An NRI friend recently asked a question on a social media group about
relative backwardness of West Bengal. In order to address that, I am
paraphrasing the question from a rather colloquial one to a formal one.
The question is, “If all Indian politicians are similarly culpable for
bad governance and corruption, then how some states are ahead and why some
states, especially WB are behind?”
The answer to this, as understandable, is not a simple one and interpretations
of historical events and overall perspective will vary across the board. Thus I do not proclaim, that what I write here is the only veritable truth. It is just an attempt of an afternoon to explore some answers in a rather objective but perfunctory manner.
In my
opinion, the reasons are in three categories: 1) Post independence political and
economic history, 2) Regional Political Culture 3) Socio Cultural construct.
Firstly, resource rich eastern states, like Bihar and Odisha and even
parts of Bengal, suffered from the early policy of freight equalisation scheme -
a policy, for which I dock some serious points from my favourite PM, much hated Mr. J L
Nehru. This policy, stemming from some warped sense of fairness, took away the
competitive advantage of the zone, which could have helped it steal a march
ahead of others, or at least be on the same step. This set the zone back easily by two decades of lost gross state product. The scenario was then exacerbated by bad politics.
The political culture of much of the North and WB was about politics
and not economics. Most leaders, CMs and other leaders, have been busy about
political ideology, to a small extent, and about perpetuating and concentrating
political power, to the larger extent. But to what avail, has never been clear
to them. Lot of people talk of Laloo Yadav’s corruption. From my personal
understanding, Laloo Yadav, corrupt and megalomaniac that he is, made far less
money than even a small fry like Suresh Kalmadi or a ‘cleaner’ politician Nitin Gadkari,
leave alone biggies like the king of corruption Sharad Pawar or Amma or Yeddyurappa.
Reason is that, be it Laloo Yadav, or Gautam Deb (creator of syndicate raaj in
the Rajarhat area), they did not have a clear understanding of economics, its
global trends nor a large economic vision. For them, the corruption was just a
small political action, and not a large economic vision. Pawar, did yeoman’s
job in his constituency of Baramati and Pune, and parts of Maharashtra where
his writ ran large. But how did it run? - By economic largesse; not through the
sly brainwashing (CPM type) or blatant violence or threat (Anubrata or
Shahabuddin type; although CPM was no less in this). Pawar was like a private
equity investor. He took cuts in every economic activity, saw to it that it
reached fruition and with the enormous wealth (ginormous, actually) that he created
from that, he ensured a trickle of economics to his loyalists. This is a culture and model which has been adopted by politicians in the West (NCP, Congress, BJP, Shiv
Sena in Maharashtra) and South (Bangarappa and Yeddy in Karnataka, Amma,
Karuna, Marans etc. in TN, YSR – Jagan, Chandra Babu, and KCR in AP and
Telangana). Not all of them are getting it fully right, because all of them don’t
have same level of intellect or people focus. Take Jayalalitha, who is a success in this. She is an
amazingly competent woman. Had a traumatic childhood. Did not go have proper
uninterrupted education. Didd not go to college. Was exploited as a child star by many people, perhaps including
MGR. But have you heard her speaking?!! I know people who have been in closed
door business/policy meetings with her, and she dazzles in her brilliance,
understanding and articulation. Of course she is bitter, ruthless, insecure,
corrupt and power hungry. But she knows that sustainable political power can
come from sustainable and growing economy. This, unfortunately has been absent
in the East. Nabin and Nitish did a great job. Nitish reduced the emphasis on
monopolizing the political power through surrogate (CPM type) or violent
(CPM/TMC type) means and thereby improved law and order scenario in Bihar. And
Nabin, focused on development policy, while managing his party well, so that everyone understands what is the golden goose - economic welfare of people. However, I
am not sure if this can be sustained in Bihar and Odisha. It is not doing well in Jharkhand. And I am coming to the reason of this. It is the people and their culture.
This brings me to the great man – Modi, who gets a lot of credit for
doing good stuff in Gujarat. Part of this credit is due. For, like Amma, he has
come from the bottom and evolved a lot. He has visions and he articulates them
well. He has some execution focus, which now, is getting diluted unfortunately, as all he is
doing is, launching un-thought-through policies and playing to the gallery. But
let me keep that aside. While part of the credit, especially for turning around
ailing state companies, or for building infrastructure, was due to him, one has
to keep in mind that Gujarat has always had a robust business, economic and
industrial culture, and had successful enterprises in petrochemicals, textiles,
pharmaceuticals etc. Gujaratis (some castes, not all) are world famous for
their entrepreneurship. One may ask why Rajasthan has not benefitted from the Marwaris.
Not an easy question, but my guess is that the reasons are, Rajasthan is a resource
poor desert state, and not entirely run by Marwaris but a host of other communities
as well. Moving on to the cultural context of entrepreneurship and understanding
of business, this entrepreneurial attitude is also present in another community,
that is the coastal Andhra Telugus. Ethically a bit wobbly, Coastal Andhra
people are big dreamers and risk takers and thus always trying to build big,
which propelled state ahead on the road of development. The case of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra
is about a work ethic, based on diligence and not so much of personal
discretion and debate. Unfortunately, the eastern states, especially WB, for
various reasons, have had a very bad work ethic, which has been largely
fostered by the Left Front. It does not respect hard work and customer’s
interest. It believes in entitlement (i.e. “center/ management/ party/ other
people are responsible for my well-being”). The people are opinionated, without
the knowledge base or diligence, and thus quarrelsome, and prone to violent
volatility. Individuals lack the courage to stand up for anything. But the
underclass, thanks to three decades of union type training by the Marxists, and
present continuing dispensation, quickly organises itself into a mob and tries
to derive collective benefit, which are thoroughly undue and unfair, and at
times extortionist. [By the way, did anyone see the intimidating pronouncements
of the families of the accused of the Sourav Gupta murder case in front of the
local court?!! This was a criminal mob, consisting of the female members of the
criminal family.] Thus East, particularly WB, suffers from a vitiating social
culture not conducive to economic development but for volatile politics only. The people of West Bengal has inherited and fostered a culture that is not conducive to development and growth, but regression and insularity. And nobody is telling them so.
Thus, IMHO, my friends, the problems of WB and some parts of east are very deep rooted. The issue is a multi-headed hydra, which will not go away just by
lambasting the non-bhodrolok mohila, to whom most of your main resistance comes from
your class consciousness. And it came even before she came to power as most of
you are ashamed to be represented by her. Best part is, the Marxist bhodroloks
turned out to be the most class conscious, sniggering their upturned nose at
this representative of the lumpenproletariat, a class, they only taught to disrupt
and pull back an entire state for three decades. The solution to this issue
will not come through denial, but through painful acceptance and catharsis. The
solution will not come soon. Before that, there will be some more anarchy.
The above analysis, if I am allowed to call it so, is a very
simplistic take on a very complex question of political and economic history. I
have not talked much of the Congress sin, nor about the fact of the communal
problem, that has been raising its ugly head of late. But I have tried to
provide my take on what I think are among the main reasons for the backwardness
of West Bengal, given that lack of clean and good political leadership is not
unique to this state only.
All disagreements and comments are welcome. What is not, is
hatred.
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