People's Democracy

W BENGAL: THE ELECTION BATTLE

Trinamul’s Election Manifesto

B Prasant

EMBARRASSED by the spate of rebellions it had sparked off in its own ranks as in the ranks of the Pradesh Congress, the beleaguered Trinamul Congress leadership has chosen to play a game of lie and deception while drawing up its "Election Manifesto." The document was released late in the evening of April 11.

The first important pointer to the political bankruptcy of the Trinamul Congress is the lack of any political statements in its election manifesto. Not a single reference to the Tehelka exposure nor even a semblance of criticism of either the BJP or the Pradesh Congress.

And thereby hangs a tale, for it is believed that fearful of suffering a debacle in the coming Assembly elections, the Trinamul would have continue to hunt and forage for allies after the results come out. As a result the election manifesto is overloaded with panegyrics of promises upon promises, one more illusive than the other.

A few examples will suffice.

The document speaks in glowing terms of all-out efforts at the complete removal of unemployment, while silent on the liberalization and privatization of the economy that is going ahead full blast; a fair rehabilitation package for the refugees, but no reference to the fact of the NDA government’s decision to do away with the Department of Rehabilitation some months back. There is a consistency here, of course. Even when that decision was being initiated, Mamata Banerjee had bowed her head and acquiesced.

The election manifesto asks industrialists to "invest in Bengal with dignity" whatever that might connote. One cannot help recalling in this connection a spirited speech the Trinamul chieftain had indulged in at a luncheon hosted by a certain foreign embassy, where the recurring theme had been the imperative of taking investments out of Bengal, elsewhere, anywhere in the country. Come the polls, comes the soft spot for Bengal?

The top honors for lies and deceptions must be reserved for the Trinamul leadership crowding around for a bit of media attention when the election manifesto was being released. According to the practised chorus of the several "spokespersons" and "policy-planning cell" subalterns present, the "BJP is a secular outfit" and the "only outfit that has to be called communal in this country is the CPI (M)."

The last word, however, must be reserved for something else. In its haste to make the election manifesto appear as a document that speaks of development with conviction, the Trinamul Congress, alas, ended up by copying several passages and paragraphs from past political documents of the Left Front and of that "only communal outfit of India," the CPI (M), without reference, of course.

Responding to media representative’s persistent queries regarding the CPI(M) Bengal unit’s thoughts on the Trinamul Congress’s "election manifesto," state secretary and Polit Bureau member Anil Biswas had only short words to say. He described the document as a "meandering list of lies and deceptions," and said that a political outfit that found itself surrounded by "Save Trinamul Congress" and "Save the Pradesh Congress" committees, should have looked to its own predicaments before trying to "save Bengal" by indulging in a "paroxysm of untruth." Biswas also called the "election manifesto" a non-political exercise the "like of which one has rarely seen before."

Rebel Candidates Outnumber Official Ones

IN a meeting attended by more than 250 Pradesh Congress state-level and district-level leadership, the newly-formed "Congress Bachao Committee" chose to declare a list of 100 candidates who would contest against Trinamul Congress nominees in different districts. The "understanding" between the Pradesh Congress and the Trinamul Congress had resulted in the former being "allotted" 57 seats by the latter.

Describing the "understanding" as a "clannish, familial, majoritarian stance of anti-people character," "Bachao Committee" leaders whose ranks included very many sitting MLA’s, declared their intentions to teach the "traitors a good lesson, come the elections."

In the meanwhile, a series of "open door" and "closed door" meetings have failed to resolve the issue of the candidatures in the 57 seats allotted to the Pradesh Congress. Several rounds of meetings were held throughout the days-and-nights of April 10, 11, and 12 between the Somen Mitra faction and the "official", i.e., pro-Trinamul Congress splinter groups in the presence of "central observer," Kolkata-based trader-cum-CWC member, Kamal Nath, where invectives were audibly hurled at one another as the sessions started to hot up.

Elsewhere, furious exchanges took place, and bodily harm was always on the cards, as the quarrelling leadership self-proclaimed" senior partner" of the "mini-mahajot", the pro-Mamata Trinamul Congress faujdars slugged it out over "who would get which seat" with little faith placed in the inviolability of the list already doing the rounds, despite the fact that the list does keep options democratically open by mentioning several names against one seat. The Bachao Committee, has already declared a "war" on the come-lately "stalwarts" who had hogged the majority of the elusive and illusory "tickets" for what are considered "plum" choices of constituencies for the coming assembly polls. The Trinamul Congress chief, Mamata Banerjee has, in the meanwhile, wisely gone "missing" over the increased tempo of bickering within even the faithfuls of her flock and would not, despite pleas from a coterie of her sycophants in the media (one of whom had reportedly drafted the Trinamul Congress "election manifesto"), make an appearance when the document was released after a long, long wait.

In a huff, the state BJP has of late been breathing fire at Mamata and her lackeys for the "great betrayal", they should have known better. It is in the political agenda of Mamata Banerjee to shift her priorities around as the occasion suits her personal agenda of clawing up the ladder of self-importance.

In any case, the state BJP has been mulling over possible candidates to all 294 constituencies of the state, and the fact that several aspiring Trinamul Congress minions have queued up before the Kolkata office of the BJP is being bragged about ad nauseam by at least one of the two BJP ministers from Bengal, the one with whom Mamata has had a longish running feud over who is closer to the "able prime minister."

Moving on, the chief electoral officer has denied that there had been "any attack organised on Saifuddin Chaudhury by the CPI(M) at Nadanghat in Burdwan" as alleged, loudly and in a mounting frenzy, in the corporate media by Chaudhury and his decreasing coterie of hangers-on. Not one to let go of one of the rare issues that he and his sorry outfit could latch onto, even if with feeble repercussions among the people who appear distinctly unmoved at his antics, Chaudhury has gone on raising the issue of "possibilities of personal injuries being caused to me" before a series of bored and dishearteningly small audiences across the metropolis.