Mamata Banerjee understands how to maintain political hegemony by keeping people in poverty. No wonder the state does mere lip service to godlike technology but never makes any effort to promote new-age industry.
Evolutionary biologist E.O. Wilson said that we exist with a bizarre combination of “Stone Age emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.” The Stone Age emotion, he pointed out, gave rise to a very fundamental characteristics of human nature, the capacity to cooperate within groups and an attendant hostility towards out groups. The success of regional political parties in India originates in this in group cooperative feeling or “eusociality” as Wilson called it. Like the “homo sapiens” living in the Middle Paleolithic Age the ruling political ideology of Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress of West Bengal is eusociality and often enough open hostility towards rest of India. Clearly the Stone Age emotion is used effectively.
Medieval institutions fundamentally were created to support unhindered rule of the medieval rulers. Any opposition to the order of the ruler was punished. The courtiers were paid to praise the ruler, army was maintained to threat anyone who dared to oppose. Take a look at West Bengal today. Here police imposes law (whims) of the ruling authority and executes those orders. So deep is the success of this medieval feeling that even the nation’s legal framework finds itself at wit’s end to enforce its orders. There always are options of delaying, stalling or effectively ignoring the judgments of constitutional benches while the lower judiciary has already been subjugated by threat. The present day courtiers—local media persons—sing hymns of the ruling class lured by the financial support that the administration provides and also to escape the wrath that might fall on them in case of dissention.
The third inescapable state of the modern economy, godlike technology, was stalled to enter the state of West Bengal by the political power that ruled before Mamata Banerjee took over. Since the predecessor rulers had managed to rule the state for 34 long years by shutting out technology, an astute politician Banerjee used and perfected the style. Forget most advanced technology even simple manufacturing find little support in Mamata-rule. The state which contributed 10.5% of national GDP in 1960-61, accounted for mere 5.6% in 2023-24.
Over the past five years—between 2019 and 2024—2,227 companies shifted their registered office away from West Bengal. 39 of these were listed companies. Till 1970 West Bengal ranked second, next to Maharashtra, in terms of the number of registered companies. In 2021, it slipped to the eighth spot. Clearly, Wilson’s godlike technology did not receive much of a red carpet in the state.
Despite the state government’s failure to attract fresh investment, people in the state are unperturbed. There is no reason to fight the strongly entrenched medieval institutions of the administration when the employable population can effortlessly move to other growing states for gainful employment. Technology, which the Left Front government fought to shut out from their jurisdiction, is a major job provider to West Bengal’s young. In fact, there are so many Bengali techies now in India’s top tech destination Bengaluru that many started calling the city Bangal-ru.
The other section of population who work as casual labour, household help as also some jobs requiring semi-skilled workers just move to flourishing cities and states. In many parts of such places casual workers speaking Bengali dominate. They earn much better money and live in reasonable comfort, having enough surplus to send money to family members staying back in West Bengal. Reason for such migration is clear in the state’s drop in per capita income. Once boasting a per capita income 127.5% of the national average, West Bengal now sits at only 83.7%. With majority of the job seeking population out of the state all Mamata government needs to attend are the economically inactive people. To keep them pleased the administration needs to pay them some allowance. The easy money also buys their votes. With little exposure to development they do not have much aspiration like their counterparts in growing states like Karnataka, Gujarat or even Uttar Pradesh. It is easy to keep such electorate under control with suitable doses of Stone Age sentiment and use of medieval institutional characters. Godlike technology is too remote for this section to aspire for.
Industries in West Bengal have been declining during the five-year period 2016 to 2021. “State of Environment, 2021, West Bengal”, a report of the state government showed that a total of 21,521 industrial units including big, medium, and small ones had shut down in the state during that period; this included 271 big industries. As per the report, in 2016, the total number of functional industries with state environment department clearance was 60,980. In 2021, the same figure declined to 39,359. In the case of functional big industries with state environment department clearance, the number stood at 1,337 in 2016 while it declined to 1066 in 2021.
Development is a problem for political power. West Bengal’s former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu had realised it clearly. His party’s Lok Sabha member Amal Datta suggested to Basu that farmers in south of India were making good money by engaging in floriculture; since West Bengal—parts of Datta’s constituency—was suitable for similar cultivation the state would do well to promote the same. Basu told Datta that such development would harm the party since farmers would not join rallies and follow party line with better livelihood due to floriculture. Mamata Banerjee understands how to maintain political hegemony by keeping people in poverty. No wonder the state does mere lip service to godlike technology but never makes any effort to promote new-age industry.
In fact, the state has less capital expenditure than revenue expenditure. The state government recorded a 13.5% year-on-year increase in revenue expenditure, its capital expenditure grew by only 7.7%, significantly falling short of its budgeted targets. Clearly the administration is not keen on industrial development. Godlike technology does not offer godlike invincibility in electoral politics which can come from providing doles to economically inactive population. Mamata knows well any talk of development will not sound attractive to her voters. She sticks to her Stone Age and medieval combination.
* Sugato Hazra is an author and political analyst.