Today a control room was started at Raj Bhavan, the West Bengal Governor’s residence and office, so that grievances related to the upcoming rural elections in the state could be lodged by people directly. The idea emerged during reports of political clashes and violence in different parts of the state and after Governor CV Ananda Bose visited several of the spots and spoke to the affected. The twenty-four-hour service intends to register the grievances and inform the State Election Commission (SEC) and the state government about the details so that the issues could be redressed. This is in keeping with the Governor’s earlier statement that “action would be taken” after his visit to Canning and Bhangar, where violent clashed had taken place.

The email id for lodging the complaints is OSD2w.b.governor@gmail.com and the phone number is 03322001641.

Political pundits, while praising the initiative are cynical of the rate of its success. “It’s a great venture but will it really work? There is a will but the way is fraught with difficulties,” says Tarun Ganguly, Bengal political expert.

Today’s opening of the control room is reminiscent of the hotline that was started by the Trinamool government called “Didi ke Bolo” or “Tell Didi” (literally meaning “elder sister” which is how West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is popularly known.)

Launched on July 29, 2019 after the Parliamentary elections that year, it was the brainchild of political strategist Prashant Kishore, who was hired by Trinamool to counter chief political rival, BJP’s increasing voteshare in the state before the next state elections. The campaign was a success in terms of the fact that hundreds of people did call up the helpline to lodge complaints and grievances. However, the redressal was not always as smooth as the outreach programme intended it to be.

The way the complaint cell worked was that as soon as the team member (comprising 250 dedicated call center executives) received a call, he or she was expected to log the call with details of the person’s name, address, phone number and nature of complaint and create a digital file which would be sent to the chief minister’s grievance cell created specifically for the purpose of dealing with the issues that came up. The executive gave the complainant a timeframe of not more than 48 hours of his or her call to receive a response. Within this time the corporate office of the poll strategist hired by the state government would contact the complainant for additional details. This would be followed up by the corporate executive creating a file of “complaint” and “action taken” which would then be sent to the various governmental departments for action. The departments would be expected to respond, within 48 hours, of actions taken and within seven days of the receipt of the complaint by the department, a solution to the problem would have to be devised.

“Though the intention to solve the problems speedily was indeed a very laudable cause and it gave a great deal of motivation and hope to the complainant but in certain cases the problems were complex and could not be solved easily within seven days, according to several reports,” Ganguly says.

However the campaign, which was very visible, with hoardings and posters depicting Didi on the other end of a phone call, received widespread recognition. And even if all problems did not get solved, the idea that their chief minister was available and a phone call away did, clearly, work to motivate the electorate which voted their elder sister back to power in the state elections.

It is to be seen how successful the Governor’s “Public Peace Room” is in the coming days. Ruling Trinamool has scoffed at it and questioned whether the Governor had the jurisdiction to launch such a control room. However the Trinamool would be reminded that when the party was in the Opposition and fighting for the cause of Singur and Nandigram against the then Left government, it welcomed any such intervention from then Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi.

If the Governor at that time had jurisdiction, why not now? And if the Peace project works to redress grievances, it should be welcomed by all irrespective of political ideology.