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Usually, i don't discuss politics with the mass on social media because most of the people out there flaunting their knowledge about everything hardly knows how the government, especially at the grassroots level, functions. For example, most of my friends don't know what a three-tier panchayat is or what a borough office does in a city like Kolkata. Even at a higher level, intricacies of governance are not known to us; and, i don't blame them for this because we are never encouraged to learn so-called mundane stuff of life.

Exactly a month back when one of my friends, who stays abroad, shared a positive story from an English daily that highlighted how the chief minister of West Bengal doled out Rs 20,000 each to 5 lakh cyclone Amphan-affected families in 9 days since the severe storm had devastated a vast area of south Bengal, i sent him a text. "It has gone back to the party leaders from beneficiaries, who hardly got anything left to repair their houses," i wrote. 

My friend agreed that it's not possible for him to gather details in abroad although such a gesture from the CM should be appreciated. And, we ended the chat with me saying that i also want cash should reach right people at this hour of crisis. 

Today, when reports are coming in from several block offices in worst-affected districts of south Bengal that people are queuing up to return money, it hardly surprises me.

My question is: what went wrong in end-May or early-June when the first tranche of cash was to be disbursed among villagers without a roof when the cyclone had struck on May 20-21? First, it was not possible like in earlier years that people throng BDO's offices for cash, as with Aadhaar linking in force, the amount is directly transferred to the beneficiaries. That leads to the second argument: who would draw up the list of beneficiaries in the aftermath of Amphan? As has been the rule, block-level government officers inspect a village and draw a list of families entitled for any relief operations. 

The twist in the tragic tale lies in the second factor. Instead of asking the government officers, the administration requested grassroots-level lawmakers to make the list. This logic was based on two other factors --- 1. most government offices were working with skeletal staff because of coronavirus pandemic 2. fast and timely disbursement of relief in cash was the administration's focus.

Once that was decided, the rest has been a simple process. Almost every part-level member and village heads came up with list of families having political inclination towards their parties, mainly the ruling one. And, thus opened the Pandora's Box. True to the news story that the government indeed sent millions in total to accounts of beneficiaries but that included some real and some bogus. Today, the bogus ones, and several ruling party workers, are returning money in lakhs back to the exchequer under instructions from higher-ups but have the all real sufferers got all of Rs 20,000? No.

The administration, or even the party, should find answers why someone has to part with almost entire amount of Rs 20,000 after withdrawing it from bank, and is left with just Rs 150. Such stories are galore, and known to the top party brass. If i get such information sitting hundreds of kilometres away from ground zero, i hope that officials know much better than me, and party bosses are the best to answer the question. 

The ruling party, Trinamool Congress, has less than a year to retain power in the Assembly even as its main opponent, Bharatiya Janata Party, had an astounding vote share in last year's general elections. It's barely 3 per cent vote share that Trinamool had an edge over BJP last year. In 2008 panchayat elections, Trinamool catapulted itself as the emerging party with a strong leadership that steered it with winning 14 seats in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and finishing it off by winning the 2011 elections on a huge margin. South Bengal has been its fortress since its electoral debut in 1998 general elections in which it won seven seats. Later, its first zilla parishad-level victories were from East Midnapore and South 24-Parganas --- both are hit by Amphan this year with the latter bearing the brunt with its neighbour North 24-Parganas.

In a nutshell, Trinamool has a tough time ahead, particularly after losing seven Lok Sabha seats to BJP in north Bengal; barring one constituency, Lok Sabha seats in six districts in the western part of the state also went to BJP. If such corruption in the aftermath of a natural calamity is not plugged in south Bengal soon, it'll be difficult for Trinamool to return to Nabanna next summer.