Bengal's political forces are impotent to make any mark

The Left is clearly out of its steam today. Neither it has a reliable ideology to back strategies based on realpolitik nor a strong organisation to effect changes at the grass-root level. What Prakash Karat thought out as a strategy, i.e., to back Congress for exploiting its gap with the Trinamool, shows how alienated the current leadership is from the ground reality. Expelling young Turks just because they oppose the top leadership's 'flawed decision' will also nail it further for if the Left has to survive and harbour hopes to make itself electorally viable again, it will have to reinvent itself under the aegis of young blood. The old outlook will just not do.

If we look at the state Congress in West Bengal, it is perhaps the most stagnant political entity in the country. There is clearly no central leadership and individuals based in strong pockets call shots like feudal lords. They are electoral trump cards for their party but hardly helps it to evolve as a uniform entity.

Opposing Mamata (even making petty projections against her that a Bengali is opposing a Bengali) is one of their main popular strategies for the former's mass appeal always keep them under the fear that their political future could be in jeopardy anytime. One thing is very clear. If the Trinamool Congress has to spread its wings in the central and northern parts of the state, it has to displace the Congress. Hence, a confrontation is expected.

Trinamool not fit to govern

And finally, the Trinamool. The one-woman party is reaping the benefits of its leader's heroic struggle against the powerful Left but there is no ideology apart from opposing the Left nor, as I said earlier, a strong machinery required to implement crucial policies on the ground. There is hardly any think-tank in the party to advise and formulate good policies either. Most of the ministers in charge have little experience and expertise to make any positive change.

The CM herself has kept several of the portfolios under her control which shows how ill-equipped the Trinamool is in forcing a good governance. Populism is the last word that the leader believes in, preventing the state from generating funds for its functioning.

And above this, when the party leadership decides to opt for an unnecessary confrontation with the Centre (and making a U-turn under political compulsions) despite knowing very well that only the latter can bail Bengal out of the financial mess, the common reasonable men wonder what is there in store for them.

Bengal going nowhere

Bengal's tragedy had started long ago, sometimes during the three-decade rule of the Left Front or even before that. But what is more tragic is that there has been no effort to arrest the downslide. No viable financial policy is in place to utilise the opportunities that have been opened by the new economy, forcing a big chunk of the state's ambitious middle-class youth leave. The little is said about the state of the unskilled labour, the better.

There is no social or civic policy to ensure betterment in various key sectors like health, education, transportation or sports. The endless bickering within and among parties show their bankruptcy of political goodwill and the lack of interest to cater to the people's interest. Each of Bengal's three political forces stand spent today. Their ultimate solace lies in trying to outdo each other in ways most unwelcome and unwise and not in trying to get the real work done. Suicidal politics has set the time bomb ticking in Bengal.