, where he was accompanying chief minister Mamata Banerjee, consolidates the impression that the apt metaphor for politics is war in West Bengal.
Indeed, this has been the case for some four decades. The characteristic of such a state of affairs is that those holding office brook no dissent or opposition even from the public, let alone rival parties. While the Trinamul Congress does this now, the CPI(M)-led Left Front did it for over 30 long years till it emerged bloodied from the battlefield, thanks largely to Ms Banerjee’s aggression. And before the Left had sunk its roots, the Congress, under the leadership of Siddhartha Shankar Ray, was busy unleashing “semi-fascist terror” against the Leftists in the state.
The state has suffered deeply as a result of militarised ideological confrontations. Economic development has been a big casualty. Education has taken blows. Capital has fled. Overall cultural crassness is evident. The grammar of politics is stitched together by goons and gangsters.
The attack on Ms Banerjee’s party outside Yojna Bhavan, the Leftists said, was a payback for the death of a CPI(M) student leader in Kolkata recently after he was arrested following a protest demonstration. Compliments were returned swiftly for the New Delhi incident as former CPI(M) ministers were attacked and nearly a hundred CPI(M) offices were hit (and some burnt down) across the state. None of this augurs well.