Back to Roots

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.

Marketing Tagore

Every race or community has its own history and culture. For us, Bengalis, it starts and ends with him! He is often rightly termed the last Renaissance Man in Bengal.... But who was the first one? Raja Rammohan Roy? Maybe yes.... Again, the Raja — known more as a social reformer than anything else in the context of Bengali culture — was not what we may call as a Renaissance Man, as he was more inclined to the West though his heart was embedded in Bengal.

Twenty-eight years after the Raja was buried — not cremated like the Hindu tradition — in Bristol, birth of a child at his friend Prince Dwarkanath's Jorasanko house marked the beginning of a new era in the Bengali tradition that we all carry forward for years.

And, that summer day also celebrated the birth of Brand Tagore — the best company Bengalis always take pride on. Whatever be our decline in fields of manufacturing industries or in the mines or elsewhere in the last 50 years, our governments — yes, every government irrespective of political colours — have developed this idea of promoting Brand Tagore. Even in a country where Amlasole has been synonymous with "hunger-death"or Irom Sharmila an icon of protecting human rights, the government does not think twice to announce a Rs 1-crore award for spreading the message of peace and brotherhood of Tagore!

Marketing Tagore is the best thing that India, especially Bengal, can do at this time of crisis — not financial, but mental — when we have lost our values, forget the industries. Tagore was the last one to show which way the Bengalis should go though we have drifted quite a few miles from it. "Mahajana jeno gata sa pantha" is the sloka we remember but never implement. Crores are spent on Tagore's birthday every year — and in the sesquicentennial year, we splurge it like never before — when nobody bothers how problems of unemployment can be addressed. Lakhs are doled out to local clubs by politicians — and we've seen many a hundred clubs are blessed by a particular party this season — so that late-night booze parties are held on the same stage where Rabindrasangeet, the quintessential Tagore mark, had been performed just 12 hours back! How can RJs on popular FM channels change this mindscape with innumerable songs played through the day like what we saw yesterday?