West Bengal is a frontline state from the national security angle. Regrettably, neither the Centre nor State seem to be showing any understanding that it is so. The last time that West Bengal figured in our collective consciousness in national security terms, was during the 1971 Indo-Pak War that resulted in the creation of a new nation-state, Bangladesh. Then, it was a theatre of war and could not be ignored. Since then, West Bengal has fallen from grace. In fact, the decline started earlier.
The British left India three bustling presidencies - Calcutta, Bombay and Madras. The Viceroy resided and administered the country on behalf of the Crown, from Calcutta. In the first two decades after Independence, the city boasted of the major engineering firms of that time, many of whose principals were located abroad, several cotton, jute and paper mills that dotted both banks of the Hooghly, several Indian business houses, headquarters of major tea industry players and much more.
The educational institutions of Calcutta were easily the most reputed in the country. The who's who of the intellectual world rubbed shoulders with each other in the Coffee House at College Street. Calcutta University, Presidency College, Jadavpur University, St Xaviers College, Loreto, Ashutosh College, the Indian Statistical Institute, many well-regarded medical colleges and several other academic institutions produced the best minds of the time. Equally prestigious were the schools of Calcutta. Many professors and teachers of these institutions had legendary reputations, not just for their teaching prowess but their mentoring capabilities and human qualities.
West Bengal's decline and fall from grace started in the second half of the 1960s, when communist ideologies pervaded all sections of society, most regrettably, the youth of those times. Such was the communist wave that the CPM scored an electoral victory in 1977 and ruled the state for a straight thirty four years, till 2011. In the period between 1968 and 1974, the state went under the President's Rule on four occasions, for a total period of over three years - a telling commentary on the state of law and order during that period. This was the beginning of the loss of several generations, who took to communist ideology but failed to realise its purpose and wasted away in the bargain. Politics assumed primacy over education in universities and institutes of repute, with disastrous consequences.
One by one, industries started folding up due to the culture of strikes and hartals that became West Bengal's signature labour behaviour. Red flags of protest were planted across the length and breadth of the state. Protests for the sake of protest, protests to seek more entitlements, to avoid work and protests to curry political favour systematically and irreversibly decimated business and industry. Most of its factories lay in ruin by the turn of the century. Businesses were left with no option but to move out of the state and set up elsewhere.
An exasperated and disillusioned electorate finally sent the communists packing in 2011. By then, the communists had begun to realise their folly but it was much too late. With a huge anti-incumbency sentiment, people of the state voted for the Trinamool Congress, led by a local firebrand woman, with their hearts full of hope for change. Then, the infamous Singur episode of pushing out the Tata Nano factory happened. The new Chief Minister, who had championed the cause of the farmers against land acquisition while she was the Leader of the Opposition, could have exercised the option of a negotiation with Tata but adopted the hard line. The new government had blown their only chance for an economic revival. West Bengal's loss was Gujarat's gain. More and more businesses left Calcutta, which by then, was re-christened Kolkata.
Drawn into a desperate political game of decimating the opposition, the new government used every trick in the book to marginalize the communists and create vote banks of all descriptions, including actively wooing the Muslim vote that accounts for about 30 percent of West Bengal's electorate. The porous border between India and Bangladesh lends itself to illegal migration and these illegal migrants obtain government papers and manage to become part of the voting population, while authorities conveniently look away. The state government's opposition to CAA and NRC further fuels speculation about intentions with regard to illegal migrants.
No youngster who has a choice wants to study or work in West Bengal. This is an unqualified tragedy for a state that was at the leading edge of education and business not very long ago. There is large-scale unemployment and no serious job-creation effort. With industries and businesses shutting shop and moving away, the youth exodus continues. Strongly adversarial centre-state relations have had a telling effect on official functioning. There are unwritten diktats for state official machinery not to interact or cooperate with central government representatives. The Centre, too, has been less than magnanimous to West Bengal. Open spats between Raj Bhavan and Nabanna (the Chief Minister’s Office) have queered the pitch further.
One of the unfortunate fallouts of this centre-state dissonance is the withdrawal of state government support to Army recruitment rallies. No rallies have been held in the state this year. Approximately 15,000 vacancies that could be availed by the youth of West Bengal are on the verge of being allocated to other states. A double whammy for the job-starved youth of the state. No wonder the youth of Bengal see political hooliganism as the only alternative. 'Grassroots workers' are 'militia' in disguise.
The internal situation in West Bengal has been front page news for the last few weeks since the shameful RG Kar Government Hospital rape and murder of a woman doctor on night duty. Public reaction has been one of deep anguish and a seething anger. While crime is commonplace across the country and indeed everywhere else in the world, what differentiates this from others is the alleged complicity of the very authorities that are charged with upholding the law and maintaining order, in destroying evidence, influencing the investigation process and intimidating protesters. And then, there is a battery of legal luminaries defending the indefensible. The people are even more frustrated that a viable political alternative does not seem apparent at the moment to deliver a semblance of good governance. NOTAs don't form governments.
Why is good governance necessary in West Bengal? As stated in the beginning, West Bengal is a frontline state in terms of national security. It borders Bangladesh, which is in turmoil. Bangladesh is also the largest source of illegal migration into India, altering demographics and political behaviour in West Bengal. West Bengal has borders with Bhutan and Nepal that are critical for good neighbourly relations. The strategic Siliguri Corridor is in West Bengal.
Kolkata, one of the eleven major ports of India that can be used to great advantage to serve our land-locked states of the North East, is arguably one of the most inefficient. The state's potential for industry and business has to be rediscovered and their trust won back. It is for these reasons and many more that West Bengal needs much more attention, not just of the Centre but also of political parties that can provide an alternative front to deliver governance.
West Bengal is a state gasping for life. It is already too late to administer preventive medicine. It is time for drastic therapy, shock treatment, amputation - whatever it takes to save its people from human predators of their own making.
In the words of singer Arijit Singh, if not now, when? Aar Kobe?
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.