With panchayat polls around the corner, political analysts say the sops are bringing about unnecessary dependence, but it’s the little girl’s take on her love for bicycles and rice which offers a contrasting view about the rural polls in West Bengal
“I will vote for Didi,” a little girl giggled. I was on a reporting trip through the villages of Jungle Mahal in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district before the rural elections. Hardly ten, she was too young to exercise her franchise but her spontaneous interjection, triggered no doubt by the conversations of the adults in the village, was an indication of just how deep the proverbial “Mamata magic” has infiltrated.
“And why would you do that?” I asked. “Because she gives us rice and bicycles,” she said shyly.
It’s perhaps this – Didi’s flushing the districts and villages with a plethora of public distribution schemes, targeting their rudimentary requirements – which can be called the “secret of her success” in not losing a single election – panchayat, assembly or parliamentary – since 2011 when she came to power with a thumping majority after defeating the 34-year-old communist regime.
“In Jungle Mahal, there was a time when getting basic ration, forget healthcare or education was accessible but not so freely,” Minoti Mahato of Jungle Mahal’s Jhargram told The Statesman. In her 50s, Mahato lived through the Maoist phase which she feels was brought on by the flagrant “neglect and callousness of the previous government which did nothing for the poor.”
She says that many villagers had no option but to join the insurgents. Now, she says, because of the West Bengal government’s public distribution schemes like Kanyashree or Lakshmi Bhandar or Sasthyasathi which address the need for everything from ration to healthcare to education (especially for girls and women who have been traditionally deprived), the quality of life has improved.
These jungle hamlets are not the only beneficiaries of the West Bengal chief minister’s public distribution schemes. In the Sunderbans Delta, islanders talk about being “contended to some degree.” Gouranga Mete of Ghoramara Island in western Sunderbans, where the Ganges flows into the Bay of Bengal, says, “We cannot complain that our basic needs are not being met.”
However, he feels that the state and central governments need to work together “and do something to prevent our island from disintegrating into the sea.” Ghoramara is one of the islands which is steadily eroding because of global warming and rising sea levels.
Expressing his confidence that Mamata Banerjee will once again sweep the rural polls, Sunderban Affairs minister Bankim Hajra told The Statesman, “The public distribution schemes are extremely popular with the people because they do address the basic needs of the
poor people.” He says that in the Sunderbans Didi has introduced a number of additional projects like planting mangrove saplings and milk cooperatives for women.
Detractors however say that many of the schemes are central schemes. “The BJP government too has introduced a number of schemes for the poor,” says Sanghamitra Choudhury, BJP district president South 24 Paraganas.
Political analysts say the schemes are sops “populist measures” which are bringing about unnecessary dependence. However, if the little girl reflects the sentiments of the majority and as long as the likes of her get the bicycles to ride and rice to survive it may seem to be a status quo affair.