Election 2009: West Bengal Analysis

The Sunrise happened for the opposition when Biman Basu claimed the “Surjodoy(Sunrise) of Nandigram” and that to was ignited by the egotistic CM by bifurcating “Amra Ora” (We and They) and giving priority to “Party over State”. Though the left has done the same prioritization for decades, they became naked in Nandigram issue.

Nandigram cost a lot for the left in the 15th National Election. Not only the mandate of farmers, but also the minority (most of the victims were Muslims) vote bank shifted towards the TMC-INC for this issue. It was a blunder and opposition didn’t leave any stone unturned to capitalize the sensitive issue.

CPM tried to gain the reputation back with Tata in Singur. It was almost done, but at the final moment crazy Mamatadi intervened. Another mistake by Left was made there. They could have done some negotiation for the betterment of the state, but they allowed TMC to make a mess of the situation, so that people can blame them. This is what they did for decades; criticize center and do no work. This time they tried to do something, but as they don’t have the experience to do that they messed up.

These two phrases “Singur and Nandigram” wiped out the stable Left front from West Bengal. The main reason is the radical shift of party polarization in West Bengal. The Communist party was a party for the poor, farmers and intellectuals and now that portion is in favor of TMC. TMC tried in many ways to capture the vote bank of common people, first tying up with BJP. In 1999 election they did fairly well capturing 8 seats in National Election, most of them were the seats of Kolkata, but failed to get the rural and Muslim votes. Thus they switched the ally in the assembly election in 2001 and tied up with INC. They got few seats but not as much as they expected, so TMC turned to BJP again in the 14th National Election in 2004. It was a disaster and Mamata had to pay for her whimsical attitude. TMC has only 1 seat in Parliament (that to of Mamata) and in the 2006 assembly they performed poorly with BJP and came back to INC on 2009 National Election.

Despite the dilly dally TMC managed to have a clean sweep this time, young people are literally unhappy on Mamata for the Singur issue which hampered the industrialization process in WB, for which the state had pay and will have to pay a lot. But why people have given mandate for her?

Here goes my analysis.

1) The Minority Vote Bank: In the whole country the Muslim voters are shifted to Congress (INC) and in the state that has been aggravated by the Nandigram issue and the national report that shows the financial status of the minorities in WB are deplorable and worst in the whole country.
2) The Lower Cast votes: This vote bank shifted to INC-TMC. They placed couple of dalit candidates and managed to get a major portion of SC-ST votes.
3) Farmers and Lower class: They were the original CPM supporters, turned to TMC as CPM has gone for development and TMC occupied the vacant place with its agenda “Ma-Mati-Manus”. That is a major swing against CPM in this election due to erotic land accusation policy.
4) Urban Voters: The urban voters started shifting to Non-Left teams years before due to the poor development and Left policies. This election there was many factors against Lefts.
• They don’t want to be in the center but never leave a chance to embarrass the ruling party (Like they did with the Nuke deal).
• They ask vote against Congress and support congress in center.
• They had no agenda but tried to form third front with some selfish regional parties who have no principal and can do anything for their vested interested. Any rational voters will not vote for a Third Front where Mayabati was projected as PM.
• They always tried to put the communal forces (BJP) away which helped Congress to get more popularity as INC is better projected as secular party than any other regional parties.
• The arrogance and egotist attitude of the Lefts for their unprecedented enjoy of power without an opposition have become huge anti-incumbent factor this time which in turn helped the TMC-INC to swing the vote in their favor.
• People are not happy with the intellectual Politburo of Lefts and what they did with Somnath after the no-confidence motion against Congress and how they stopped Jyoti Basu not to be the PM in 1996. Left is still paying for their historical blunder and will continue to pay unless they change their mindset.

What will happen in near future.

TMC will have the Rail ministry and couple more small portfolios in the cabinet. They will try to do some visible development before the assembly election in 2011. They will continue with the agenda “Krishi bachiye Silpo chai” – Agriculture first then Industrialization. They will continue with INC in assembly and is they don’t score self negative goals, its just a matter of time Mamata will be next PM of WB.

Left will not go for any land accusation in next two years. They will play a safe game and will try to break the coalition of TMC and INC (though it will be hard as left is not required now in center and Mamata is getting good support from INC central leadership, specially Pranab Mukherjee is making a difference). Left will try to make maximum development in state and pass some policies for the minorities to regain the Muslim vote bank. They will also try to capture their rural base in panchayats level by some reformation in party level.

But despite that, it something magical does not happen, unequivocally TMC will come in power in State. But it is good for WB as both the parties will try to reform and the state will have actual development. Good for the ignorant Bengalis who will be given special attention.
The bad part will be the violence and riots. The CPM cadres will not allow the unprecedented supremacy of TMC-INC. At the cost of those innocent victims West Bengal will have the change in the political era in near future.

And Back Again

This is what came in our first Corporate newsletter(i-sdc wave) 5 years(2nd June 2002) back. I thought to share with some of you. This week I have got net connection in my home, so I am back again in blogosphere, will keep posting..

Pijush Ranjan Ghosh - our very own artist at i-SDC who unlike most of us has an uncanny taste of creativity, as he captures the beautiful wallpaper on his desktop, to paper. Pijush has sketched this from a beautiful 'Victoria Memorial' wallpaper on his desktop. Heard anything like this?

Click to enlarge and Have a nice weekend.. Njoy

Kolkata in Curfew

Kolkata is again in problem, this time under communal fire. The AIMF (All India Minority Forum) is demanding cancellation of Visa of controversial Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasreen, who is now in Kolkata. The other issue was Nandigram, where huge Muslims have been killed by cadres.

Definitely some opportunist political parties are playing important role in this kind of chaos, which turned out in a riot and RAF, Army called to control it followed by overnight curfew in sensitive areas.

Taslima left Bangladesh as many Muslim extremist parties threaded to kill the female writer for her criticism of Islam and now the same kind of threats are coming in India also, though I believe that it is purely a political issue now.

I have nothing more to say about it, but what I want to restore peace in my home town. I had to wait in the long traffic jam, but fortunately I came out in time. Others waited for hours and the whole Calcutta came to standstill, as the central part was blocked by the protesters. Many cars have been burnt and police was attacked, I am happy the way CM handled the situation, but not happy with the situation.

Pic Source: ABP news paper 22Nov

Durga Puja - A Small Recap

Finally Durga puja ended with expected grandeur and solemnity. Be it rich or poor, Hindu or non-Hindu, Bengali or non-Bengali, everyone enjoyed the festival here in Bengal. But the end of the festival has left me heavy hearted, thus not feeling to cherish these days. But still want to share some moments and shots that I have captured.

I haven’t been able to see many pandels and idols, but still have had nice time with family and friends. The best idol I have seen is the above one of Jagriti Sangha club of Garia, close to my flat. I like the fearlessness and reinvigorating face here.

Then comes the goddess of our apartment/flat. We the flat owners organize Durga puja in miniature and we spend most of the time here. Its our own puja, everything is done by us, starting from creative decorations to prepare the bhog (holly food).

The purohit (priest) are performing some rituals. This is called arati and the next one with some lamps are called Sandhi Puja, which happens between the third(Astami) and fourth(Nabami) day of the festival.

On last two days we went to Kharagpur from Kolkata and enjoyed the festival there. It was fascinating and real refreshing. I have not downloaded kgp pics yet, here go some of the pics of Garia(my locality in Kolkata).

This is one of the biggest festivals in India as well as in World (few hundred thousands pandals and idols are created and almost hundred million people are directly participate in this festival). If you are planning to come to Kolkata or Bengal, this is the right time of the year. The last day of the puja is called Dusshera, which is celebrated across all states in India.
Some of the perspectives are reflected in my cobloggers posts, so I want to mention some of them. Honorable mentions are listed below.
1) Amrita's Idol preparation post
2) Kalyan's Chants of Mahalaya Post (pre puja rituals)
3) Greatbong's sarcastic post on Pandel controversy
4) David's posts on Puja
5) Kalyan's Durga Puja post
6) Greatbong's The Magic of Maddox Square
6) Anada's Puja review

This puja where creativity wins over the rituals is wonderful occasion in many ways. The idols and pandels are only kept for four days, but for sure it leaves an ever-lasting effect to each and every viewer.
Here goes few slides of our apartment puja and of nearby locality.

Indian Road & Traffic : Some Observations

Some of my current observations regarding Indian Road/Traffic condition are listed below.

1. Some of the roads are one-way in morning and two-ways in afternoon.
2. Some of them are closed for contractions for months, which create massive chaos.
3. There are hardly any provisions of street lights in National highways; however huge toll fees are collected in many places. Highway should be of three lanes either way, but max it is of two lanes.
4. After the rain the pits and holes are often created in the big roads.
5. Sometime the drives in normal roads are compared to some fun rides, car damage and punctures are very usual things.
6. In the streets of city, there is hardly any lane concept; cars are choosing the virtual lanes randomly at their wishes.
7. Sometime traffic lights are not functioning; in most of the cases traffic signals are not present in major crossings.
8. Directions and information are almost not maintained; even the exits from city, the directions to airport/stations are not there which is absolutely solicited.
9. Very few flyovers compare to the demands.
10. The road conditions in the countryside are even worse, narrow and peach less.

And some facts.

1. Five out of seven recent deaths of IBM India employees caused due to road accidents.
2. On the way from Khragpur to Kolkata(130 km) on 03.07.2007, I have seen four massive accidents, where the vehicle lost control either because of rainy weather, or drove mistakenly.
3. It was a horrible experience for me as the visibility was very poor in night and the massive downpour or rain made it rather difficult to see what next after 5 meters. I was scared by the tempestuous wind above a semicircular bridge, where I almost couldn’t see the edges of the bridge. Fortunately I survived but the absences of street light always foster the probability of accidents.
4. However I reached Kolkata safely, I found it not safe for driving, not because of the reckless drivers, but for water bogged poor state of the roads after the rain, which looked like virtual canals.
5. Everyday in road accident at least few people dies in Kolkata, one of the recent victims is grand father of my friend, passed away couple of months back after being shoved by an small vehement auto riksa. Sahib Singh Verma, ex Delhi CM died in accident recently. Hundreds of accidents take place everyday across India, and thousands more survives luckily or by intuitions of the drivers.

The situations are really horrible. But is it really because of the deplorable road conditions? No. Here go some more observations.

1. Even though some roads have lane concepts (by white markers) people used to drive in the middle of it, to take the advantages of both lanes.
2. Every one is in rush in the city and not ready to leave space for anyone. “Blow Horn” if you want to pass someone in India, in contrary developed countries are minimizing the use of horn.
3. Traffic rules are not that strong in case of accidents and defaulters. Manipulations are encouraged by traffic police to violate rules. Poor qualities of materials are used for the road constructions, again the tenders/contracts system are under the vicious circle of corruption.
4. Process and rules are made to be broken, that’s the mentality of maximum public taxi/auto/truck drivers. They are not educated enough to follow the traffic rules. Even the common people cross the road anywhere they want.
5. Foremost there is lack of projection from state govts, which is clearly proved by the statistics that only 8% of the whole are roads in kolkata which is much much less than the standards.

So basically the problem is in out characters, attitudes. The infrastructure and facilities can not change the country unless the people change. The same person drives his car differently in Europe/US and in India. In fact I do the same sometime, because I am an Indian, a typical Indian!!

Visibility in daytime