It's far more a negative vote against the CPM, than a positive vote for her.
Don't quite agree. Mamata has shown she can be quite mature in her public persona over the last few months since LS polls in 2009. Derek O Brien, who is in charge of her image makeover, and is the VP of TMC, has had a hand in this and it has worked so far.
How the new government fares will not so much be a question of how good she is, but of how much her cabinet can deliver despite her.
Disagree.
A. Because there is no TMC without her, which every party member knows. The reason most likely has to do with the history of backstabbing by Cong men she has had to endure in the past. Which is why she doesnt want more Central Cabinet posts. Which means effectively all decisions will go through her.
B. If the biggest problem faced by her govt is economy, then this is what she has on hand:
* An empty coffer
** Radia scam tainted, industry dalaal Amit Mitra as FM, who will surely try to pull a fast one sooner than later.
*** No new land acquisition law yet. Though it may come soon.
**** Whether they are her ideas or ones she appropriated from advisors, most of the ideas she has publicly spoken about in the election campaign are pretty sound. So no reason to doubt her.
It'll be quite a tall order for her to understand that now she also needs to be able to run an administration. It cannot altogether be ruled out that she might call a bandh next week, or invite a street agitation against the policies of her own government, calling them anti-people. That's what has been her career record so far, and everyone knows how difficult it is to change habits. If the police fire at anyone, she could still blame Buddhadeb and the Marxists. It'll be some time before people are able to call her bluff.
On the one hand, as any person who has lived in Bengal will know, the administration and police had been indeed entirely coopted by the CPM. So till a purge to get rid of these politicised elements takes place, her fears would also be the fears of most of her supporters, if not that of all state citizens.
On the other hand, as I pointed out earlier, she is much more mature now than the press are ready to give her credit for. In a Bush sort of way.
She does have a better set of people to man her cabinet, though.
Some, yes. The relatively unknown ex-VC of Vishwa Bharati against Nirupam Sen and the ex-Principal of NBU against Ashok Bhattacharya were masterstrokes. Either could take up the helm of education.
I am apprehensive of Amit Mitra as FM in the long run, as I have expressed above.
Buddhadeb was a well-meaning CM, who tried his best. But he was completely done in by the set of people around him, who took incompetence to incredibly whole new heights. The Left as a whole is a bankrupt entity, with only some ideological wrecks lying around. Buddhadeb had a realization of that, and tried to bring in some measure of pragmatism and sense. However, the baggage was too hard to take off for a party blinded by the spoils of decades of power. That they still retain some existence in some states is only because of the imperative of having an opposition. If the opposition space could be filled by a credible alternative, the Left should pretty soon see themselves wiped off the political landscape.
Just don't understand this 'well meaning' balderdash. He was every bit what he did. I hope he himself will accept that. OK, he never used the language of Gautam Deb or Binoy Konar, but he condoned them nonetheless. And he oversaw all the major disasters of his reign.
Mamata has 3/4th majority. Which means, no room for excuses now. Of course, the new government will have to be given time. Probably a second term too to deliver. But that's going to happen only if people on the ground see some progress in the right direction.
I am a little less sympathetic on that count. Nitish and Naveen managed a turnaround in his first term itself. No reason why she shouldn't.
Is she a Nitish Kumar? By no means. Nitish has a thinking head over his shoulders. Mamata only has daggers over hers.
Disagree. She wears her heart on her sleeve, it's true. But thats political theatre for TV and the masses. But she has shown enough maturity on many important decisions so far, which I'll try enumerate later.
The government has the first task of removing the scum of cadre-centricity that has pervaded all pores of administration and the polity in West Bengal. Rule of law has to be reestablished. So in that respect, a repeat of what Nitish did -- by putting behind bars all criminal elements, and swiftly trying and convicting them -- is a crying need. Then they'll also need to be able to frame some effective policies and execute them with vigor. Her government will have to understand quickly that agriculture cannot be at the cost of industry. And agriculture can't feed people, no matter how many harvests a year the land can give you. You've already had so many harvests a year for all these decades, which hasn't been able to prevent your destitution. With one crore unemployed, and the government unable to pay salaries to its staff, the writing should be on the wall.
Agreed.
The defining aspect for Bengal's future will, however, not be what Mamata does. I'll be what the Left does hereafter.
First, the partners will have to delink from CPM and leave it to rot. Without that, there can be no regeneration.
I think, being in power and getting a very close view of the challenges of governance, they could probably be expected to understand the importance of not playing spoilsport just to spite your opponent. However, that'll hold good only for the first few months and years. The Left will likely remain well behaved and constructive so long as Mamata continues making blunders, and they sense a reasonable chance of winning people's confidence back. However, if the reverse happens -- she starts delivering, and they see despondence start sinking in -- there'd be a very strong temptation to pay her back in her own coin. Which means taking the path of destructive politics in the name of people's welfare, just to acquire some relevance. And Bengal being on the brink of disaster, if not already in the midst of it, if the Left pushes it more towards it, that'll probably be a very sad day, which may well be beyond redemption for the people of the state.
As I posted earlier, with Gautam Deb, Sushanto Ghosh, Biman Bose, Rabin Deb etc around, I dont see much hope with the CPM. They know only one language—that of violence and agitation.
AuthorTopic: I am a simple man - Mamata Banerjee (Read 1235 times)
