7 Innings, 33 years
The agrarian reforms started in 70s gave left front a huge political platform to rule West Bengal. A single successful grassroot level policy reform made the Left Fort impregnable. For 33 complete years left fort has remained instant in the state politics. The party has ruled the state for 7 consecutive term. The left had won the last polls of 2006 too with huge majority.A big achievement of the Left Front government in West Bengal is its record in safeguarding democratic rights. Its impeccable record in upholding secularism and communal harmony, dealing with communal elements with a firm hand and defending the rights of minorities is a welcome exception to the pragmatic communalism practiced by the bourgeois parties and the State governments led by them. The fact that the communal RSS-BJP combine have failed to gain any significant foothold in the State is primarily because of the relentless ideological-political campaign against communalism, in which the Left Front government leads from the front. While dalits and adivasis across the country continue to be victims of caste violence, it is indeed heartening to find that West Bengal has an almost zero rate of atrocities against dalits and adivasis. The Left Front government also has the distinction of resolving the Gorkhaland issue, in a just and democratic manner within the framework of the Indian Constitution, by providing regional autonomy to the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council. Born out of the struggles against authoritarianism and State repression, it is the commitment of the Left Front government to democracy, which has won it enormous credibility in the eyes of the people of West Bengal and enabled it to complete thirty years in office. But now something is rotten in the Left side.
Big Threat to 'Red' Fort
The Left fared much better than most of the Indian states in land reforms, it fared poorly in public and private industrial sectors. 63 years back, West Bengal was one of the most industrialized states of India with a huge share of 24 per cent in total industrial production of the country. But, its share has declined to a dismal 4 per cent. It is ironical that today in West Bengal the Left is considered pro-capital while TMC pro-poor. In line with this new perception, TMC has gained support from many leftist intellectuals, civil society groups, and even the Maoists. Disillusioned with the Left government's support to the Centre in fighting red terror, Maoists sided with TMC calling it a progressive option in their fight against feudalism.This is why the Left Front is in deep trouble facing popular anger and charges of rampant corruption and poor governance; as well as possibility of split in the Left plank with couple of smaller parties moving towards an alliance with TMC.
Will the fort collapse in 2011
Lost 20 seats in Loksabha polls: West Bengal's seemingly impregnable red fort collapsed in LokSabha elections. The opposition Congress and Trinamool Congress alliance poised to win more than half of the 42 seats in the Lok Sabha elections. The Left Front has come up with its worst performance since 1977. The Trinamool-Congress combine could end up with 26 seats, reducing the Left Front to 15. In the 2004 elections, the Left Front had finished with a whopping 35 seats, while the Congress and the Trinamool had to be satisfied with six and one respectively. The LF had been decimated in five districts, besides facing the wrath of Muslims, angry over the violent incidents in Nandigram and the Sachar Committee report that pulled up the LF government for the backwardness of the minority committee. The defeat of the CPI-M in its stronghold of Uluberia - from where its candidate Hannan Mollah won eight times consecutively - is a pointer to this.
Poor performance in Civic Polls: Riding the winds of political change, Mamata Banerjee's TMC won the 141-ward city municipal corporation polls, inflicting a crushing blow to the ruling LF in the civic elections, dubbed as a semi-final before next year's Assembly polls. The Trinamool Congress, which had already won two-thirds majority in the 141-member KMC, will not need the support of the Congress to rule Kolkata.The Left Front which was in power in KMC with 75 wards has managed to win in only 29 wards. In the 2005 KMC polls, Left parties had won 75 seats, TC 42, Congress 21 and BJP three.Notwithstanding the bickering between her party and the Congress over the recent civic elections in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has already announced that the two parties would contest the next assembly polls in alliance.Ma, Mati, Manush formula of Mamta is still in force in the state for upcoming assembly polls. Apparently referring to the Left Front's repeated electoral setbacks, congress has also said that winds of change were blowing across the state.
The Big Question Now:Will the Left Fort collapse in 2011 assembly polls? Is that wind still blowing?
The Endangered 'Red' Fort
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
UPA faces Litmus Test on Corruption
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, weakened by a corruption scandal involving his sacked telecoms minister, told the Supreme Court on Saturday he had done nothing wrong and had followed correct procedures. An affidavit was presented to the Supreme Court by Singh's representative, Attorney General G.E. Vahanvati. The document said the prime minister had done "all that was required in the interest of probity". Corruption has long been a major problem in India, recognised by all political parties. The ruling Congress party has pledged to crack down on graft, but it has been put on the defensive in recent weeks when it was forced to fire three senior officials over corruption allegations, including the problem-riddled Commonwealth Games.
India was ranked 87th in Transparency International's 2010 ranking of 178 nations based on the perceived level of corruption, or almost in the middle of the index. Rival China is ranked higher, at number 78.
PM breaks silence
In his first comments since the corruption scandal blew up, Singh said in a leadership summit “It is often said these are testing times. In fact I can not help feeling that we in India are living always through testing times. Indeed as prime minister I sometimes feel like a high school student going from one test to another.”
Party rallies behind PM
Senior members of the ruling Congress party have rallied around Manmohan Singh, saying he has done nothing wrong and dismissed any rumors the prime minister was planning to resign. investigation into the sale of the second-generation telecoms licences in the world's fastest growing mobile phone market.
Accusations on Raja
Raja is accused of selling the licences too cheaply in 2007-2008, potentially costing the state up to $31 billion in lost revenues, according to an audit by an official watchdog. The process also violated several rules, the audit said. Raja, who was sacked last week, denies the accusations. Raja is a member of the DMK, a regional party from Tamil Nadu that helps give the Congress party a majority in parliament. The opposition claims Singh failed to act because he feared upsetting his coalition partner. After presenting an explanation to the Supreme Court on Saturday, Singh will on Tuesday appear in person to answer questions over how he handled the request to investigate Raja.
PM on Corruption : August 26, 2010
“There is a pervasive feeling that while petty cases get tackled quickly, the big fish escape punishment. This has to change. Rapid, fair and accurate investigation of allegations of corruption in high places should remain your utmost priority. The urgent need to combat this menace cannot be over emphasized. Corruption distorts the rule of law and weakens institutions. It hurts our economic growth in a variety of ways, apart from hindering our efforts to build a just, fair and equitable society," the prime minister had said at the biennial conference of the Central Bureau of Investigation and its anti-corruption bureau.
PM on Corruption: November 20, 2010
“We must also salute the spirit of adventure and the spirit of enterprise and the creativity of the small businessman and women, the first generation entrepreneur and the small farmer, each of whom has to deal with a difficult world environment – often including an unresponsive, inefficient and corrupt government” PM said at HT leadership summit.
Opposition blames PMO
In an affidavit before the Supreme Court on the 2G Spectrum scam, PMO said that there was no inaction on his part for allowing prosecution of former Telecom minister A Raja. The main opposition party BJP has termed this reply a conspiracy-“It is a glaring case where the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is patently involved in the conspiracy of silence, culpability of inaction and guilty of gross indifference, when nations’ wealth was being plundered by a Minister right under his nose by massive abuse of system and yet the head of the Government Dr. Manmohan Singh looked the other way,” said BJP national secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The affidavit claimed that the PM was examining the matter in consultation with several wings of the government, like the Department of Legal affairs, Department Of Personnel and Training, Law Ministry and the Telecom Department.The Prime Minister is being represented by India's top legal officer, the Attorney General, in the Supreme Court after the PM was asked to reply why he did not act on a plea to prosecute A Raja, the former telecom minister accused of enacting the multi-billion 2G spectrum scam.Attorney General of India GE Vahanvati replaced Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium to argue for the Prime Minister who faced an unprecedented rebuke by the Supreme Court on the 2G scam.The 2G Spectrum scam spelt the biggest embarrassment for the Central government on Thursday as the Supreme Court (SC) sought an affidavit on behalf of the Prime Minister.The court was responding to the allegations of no response from the PMO to Janata Dal leader Subramanium Swamy's repeated letters seeking sanction to prosecute former Telecom minister A Raja in the scam which cost the state exchequer Rs 1.76 lakh crore (nearly $40 billion).The whole controversy is going to be the litmus test for the UPA-2 government as opposition is firm on its demand for joint parliamentary committee on the 2G spectrum scam.
India was ranked 87th in Transparency International's 2010 ranking of 178 nations based on the perceived level of corruption, or almost in the middle of the index. Rival China is ranked higher, at number 78.
PM breaks silence
In his first comments since the corruption scandal blew up, Singh said in a leadership summit “It is often said these are testing times. In fact I can not help feeling that we in India are living always through testing times. Indeed as prime minister I sometimes feel like a high school student going from one test to another.”
Party rallies behind PM
Senior members of the ruling Congress party have rallied around Manmohan Singh, saying he has done nothing wrong and dismissed any rumors the prime minister was planning to resign. investigation into the sale of the second-generation telecoms licences in the world's fastest growing mobile phone market.
Accusations on Raja
Raja is accused of selling the licences too cheaply in 2007-2008, potentially costing the state up to $31 billion in lost revenues, according to an audit by an official watchdog. The process also violated several rules, the audit said. Raja, who was sacked last week, denies the accusations. Raja is a member of the DMK, a regional party from Tamil Nadu that helps give the Congress party a majority in parliament. The opposition claims Singh failed to act because he feared upsetting his coalition partner. After presenting an explanation to the Supreme Court on Saturday, Singh will on Tuesday appear in person to answer questions over how he handled the request to investigate Raja.
PM on Corruption : August 26, 2010
“There is a pervasive feeling that while petty cases get tackled quickly, the big fish escape punishment. This has to change. Rapid, fair and accurate investigation of allegations of corruption in high places should remain your utmost priority. The urgent need to combat this menace cannot be over emphasized. Corruption distorts the rule of law and weakens institutions. It hurts our economic growth in a variety of ways, apart from hindering our efforts to build a just, fair and equitable society," the prime minister had said at the biennial conference of the Central Bureau of Investigation and its anti-corruption bureau.
PM on Corruption: November 20, 2010
“We must also salute the spirit of adventure and the spirit of enterprise and the creativity of the small businessman and women, the first generation entrepreneur and the small farmer, each of whom has to deal with a difficult world environment – often including an unresponsive, inefficient and corrupt government” PM said at HT leadership summit.
Opposition blames PMO
In an affidavit before the Supreme Court on the 2G Spectrum scam, PMO said that there was no inaction on his part for allowing prosecution of former Telecom minister A Raja. The main opposition party BJP has termed this reply a conspiracy-“It is a glaring case where the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is patently involved in the conspiracy of silence, culpability of inaction and guilty of gross indifference, when nations’ wealth was being plundered by a Minister right under his nose by massive abuse of system and yet the head of the Government Dr. Manmohan Singh looked the other way,” said BJP national secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad.
The affidavit claimed that the PM was examining the matter in consultation with several wings of the government, like the Department of Legal affairs, Department Of Personnel and Training, Law Ministry and the Telecom Department.The Prime Minister is being represented by India's top legal officer, the Attorney General, in the Supreme Court after the PM was asked to reply why he did not act on a plea to prosecute A Raja, the former telecom minister accused of enacting the multi-billion 2G spectrum scam.Attorney General of India GE Vahanvati replaced Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium to argue for the Prime Minister who faced an unprecedented rebuke by the Supreme Court on the 2G scam.The 2G Spectrum scam spelt the biggest embarrassment for the Central government on Thursday as the Supreme Court (SC) sought an affidavit on behalf of the Prime Minister.The court was responding to the allegations of no response from the PMO to Janata Dal leader Subramanium Swamy's repeated letters seeking sanction to prosecute former Telecom minister A Raja in the scam which cost the state exchequer Rs 1.76 lakh crore (nearly $40 billion).The whole controversy is going to be the litmus test for the UPA-2 government as opposition is firm on its demand for joint parliamentary committee on the 2G spectrum scam.
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