West Bengal is an Indian state in the eastern part of the country, and the only one in India with an incumbent woman Chief Minister — Mamata Banerjee.
The region, which was the political heart of the Bengal Presidency during British Rule, was divided into East and West Bengal in 1947. Bengal was a hotbed of the Indian Independence movement and has remained one of the country’s great artistic and intellectual centres, being home to Nobel laureates Rabindranath Tagore, Mother Teresa, Amartya Sen and Abhijit Banerjee as well as freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose and Oscar winner Satyajit Ray.
Geographically, the state is happily situated with the Himalayas in the north and the Sundarbans in the south. It shares a roughly 2,200-sqkm border with Bangladesh (East Bengal at the time of Partition).
For the first 30 years, the Congress ruled Bengal, but made way for Left domination for the next 34 years. In 2011, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress — a breakaway from the Congress — came to power.
The author seems to have deliberately overlooked the successes the Left govt. achieved in the 3 states it ruled for decades starting from literacy programmes, land reforms and expanding the agrarian productivity achieved never before in India.The business-friendly nature of the present govt. now as it seems have failed with CEO deaths becoming routine and also India being pushed to even lower ranks in terms of hunger, child nutrition and deaths…So neither are they serving the people nor the corporates…The author is in a similar mess as is this Modi govt.
The desire for leftism comes because for decades Congress has successfully sold the concept of a Maa Baap state. It is comforting for many, not to work too hard and keep adjusting all your life. The fact that being a chaiwala or a pakora vendor is as honest a profession as a government clerk, is lost on many. Look at the jibes from Mani Shankar Iyer and P Chidambaram to understand it.
What economic philosophy the Congress practised is of no relevance to Indians who gave a decisive mandate to the current Government. It was a vote for change – a change of how the state conducts its policies – mostly economic policy. H0w would you describe your party’s economic philosophy today subhasis? As a blend of the Congress and the Left isnt it. Where is the originality?
It seems nobody is able to assess the performance present Govt. if Narendra Mody without juxtaposing the failures of previous Governments and this case the Govt. if Indira Gandhi of 1970s. I do not understand whether it is to criticise the previous Govts. or to provide comfort to present rulers.When will this sort of journalism will end?.
Mr Rahul Gandhi comes across well when he speaks to foreign audiences, sometimes Indians living or studying abroad. He speaks feelingly about India’s ethos of tolerance, pluralism and a liberal democracy. However, he is slender on details about how he would address economic challenges, starting with job creation. Some platitudes about SMEs, etc. He cannot be unaware that, beyond the scandals and loss of self confidence that marked the last three years of UPA II, there was high inflation and the loss of momentum post 2008, covered up for a while by the sugar high of a fiscal and monetary stimulus. The bad loan problem his party’s government left behind was not only about inappropriate phone calls from Delhi. Projects were getting stranded because they were becoming unviable. He might wish to value his father’s modernising vision and update his economic orthodoxy.
Few will mourn the demise of the Left, although they have produced some fine parliamentarians and their concern for the poor cannot be discounted at a time when inequality is increasing in India even more sharply than in the rest of the world. 2. The reluctance to move away from Mrs Gandhi’s brand of socialism, after seeing how well the reforms of 1991 have acquitted themselves, is most unfortunate. Absent the consistently higher, sustainable growth that can come only from continuing reform, it is unsurprising that so few incumbents in Delhi win a second term.