The dirty underbelly of West Bengal’s politics, especially of the Trinamool Congress, is now in the open. Being a poor state, the people of Bengal wanted Mamata Banerjee’s government to work for development, employment, and economic push, among other things. Under the Left Front rule, the state’s economy became utterly unsustainable. But after the revelation of the alleged teacher recruitment scam and the involvement of former cabinet minister and TMC heavyweight Partha Chatterjee, the party will now need to revamp its plan of action. Mere eyewash will not help Mamata Banerjee, either electorally or morally.
There is a sense of betrayal among the residents of Bengal. Mamata Banerjee came to power invoking the Ma-Mati-Manush slogan, which means a government of mother-soil-people. However, after the 2021 assembly election victory, the state has been witnessing a growing number of incidents of violence and corruption. There is also a surging discontent within the people of Bengal over the leadership of the TMC because, in most cases, the names of heavyweight Trinamool leaders are emerging.
Last Wednesday, chief minister Mamata Banerjee reorganised her council of ministers in what appeared to be an effort to rebuild the government’s sagging image after Partha Chatterjee, a former minister of commerce and education, was arrested in connection with the alleged School Service Commission (SSC) scam. She appointed eight ministers— five cabinet members, one independent charge minister of state (MoS), and two ministers of state — and dismissed four. Paresh Adhikari, the minister of state for education, was among those fired. He is being looked into by the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the suspected SSC scam.
Mamata Banerjee is one of India’s senior-most politicians. People who have seen her closely admit that she understands the pulse of the masses. She fought against the CPI(M)-led Left Front from the very first day of her induction into politics. She left the Congress and formed the Trinamool Congress. The veterans of the grand old party in Bengal made fun of her, but she took the challenge and finally uprooted the Left Front government.
While her determination and passion for politics are unquestionable, her control over the party is growing weaker. And this is alarming. When the ED revealed the cash stashed at the properties of Arpita Mukherjee, an alleged close aide of Partha Chatterjee, people understood the gravitas of this alleged scam.
Mamata Banerjee and all the other leaders of her party who used to be constantly around Partha Chatterjee abandoned him just after the cash was found. The question is whether the people of Bengal believe that no one else in the ruling party knew about a scam of this magnitude. The cabinet reshuffle was done by Mamata Banerjee in an attempt to make a change without changing anything fundamental. People understand these motives. The real need of the hour for the TMC is to accept the mistake, apologise, and then rectify.
It is high time for Mamata Banerjee to understand that distancing herself from corrupt people and safeguarding herself from getting maligned cannot be the best strategy. She will have to take a stand against every corrupt practice within her party, the Trinamool Congress. The public is witnessing discussions about alleged scams, cut money, syndicate Raj, and everything else. Being the supremo of the TMC and the head of the administration, it is difficult but not impossible to identify and remove those from the party or government. Without this course correction, people will soon stop believing in the TMC.
Today, organisational revamp, taking cognisance and action against corruption, going beyond the comfort zone, and reaching out to the people with the message of course correction should be the focus of Mamata Banerjee. No doubt, she has a strong voter base in Bengal, but anti-incumbency is also a real threat. Mamata Banerjee should now go beyond posturing and take concrete measures to fight corruption in the state, especially within her own party and government.
Sayantan Ghosh is an independent journalist, columnist and a former policy research fellow at the Delhi Assembly Research Centre. He tweets as @sayantan_gh. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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