WB: REFORM AND REPOSITION
There’s a sense of urgent purpose in the way Mamata Banerjee is approaching her new term in office. Two months into her third term on the trot, the West Bengal chief minister has already rolled out several initiatives the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had promised in its poll manifesto.
These include new welfare projects, including ‘duare ration’, to deliver rations to people’s doorsteps; ‘lokkhir bhandar’, which gives housewives Rs 6,000 in annual support payments (Rs 12,000 for women from SC/ ST communities); a Rs 10 lakh credit line for students seeking higher education; and ‘duare tran’, to deliver relief payments to victims of cyclone Yaas. These follow the template of the ‘duare sarkar’ programme her government ran before the assembly election, to improve delivery of government services by cutting out middlemen and thereby reducing corruption. Some benefits are already visible—for instance, the duare ration scheme reveals the state has 104 million registered ration cards, despite the official population being closer to 90 million.
During the assembly campaign, Mamata had vowed to reform the TMC if she returned to power, saying, “The only alternative to the TMC is a reformed TMC.” Her post-poll manoeuvres give the impression that this effort is in full swing. For one, she has created a separation between party and government—under a new ‘one-person-onepost’ rule, TMC leaders are banned from holding multiple posts, or from holding posts in both the government and the party organisation. Sources say she was willing to relinquish her own party post to set an example, but relented after party leaders asked her to make an exception for herself.
The ‘duare’ schemes are a major part of her effort to reform the delivery of government services. The cyclone relief programme duare tran, for instance, was implemented after allegations of large-scale corruption in the distribution of relief material for those affected by cyclone Amphan in May last year. Sources say it has helped identify bogus claims—for instance, upon physical verification of damaged homes, the claims were found to be inflated by 60 per cent—against the original claims list of 300,000, only 140,000 were
found to be bona fide.
Mamata has also been pushing to ensure that the TMC’s victory in the assembly polls does not result in complacency. During the election campaign, the BJP did its worst to paint the picture of a highly corrupt government. There were allegations of a ‘bua-bhatija (auntnephew) syndicate’ and a ‘tolabaazi tax’, referring to the alleged culture of demanding bribes to pass on welfare benefits. In her third term, Mamata has been trying to hammer home the message of zero tolerance to corruption. There have been some concrete developments on this front, including the transfer of food and supplies minister Jyotipriyo Mullick to the forest department as a result of the many complaints of corruption in his department.
On this issue, Mamata has also specifically mentioned cow and coal smuggling—an investigation into these by the CBI (Central Bureau of Investigation) suggested links to top TMC members, including Abhishek Banerjee’s wife Rujira and Youth TMC leader Vinay Mishra, who is reportedly close to Abhishek. Some see this as Mamata’s way of cautioning her nephew to keep his distance from those involved in corruption. “Mamata’s diktat was for one and all, but her talk of cow smuggling and illegal coal mining shows she is particularly annoyed with her family’s name appearing in these cases,” says a senior TMC leader, on condition of anonymity.
Another effort to burnish the TMC’s image has been Mamata’s response to the post-poll violence in the state. Even as the BJP accuses the TMC of turning a blind eye to this, Mamata has come across as non-partisan in her government’s effort to compensate victims. For instance, family members of the four Muslims who died when CISF (Central Industrial Security Force) personnel opened fire on protesters in Sitalkuchi during polling on April 10 have been given government jobs, as have family members of a BJP worker who died in a clash with unidentified assailants. Mamata has also avoided announcements that could be construed as communal. For instance, her sanction of six medical colleges and the recruitment of 32,000 teachers, the doubling of assistance to farmers under the Krishak Bandhu scheme and initiatives like duare ration or the students’ credit card give little scope for the BJP to accuse her of appeasement politics. “Religion has never been our priority,” says TMC Rajya Sabha MP Sukhendu Sekhar Ray, adding that Mamata Banerjee’s “politics of inclusion” is manifest in her welfare projects and the party’s ‘Ma-MaatiManush’ slogan.
When it comes to her national ambitions, Mamata Banerjee’s landslide victory in the assembly election—against the full might of the BJP—has certainly bolstered her claim to lead the opposition in 2024. So, if she is making haste in rejigging party affairs and trying to set the tone for reinvigorated, responsive governance, it is also because she wants to quickly free up political bandwidth to focus on the national project. With her nephew Abhishek installed as national general secretary of the TMC and former aide Mukul Roy back in the party, she has given herself that stretch room.
While some political leaders have long supported her—for instance, the Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal, the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav Thackeray, the Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav and the DMK’s M.K. Stalin—others, including Kerala chief minister and CPI(M) politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan and the Biju Janata Dal’s Naveen Patnaik have been in touch with her about national issues like the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines and their distribution.
For some time now, Mamata has been more visible on the national stage, especially on issues of panIndia significance. On the new farm laws, for example, she was among the Centre’s most vocal critics. She even sent party MPs, led by Derek O’Brien, to express solidarity with farmers during the agitation in New Delhi. Rakesh Tikait, spokesperson of the Bharatiya Kisan Union, one of the major groups involved in the agitation, met with her in Kolkata on June 9, asking her to put together a strong opposition to the BJP. “Tikait, aware of Mamata’s famous farmland movement, has sought her help,” says Purnendu Bose, newly appointed president of the TMC’s farmers’ wing, the Khet Mazdoor Union. “When it comes to [pro-farmer] agitations, Mamata Banerjee’s hunger strike for the Singur farmers is a historical milestone.” There have also been hints that the TMC will lean on farmers’ unions to mark its presence in states like Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.
The TMC has already engaged veteran leader Yashwant Sinha to lobby in Delhi and scout for allies by floating an apolitical platform, the Rashtriya Manch. “Involving senior leaders from different parties to build consensus on opposing the BJP shows that Mamata’s strategy has matured,” says Prasanta Ray, a social scientist. “This is unlike 2019, when she did all the running around for a mahagathbandhan show, giving the impression that she was angling for a leadership role.” That effort crumbled for several reasons, including the fact that it was a loose, disparate, hastily contrived alliance, cobbled together barely months before the general election. This time around, it appears Mamata has decided on a slow but steady approach. With the #BengaliPrimeMinister hashtag now doing the rounds on social media, it appears she is off to a good start.
Mamata’s win in the assembly poll against the full might of the BJP has bolstered her claim to lead the national opposition in 2024