There was a party which ruled West Bengal for thirty-four uninterrupted years. There was a party which made a history for remaining in power for a longest time in the world on a popular mandate. There was a party which made a history for a longest stint of a chief minister. There was a party which was synonymous with West Bengal.
There was a party which matched with the fury of flood in 1978 when it came to power just a year back and fought inch by inch with the elements of nature in rescuing distressed people. There was a party which did Operation Barga, first in India, and distributed lands to the landless. There was a party which, first in India, introduced Panchayet raj and decentralized power to the grass root level and gave power to the powerless. There was a party which did not sleep night after night when Babri mosque was demolished in 1992 and guarded every gulley, every muhollah so that no communal flare up could disturb the state.
There was a party which gave respect to the state employees. There was a party, which first in India, hiked and regularized the salaries of teachers and gave them social respect due to them. There was a party which people called lovingly OUR PARTY. There was a party which became US, not a mere party for PARTYMEN.
There was a party which started changing dramatically when the Narasingha government in Delhi depended on it for its survival from the early years of 90s. Suddenly so many Committees and Samities started coming up before the puzzled eyes of the people. NAGORIK COMMITTEE, LOCAL COMMITTEE, MOHILA SAMITY — to name just a few, functioned as if they were sanctioned by the Indian constitution to function the way they did.
So, there was a party which meddled with family issues — husband-wife, wife-husband rift—through MOHILA SAMITY( House after house were raided and vandalized, in effect. So many families perished); landlord-tenant, tenant-landlord rift, land issues with neighbor, the rift over how and in which way a gulley drain will be dug, the manner of nodding a neta, the subject of conversation with your acquaintances, the contents of your songs or recitation –- through NAGORIK COMMITTEES or LOCAL COMMITTEES or sundry other committees. So, there was a party which boasted of hijacking most court cases in India( because NC,LC,MS were both expert and potent enough to settle the issues themselves!).
There was a party which brought out almost every evening procession with every wrongdoing of the imperialists (actually, to understand correctly, this word should be read or written as singular). DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM…..WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE….rent the air every evening. The whole locality reverberated with these fire-breathing revolutionaries. But, there was a party which kept mum when an Asian giant did something, or more than something, horribly amiss.
There was a party which made the state of West Bengal a land of yes man (yes men, to put it correctly).So man was substituted by yes man. People were substituted by committees and samities. Rule of law was compromised by a jungle raj.
So, there was a party which was overthrown by a popular mandate when this party spread the rule of jungle in the name of industrialization.
So, there is a party which now goes for rectification. The example of rectification is to make the Asian giant Second (with 26 gold) on the medal list of Rio Olympics and an Imperialist country Third (with 27 gold) on the penultimate day of the world event in its mouthpiece’s August 22 issue on page 8!!