In defeat, what would Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee be telling himself? Surely, he’d be bowing out of office with a sense of deep hurt. He’d be anguished because he had meant well but didn’t quite have the ability or the bureaucratic support to implement what he had dreamt of. Everyone got him wrong.
Buddhadeb would be kicking himself. For, he couldn’t ensure his team and he were on the same page. Had that happened and if everything turned out right, compensation packages for farmers who would lose land for industrial projects would have been better publicized and handled with greater political understanding and sympathy.
The arrogance of claiming to know what’s best for the people of Bengal did him in.
True, Buddhadeb had made all the right noises when he took office. He wanted the sloth to end, the cobwebs to be dusted and urgency in implementation. He wanted to take Bengal to its glory days as the hub of Indian industry and an investment destination – mature, confident and wise.
Looking back at the years Buddhadeb was at the helm, one gets the sense of a reforms initiative gone horribly wrong. To be fair to the man, poribartan (change) did not come with Mamata, it began the day Jyoti Basu relinquished office and left the chair to the relatively young and energetic Buddhadeb.
The new chief minister, a figure of dignity, poise, haughtiness and sophistication, gave Bengal a mantra – “Do it now” – by all means relevant to a state that was sinking steadily into a morass. Industry was deserting and factories were shutting down. The Asansol-Durgapur and Hooghly-Howrah stretches, once powerhouses that contributed handsomely to the country’s economy, had become a wasteland of rusty factory sheds. Machines had fallen silent landing up in scrap heaps and chimneys had stopped belching smoke. Trade unionism had taken a violent turn – militant labourers having lynched a couple of plant managers.
In Kolkata, the bureaucracy had withdrawn into the sleepy corridors of utter inaction. It needed a Buddhadeb to kick babudom into action. For a while his tearing rush worked. The government seemed more purposeful and keen to deliver. Industrialists queued up outside the CM’s Writers’ office.
The CM boldly went against his party line even on issues such as bandhs, insisting that the IT industry that had just about made a tentative entry into Bengal was exempt from all forms of agitation. Buddhadeb’s thesis was industry friendly: No trade unionism in the IT sector.
The urgency he showed and the industrial deals he cut for chemical hubs, economic zones and motor car factories needed meticulous follow up. That diligence was missing. The transmission loss between the CM’s stated position and on-ground action was colossal.
A lot of it got drowned in debates over ideological issues. Fundamental questions such as the wisdom of acquiring arable, multi-crop land for industries came in the way. Ministers began airing divergent stands, muddying the already complex scenario.
Worse, delays and unfocused development work resulted in time overruns, diffused and misdirected schemes being picked for development-starved blackholes. A case in point was Lalgarh, where the CM’s bid to set up steel projects took a hit. In fact, the police repression that led to Maoist incursions into the region took place after Naxalites tried to blow up a convoy of the chief minister. He had gone to the area to lay the foundation stone for one such plant.
As the government realized it was quickly running out of time, Buddhadeb stepped on the heat, and perhaps in a panicky knee-jerk reaction to the brewing storm in Nandigram fell back on his party’s dirty tricks department. The idea was to crush dissent. The police force was used to gun down nearly 14 villagers protesting against the chemical hub project. Some say lawless and brazen CPM cadre in disguise swelled the ranks of the policemen.
Do it now — the slogan that so endeared him to the Kolkata literati proved his undoing. Blinded by a mad rush, he alienated the very people who formed his core support base. The sincerity of Buddhadeb’s intent got tainted and soaked in blood. Then on, nothing went right. Singur bombed. The Tatas left in a huff.
Rebuff on every front pinned the administration down. A proactive government was quickly reduced to one conducting a holding operation. Meanwhile, shorn of his arrogance, the CM humbly admitted his mistakes. But each of these had taken an enormous toll of his government’s popularity. Buddhadeb had by then done the distance between being pro-people and anti-people.
Mamata was the face of the people. The initiative was now with her. On the night governor Gopal Gandhi brokered the Singur talks, it was she who looked aggressive and had a smirk and Buddhadeb looked sullen and defeated.
Hands tied on all fronts, left with no options, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee watched helplessly as the sands of time ran out of his hands. He had his purpose right. His heart was in the right place. He didn’t know how to do it right.
