Friends, Recently, the statement of Rahul Gabdhi, the Yuvraj of Congress Party in Kolkata and around, while on an election tour to the State has been making big news. Rahul, during his election campaigns and in the subsequent Press briefings said that he had been thinking all along that the Left Front government, with its apparently different models and concept of development and an apparent commitment to the people's cause would have done much in West Bengal so as to change the complexion of the State. But while being there, he realized how little the Left Front governments had done for the people of the State. So much so, that Rahul thought the State was even worse placed in various development indices than Uttar Pradesh, his home-state from where he and his mother are currently the Members of Parliament and which has been sending their family to this august House for more than half a century now, which according to him is suffering from the misrule of the present Mayawati government. The Left front in general and the CPI(M) in particular did not take these words kindly, finding them childish, churlish, arrogant, blatant lie and perverse at the same time. Right from Prakash Karat, the self-appointed Messiah of the third front to Sitaram Yechuri, his trusted lieutenant have been condemning Rahul left and right. They call it an "insult" to the people of West Bengal equating it with a similar kind of statement that his father issued some 25 years ago when he called Kolkata "a dying city". They think that Rahul's appeal to "vote for change" has found no credence in the State and people are more than happy with the present set-up. As we all know, this is all politics and the single purpose of all the concerned parties is to allure the voters at all cost, so as to gain as many seats as possible and later play the game of political one-upmanship. But, apart from these political intonations, there are also certain serious questions involved here which we need to go into. The very first thing is that there can be no denying the fact that a very large section of West Bengal suffers from poverty, which at times is abysmally pitiful. Despite more than 30 years of Communist rule, the only persons who seem to have prospered in the State are those associated with the ranks and files of the Cadres of the various constituents of this Left front. This is apart from the fact that the law and order situation in the state is singularly bad and the only rule that seems to run here is that of the political cadres. The administration is nothing but a silent spectator to all this and has meekly surrendered to the will of the ruling Parties. But then what can one say about Uttar Pradesh where the congress had been ruling continuously for so many years till only two decades back. Everyone knows that the state was as backward then as it is today. And what did the Congress Party do for the poor people of the State which gave them so many Prime Ministers during its current regime? Again, is the situation better in the states even presently being ruled directly by the Congress? More important that this is the fact that why do these people remember such things as per their political relationships. This was the same Congress and the Left that went on sailing together for four years and neither Rahul nor Karat would see so much bad about each other. But the moment they parted their way, they could start seeing things which had hitherto gone unnoticed. Is it not what one calls political opportunism of the worst kind? Finally the thing that hurts me the most is the tendency of these politicians to use the people's name for all their self-seeking purposes. Can they not issue a single statement of theirs without brining the poor and helpless people in between? Do we have to be a witness to all the dirt they smear on each-other's face? Is it not shameful that Rahul, being touted as the future PM of this country, does not know of the ground realities of Bengal till now? He has been in politics for long now to have known of the condition of the country he is supposed to lead someday. Again, why shall a truth spoken by Rahul, albeit with political connotations and selfish motives, be an insult to the people of West Bengal? if at all, it is an insult to anyone, it is a direct and clear-cut insult to the constituents of the left front who have been leading this state to abject poverty for more than three decades now.
Dr Nutan Thakur IRDS 5/426, Viram Khand, Gomti Nagar Lucknow
