Author: Shikia Mukerjee
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: June 23, 2004
There is a hierarchy of interests
invested with the power of interpreting the facts to conform to a particular
pattern. For West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, the unhesitating
admission that "conditions of starvation" existed in Amlashole, a village
in the tribal area of West Midnapore's Belpahari bloc, was possible because
he was distanced from the deaths. For minister for tribal welfare, Maheshwar
Murmu, the deaths were too close for comfort and he denied the causal link
between hunger and death.
Yet, Bhattacharjee's frank acknowledgement
that hunger has not been eliminated and is present even in Kolkata, is
hardly comforting for those struggling to survive below the poverty line
in Belpahari, Binpur, Jhargram or the Dooars of North Bengal, areas populated
by the marginalised, mostly tribals. The difference is that Kolkata's BPL
population has not turned to the 'Naxalites' for comfort. During the election
campaign, the Bhattacharjee was emphatic that his police, would tame the
"Telugu speaking" trouble makers (read Naxalites) and the administration
had beefed up the policing of the forests on which the tribals are dependent,
intensifying their hardships.
Not surprisingly, the Congress has
picked up the underlying theme of order in its response, as an opposition
party in West Bengal, to the issue of starvation deaths. Poverty, hunger
and death are not isolated episodes of administrative failure. They are
endemic to the system and the Congress seems to have taken the stance that
customary political rivalry in the state shall remain suspended in this
particular instance, because the stakes elsewhere are very high indeed.
Treading carefully, mindful of the CPM's role as a pillar of support for
the UPA alliance, the Congress has voiced its concern. On a visit to West
Bengal, Ram Niwas Mirdha observed that grinding poverty was fertile ground
for extremist politics and advised the CPM to deal with the problem. Mirdha
was clearly conveying a message: the Congress is as eager to maintain order
and preserve the "human face" of the CPM, as much as the CPM is to "support
the present government in the interests of the country".
Never before has so much depended
on maintaining order within a partnership, that is also, confusingly, a
relationship of opposition and rivalry. Because, even though ideology defined
the Communists, nevertheless the party and its politics in West Bengal,
Kerala and Tripura evolved in reaction to the Congress, which was its "significant
Other". The injunction to act with responsibility clearly cuts both ways.
Much as the Congress, given its bitter enemity with the Communists for
over 60 years, would have liked to bait Bhattacharjee, it has not done
so, because chances are if the usual politics of opposition is pursued
in the state, then it could rapidly deteriorate into murderous confrontations.
Responsibility, it appears, is being interpreted asrestraint.
Locked as they have been in the
grip of an irreconcilable tension, neither the Congress nor the CPM is
very sure how to manage the partnership at the state level. Bhattacharjee's
threats a couple of weeks ago to torpedo the Congress-led government in
New Delhi and the hurried clarification that such is not the policy of
the party by state CPM boss, Anil Biswas, reveals the extent of the confusion.
At the grassroots level, the Congress and the CPM have clashed in recent
weeks and the outcome has often been fatal. The shifting needs of the partnership,
formed to oust the BJP, is a whole new ball game for both the CPM and the
Congress. As the Congress sees it, the glue that binds it to the CPM is
the overwhelming need to "prevent the attempts by the communal forces to
stage a comeback". Its response to the marginalisation of the poor of Belpahari
is evidence of the shifts that the "natural alliance" against the BJP needs
to now undertake.
While the failure to combat poverty
has not been politicised by the Congress, the Trinamool Congress-BJP combine,
as the principal opposition, has been curiously indifferent to the plight
of the tribals. Their call for a bandh was largely to expose the "perfidy"
of the CPM and mainstream concerns like the hike in LPG prices and the
disguised agricultural income tax to be levied by panchayats.
The relationship between the CPM
and Congress is unlikely to be easy in the state. If tensions turn irreconcilable
and explode in violence, New Delhi will feel the impact. Given that the
Congress is not a naturally conciliatory party and has a long history of
riding roughshod over state interests, both entities probably need a crash
course in conflict resolution strategies.
With the Trinamool Congress-BJP
combine waiting in the wings in West Bengal to take over the opposition
space, the Congress in West Bengal is facing its hardest test yet.
