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Kolkata these days is supposed to be in the midst of the election frenzy provoked by the State Legislative Assembly polls 2006. Candidates were allowed to use public address systems recently after conclusion of the examination season. But the tempo is missing all the same. West Bengal is known for its volatile culture of political campaigning on the part of candidates and their supporters who have desperately thrown in their lot in the electoral fray. But this time around both the Election Commission of India and the Calcutta High Court have severely trimmed the wild and exuberant excesses of electoral campaigning in the thick of the quite infamous Indian Summer.

The basic issue of the state polls this year happens to be the critical inquiry about the increase or decrease in the margin of seats of the ruling Left Front Government that is in power since 1977. Nobody is even remotely interested whether there would be any imminent change of guard in West Bengal or not. It is almost fait accompli that the ruling Left Front would again return to power while the Communist Party of India (Marxist) would inch towards the single largest party with an absolute majority status.

Development versus displacement could have emerged as a major issue during this election. But this was not to be. The Opposition has not really questioned the political agenda of development in a constructive manner. Nobody has yet come up with an alternative model of development while the Left Front has time and again raised its slogan based on the rhetoric of an improved Left Front. This is a master strategy that has left the Opposition hapless and looking for creative political ideas.

The issues and concerns of this election can be amply noticed in and around Kolkata. Shopping malls, multiplexes, flyovers, coffee shops, night clubs, discos, health clubs, foreign banks, call centers, designer outlets, private clinics, five star hotels and theme restaurants are some of the new identities of this metropolis that also has slums, pavement dwellers, red light districts, inefficient Government Hospitals, infamous Corporation Schools, inefficient Government Offices and inadequate urban services for the poor.

The primary tenets of development have not been questioned before this election. Nobody is bothered why Kolkata has to expand by acquisition of fertile agricultural land that is the main source of livelihood of farmers on the outskirts of Kolkata. Nobody would question why roads are repaired in a most casual manner just before the elections. Nobody would ask all sorts of uncomfortable questions about child death in Government Hospitals, corruption in public officers, police inaction or excesses, lack of sanitation facilities and drinking water supply, faulty road lighting system, frequent power cuts, runaway inflation and the increasing problems of road vendors who have actually appropriated the pavement from everyday pedestrians. The education system, the public health infrastructure, traffic indiscipline, lack of accountability and little transparency in the Government Departments, apathy on the part of the political masters are some of the problems that Kolkata have to live with yet there are a few and scattered voices that protest against the Development is Good Governance type of simplistic prescription recently being championed by the World Bank.

It cannot be denied that Kolkata has improved in terms of its appearance. Anybody visiting the City after about a decade would be vastly surprised at the kind of changes that have taken place. The major credit for such changes must go to the Left Front Government that has exhibited commendable initiative during the middle to late 1990s. An awakening has dawned of late that infrastructural developments are the order of the day and cannot really be denied by deploying populist rhetoric.

The dissenting voices of democracy have been stifled nevertheless. The radical left activists in the border districts of West Bengal have to be politically negotiated rather than tackled by the State’s repressive agencies. One has to apply one’s mind exactly why have such extremists taken recourse to the path of violence.

The human rights activist movement of West Bengal in general and Kolkata in particular has not been quite vocal in recent times. Concerns such as the environment, animal rights, pollution, child rights, gender security, poverty and social development are some of the prominent issues that were handled earlier by Non-Government Organizations and Civil Society Organizations. But the intensity of these movement has somewhat ebbed nowadays in and around Kolkata.

The socially upwardly mobile youth of Kolkata are not really interested either in politics or in social welfare. They are a set of hedonistic persons whose one and only objective in life appears to be self-preservation in style. The middle class youth have also followed suit. There are automated vendors these days selling contraceptives at outlets near discos and night clubs. So the moral guardians of the City have taken it for granted that the youth would indulge in promiscuity without any trappings of social commitment whatsoever. This is a most disturbing state of affairs, as we are not generally used to such behavior in our mainstream daily lives.

The community fabric that we are so very proud of would soon be a distant memory of the past in Kolkata. The kind of care that we used to exhibit in public life vis-à-vis our fellow citizens is fast on its inevitable way out. There have been recent disquieting incidents where pedestrians have collapsed on the streets of Kolkata to die in full view of thousand of pedestrians and shopkeepers. Nobody was interested to help or reach out because of the fear of police harassment. There are also heartening incidents where cab drivers have voluntarily returned money and jewelry and expensive mobile phones to their rightful owners with the help of the police. So all is not yet lost. Convent-educated school children still go to voluntarily serve in the slums. There is yet hope that Kolkata would still be able to redeem its dignity and humanity and march on against heavy odds.

April 21, 2006

Top | Kolkata Diary

The Week of April 23, 2006         
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