There is the same compulsion in her to promise everything to everyone as before, wooing all sections of her electorate with the exception of the rural/ urban middle class, as she begins her business of fulfilling a million pre-poll promises. Ironically her predecessor Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had tried to serve the educated urban middle class, defying conventional wisdom, as he favoured the cause of the large, industrial manufacturing sector to create employment. Not only the electorate turned its back on him, even his own party pilloried him for his efforts.

Ms Banerjee in contrast opts for the opposite extreme. As the rural segment of the people living in Singur cheered her announcement to “return” their land taken over by the state government for the abortive Tata small car project, she seemed least concerned about the wrong signals reaching the people. For the sake of winning votes, even a regression to a primitive, pastoral economy was acceptable in a state that was the industrial leader in India from 1947 to 1960! After all, only around 10% of the peasants and farmers at Singur were reluctant to part with their minuscule plots, while over 80% gladly accepted compensation for the sake of industrial development, new jobs and upgraded skills.

The pro-Mamata electronic and print media were careful to gloss over the fiasco of Ms Banerjee trying to bulldoze an ordinance on the Singur issue while the Assembly was in session. The objective, she said, was to “expedite” the return of 400 acres as promised. In the process, the assembly was ignored, the state cabinet never met, the Chief Secretary was not consulted and the Governor press-ganged into signing an announcement regarding the ordinance. Soon it was clear that the ordinance had too many legal loopholes. She retracted her steps immediately and passed the Bill after preponing the assembly session.

Governor M.K. Narayanan, a thorough career bureaucrat, was not amused when political leaders and constitutional experts pointed to the flagrant irregularity of the new Ministry’s roughshod methods. Not only he conveyed his displeasure, he made it mandatory for the Chief Secretary to be consulted on all major administrative decisions. Also, he took care to involve legal experts in all further discussions on the moves related to the proposed ordinance, which was buried by the leader herself in indecent haste without benefit of a public apology.

CPI(M) leaders took care not to go overboard in their criticism , but clearly between Ms Banerjee and her bunch of enthusiastic advisers, a royal mess had been created in the handling of the Singur issue . As prominent legal experts pointed to the flaws and pitfalls in the bill, it was clear that the return of the land to “unwilling” farmers, will not be that easy.

As regards the handling of the Gorkha autonomy issue in her haste to placate angry Gorkhas, she made a commitment to “examine” their demand for more territory in Dooars and other areas of North Bengal, which drew sharp protests from the tribes residing there. They even threatened to launch an agitation, if the government did not consult them.

She next announced the official “recognition” of madrasas in the state in order to make them eligible for government help. “Around 10,000 madrasas would benefit,” she declared. Wrong. Departmental officers and sources pointed out that the problem was by no means as acute as she had been led to believe. The number would be nearer 1500 or less!

The media has made much of her unscheduled visits to state hospitals. Apart from ensuring punctuality and attendance, not much has changed otherwise .Ms Banerjee has made an impassioned plea to senior doctors to improve their work. As a cautious hospital superintendent pointed out, “There are around 1200 beds, mostly occupied. But we get on average 7000 visitors daily! Already, there are two delivery cases on every bed, and even the passages between the beds have been taken over. People not only come from the districts, they come from Jharkhand and Bihar. Even fevers and common cold have to be treated in hospitals nowadays.

“Now we have been ordered not to turn any patient back. Fine. But where do we keep them? How do we treat so many people, do we have adequate stocks of medicine? Doctors, Nurses, Class IV staff? Can we do any treatment? If we say all this openly, we get assaulted by the relatives of patients.”

Not to put too fine a point on all this, one conclusion seems to be clear. Be it the TMC or the CPI(M), unless massive doses of investment are made in the public welfare sector, very little actual improvement in health, education or transport will occur. As under the Left front, common people and official functionaries do not really have much to look forward to otherwise.

Nevertheless, it is a positive sign to see the new Chief Minister at least exerting herself and her team to greater efforts to serve the people, she is trying to breathe life into moribund departments. Her predecessor did not even go through these motions. (IPA Service)