West Bengal polls : Inexorable slide of a once-great state to irrelevance and a footnote in history
Shekhar Datta
March 24, 2026
With the ‘Sharmili Momina’s frantic efforts to subvert the legally mandated Special Intensive Revision (SIR) hitting a road-block in the supreme court the elections to the 294-member West Bengal assembly has already been notified and campaign is on. Mamata’s desperation stems from the visible and voluble signs of overwhelming anti-incumbency against the fifteen yearlong misrule (2011-2026) of Trinamool and the reaction of the original Indian Bengalis against the sponsored shift in the state’s demography. Strange as it may appear, the fact is that the current edition of countrywide SIR is only the 14th edition of the process since 1951 and mandated by Section 21 (3) of the Representation of the Peoples Act-1951 but Trinamool’s cacophony of protest against the constitutionally valid process (Article 324) springs from its realisation that the SIR may lead to largescale deletion of names of its block voters among the Bangladeshi infiltrators and terroristic Rohingiyas that form the core of power-crazed Mamata’s vote-bank. This is the reason why Mamata has now stooped to threatening majority Hindu voters so that they do not stray too much from the beaten track of support to her lawless regime.
What will happen in the election to West Bengal assembly is a matter of conjecture but what is already inexplicable is why the Centre has desisted from invoking constitutional power to bring governance in West Bengal back on rail . As long as 569 kms of West Bengal’s border with Bangladesh still remains unfenced despite ceaseless infiltration of Mamata’s ‘Milch Cows’, posing threat to national security simply because of Mamata’s refusal to allot land to BSF despite repeated pleas from the union home ministry. Many of the highly beneficial central schemes including the ‘Ayushman Bharat’ remain unimplemented in West Bengal, sought to be ruled by Trinamool as if the state is an independent republic , not a constituent state of the Indian union. As many as 43 railway projects remain stalled owing to wilful non-allotment of land by the Mamata dispensation. In order to tide over the problems deliberately created by West Bengal government the Centre could invoke Articles 257 and 355 to have the projects implemented unhindered in national interest. In fact , according to constitutional experts the Centre could have invoked at ease the draconian provision of Article 365 to dismiss the perfidious Mamata government, bringing the state under president’s rule even without a report from the governor as happened earlier in Tamil Nadu in early 1991.
Apart from the debates and discussions over constitutional means and niceties , what is the shape of things West Bengal has been reeling under over the past fifteen years ? A peek into real-time statistical data brings out the gory realities of the situation. In the West Bengal budget tabled for the financial year 2026-2027 the outlay for Science and Technology is Rs 82.3 crores, Technical Education and Skill Development Rs 1464.00 crores but Madrasa Education and Minority Affairs, a wholesome Rs 5713.00 crores. It is indeed ‘Pax Madrasa’ while the ‘Mantra’ for the rest of India is ‘Pax Silica’ ! There are 4 thousand schools across West Bengal without a single teacher-fifty percent of all teacherless schools in entire India even as 70% schools in India have internet connections for students compared with West Bengal’s paltry 15%, all in the private sector . A telling commentary on where West Bengal has descended is borne out by the fact that over the past fifteen years of Mamata’s misrule as many as 6668 companys have deserted West Bengal for greener pastures in other states. The sanctimonious cultural snobs among West Bengal politicians often refer to Gujrat as if the state is a pariah land , little realising how stupid they look and sound , Gujrat’s budget for 2026-2027 is a healthy Rs 27 thousand crore surplus while that of West Bengal is a gaping Rs 73 thousand crore deficit which means more debts and more interest payment liability. Leaving this aside , Gujrat’s per capita income currently stands at a whopping Rs 2.6 lakh crores compared with Mamata-ruled West Bengal’s paltry Rs 84 thousand only. To worsen matters , West Bengal, till recently the rice and fish bowl of the country now stands third in India in terms of rice production and is now a net importer of fish from Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh and from as far as Uganda and Mauritania in Africa . Truly bizarre is the reality of Mamata’s West Bengal !
For all the high-decibel rhetoric and bluster on cultural exceptionalism, Bengalis in West Bengal have always been enamoured of violence as a legitimate political weapon to force political opponents into submission as well as to settle political scores . In fact the history of post-independence West Bengal has been marred by gory political murders, mass murders , rape and molestation and forced displacement in the run-up to as also in post-election scenario. Without going into the grisly details of murder and mayhem during the long 34 year rule of the left front (1977-2011) , a glimpse of the grim reality can been peeked into what followed the, last assembly polls in 2021. In the immediate aftermath of counting of ballots there were 18 political murders, 170 rapes, 6126 molestations, 2942 villages seriously impacted by organised violence and 14,105 people taking shelter in neighbouring states of Assam, Orissa and Bihar ! There was a deafening silence among the ‘Jhollla Walla’ brigade, intelligentsia and ‘Sushil Samaj’ (civil society)-all beneficiaries of Begum Saheba’s bounty !
Late legend Nirad C.Chowdhury , India’s most celebrated cultural refugee , had authored a perceptive book way back in 1959 titled ‘Atmaghati Bangali’ (Suicidal Bengali). That book was reprinted with addition by Calcutta’s ‘Ananda Publishers’ in 1988 but the moot point is that the word ‘Bangali’ or Bengali in the title of the book should have been preceded by the word ‘Hindu’, it seems in retrospective wisdom. During the hoary vedic age the entire Bengal plains encompassing West and East Bengal (Bangladesh) had been known to be ‘Samatat’ (plainland or coast) but then it became ‘Sonar Bangla’ during historical times. What remains now is a truncated piece of land whose inhabitants specialise in self-deception , status quoism, complacent self-esteem and cultural snobbery . This landscape ruled by Muslim rulers during 1204-1757 had also the distinction of being known as ‘Jannat-e-Billad’ or ‘Paradise on Earth’ because of its vast and spectacular plains dotted by rivers, natural lakes ,lush greenery, abundant rainfall and a peaceful ambience in life and society . Since the late seventeenth century the principal city Calcutta gradually came to known as the ‘City of Palaces’ and ‘’St Petersberg of the East’ but over the past half century the plains of West Bengal has turned into a political minefield of violence , murder and mayhem while Calcutta now is a great retirement home and a pensioners paradise ! Perhaps a reincarnation of English poet Thomas Gray will have to descend to write the second edition of his celebrated ‘Elegy’-this time on dying West Bengal and Calcutta.
(Tripurainfo)
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