A quarter century ago, Rajiv Gandhi, as India’s prime minister, had infamously commented that “Calcutta is a dying city”.
Today, his son, Congress general secretary, echoing his father, says: “This Communist government has forgotten the poor. And, instead of taking the state ahead, in the past thirty years, it has taken it at least thirty years backward.” He proceeded further to compare the levels of poverty in Bengal with those in Kalahandi in Orissa, parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Such absurd assertions can only come from those who pay a breezy whistle stop day-long tour by helicopters without planting their feet firmly on the ground. The ground realities in Purulia, the area in Bengal (Rahul Gandhi) referred to, compare more favourably, not only to the places referred to in Orissa, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh but also with Rae Bareli and Amethi, represented by the Congress president and the general secretary.
A common refrain has been that the Left Front government in Bengal had not efficiently utilised the funds allocated under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) scheme. The Left Front government in Bengal had written to the central government that the works permitted by the NREGA were designed primarily for the arid and semi-arid areas in the country and are, therefore, not suited for such places like Bengal, which receives very high rainfall.
The West Bengal government, therefore, had asked for permission to employ people under this scheme for works that are already permitted under various centrally-sponsored schemes. This listed special irrigation and land improvement packages that includes land levelling, farm bunding, fruit trees and fodder plantation, creating farm ponds, producing low-cost mud bricks etc.
The central government, however, refused to permit the West Bengal government from undertaking such works under the NREGA. It is the United progressive alliance (UPA) government, therefore, which is responsible for not permitting the efficient and exhaustive usage of the NREGA funds in Bengal. Thus, despite the unsubstantiated attacks by the Congress leaders that the Left Front government did not give ‘job cards’ to “lakhs of poor farmers”, the fact remains that the West Bengal government has, by now, given 9.5 million job cards to deserving poor people. All over the country, so far only 4 crore job cards have been given. In other words, West Bengal, which accounts for 8 per cent of the country’s population has distributed 25 per cent of all job cards distributed in the country.
Let us take a look at the canard being spread against the Left Front on the issue of economic development in the state. In the period of neo-liberal economic reforms, during the decade between 1993 to 2003 (the last year for which authoritative data is available) the average growth of net state domestic product was 7.10 per cent — the highest amongst the sixteen big states in India. This is well ahead of the media favourites like Maharashtra (4.74 per cent), Gujarat (5.87 per cent), Karnataka (6.27 per cent) Andhra Pradesh (5.27 per cent) and Tamil Nadu (5.24 per cent).
In terms of per capita income, West Bengal has registered an average growth of 5.51 per cent as opposed to the national average of 4.01 per cent. This has happened despite the fact that the annual population growth was 1.64 per cent, much higher than the high-flying states like Tamil Nadu (1.06 per cent).
The more significant aspect of West Bengal’s performance is the fact that this is a growth led by agriculture in complete contrast to the national experience, thus making it the most effective example of ‘inclusive growth’.
Exceprts from editorial in People’s Democracy, organ of the CPI(M), dated May 3, 2009
