MRS Indira Gandhi won her most dramatic election in 1980. She became Prime Minister in 1966 but her era began with a spectacular sweep in 1971, when she rode the promise of ‘Garibi Hatao’ (Eliminate Poverty) to electoral glory.
Birth is magic, but resurrection is a miracle. In 1980, she resurrected Congress from the annihilation of 1977 by crushing the upstart Janata Party, an alliance of non-Congress parties of the North. This is dimly remembered; five decades is a long time in politics. Totally forgotten is that Mrs Gandhi’s election symbol in 1980 was quite different from the one in 1977; a hand replaced the cow-and-calf. For millions of voters, the cow-and-calf had become a symbol of family rule in a democracy, a grim omen of dynasty. Five decades later, dynasty has become epidemic: Congress, SP and BSP in Uttar Pradesh, Trinamool Congress in Bengal, NCP and Shiv Sena (Thackeray) in Maharashtra, Akalis in Punjab, and all regional parties in the South. BJP and the Marxists seem free of this infection, but that too is a comparative rather than comprehensive fact. We shall see if this means anything to voters in 2024.
Poor governance
Only one person in Bengal has the chutzpah to make his face more prominent on hoardings than that of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee; her nephew Abhishek Banerjee. Just in case you missed any, he has huge hoardings chasing one another in close proximity over the principal chokepoints in his constituency, Diamond Harbour, at the yawning mouth of the Hooghly (or Adi Ganga, the original Ganga) as it slips serenely into the Bay of Bengal.
The distance from the heart of Kolkata is not much more than 60 kilometres but the car journey takes longer than the flight from Kolkata to Delhi. The persistent bottlenecks could be easily resolved with better traffic management and a firm cement divider instead of pathetic and occasional plastic bits, but who cares when you can win elections through ethnic emotionalism rather than effective governance? Poor government means, among other things, the perpetuation of poverty. Poverty is manifest in many ways. It was heartrending to see the rush for Eid shopping in hut-shops full of tawdry clothes at prices that only the poor can afford. If you are not inching ahead on this clogged artery, you are speeding. There is a metaphor in this somewhere but I shall leave you to locate it.
The winning message at the northern pole of Bengal, in the Eastern Himalayas along the winding mountain road from Kurseong to fabled Darjeeling, is written on a plaque at the Senchal Wildlife Sanctuary. It is simple and startling: Please behave like animals. Enough said; well said. Animals do not strew litter and birds do not drop plastic.
From Tiger Hill we glimpse the peak of Sagarmatha, goddess of the sky, misnamed Everest in English. The rest of the glorious mountain is draped in mist and clouds. We recognise the peak not from previously seen photographs but because it is the only still form on the skyscape.
The political question of Bengal 2024 is: from the mountain to the sea, who shall it be? Predictions are dangerous but what is the point of a column if it doesn’t flirt with danger? The mountains and its adjacent are with Narendra Modi; the east of the river is with Mamata Banerjee. Elsewhere in Bengal, governance will largely trump ethnic appeal. As for the nature of this battle, one is reminded of a saying attributed to the Roman sage Seneca: the law falls silent in times of war.
