To strike or not to strike: West Bengal's big showdown looms

Kolkata: There’s a strange shadow dance of life and death happening in Kolkata.

On one hand there is the CPM trying to show that it is still alive and kicking by trying to bring West Bengal to a dead stop on Tuesday. On the other hand, Ann Wroe, the Obituaries Editor of The Economist has just written an ode to the “dying” city of Kolkata. Her verdict – the city is very much alive.

“What might be called a philosophy of decay and revival animates the whole city. This, too, endeared it to me.”

Of course, Wroe probably does not have an airplane to catch on Tuesday when the CPM has called its general strike while the Trinamool is hell-bent on making it a flop. She would not find that uncertainty terribly endearing. I have had to do that once. It’s no fun. Borrow a doctor’s car and hope for the best, an uncle, a former Congress MP, advised me.

The general strike, once Mamata’s pet weapon against the ruling Communists, is now being used against her. And Didi has sent around the directive that all government employees must report to work, come hell, high water or red flags. Otherwise the government will invoke the break-in-service clause. The newspapers are even publishing the Transport Minister’s mobile number so they can call him if they have any problems getting to work. Mamata’s directive has  meant principals in suburban government colleges are scrambling to find bedding and lodging for their teachers who must show up even if no students do. A college professor who thought she was outside the strike’s ambit because Tuesday was her normal off day was told nothing doing. She needed to show up as well. The state needs to be open for business on the bandh day with a gusto it would do to emulate on a normal working day.

The Bharat Bandh might be a national strike about national issues called by 11 trade unions. But in West Bengal it’s turned into a litmus test of the local opposition to Mamata flexing its muscles. It’s turned into a local strike about local issues says the CPM’s Rabin Deb. He told The Telegraph, “The state’s burning issues like campus violence, deteriorating law and order and the recent crib deaths have to figure in our day-to-day campaign for Tuesday’s general strike because they affect common people across the state.”

Translation: The CPM is finding that the national issues like higher minimum wage and inflation aren’t finding so much traction.

Some might welcome a bonus holiday but actually in a state as weary of strikes as West Bengal, the very idea of another strike finds little traction. For weeks CPM cadres have been holding street corner meetings trying to drum up support for the strike. The response has been lacklustre at best. Now the party is back pedaling complaining “the government has declared a war against us by announcing it would foil Tuesday’s strike at any cost. Against this back drop, we shall simply appeal to the people to make the general strike a success. We shall not apply force for a shutdown this time."

That any party admits to ever needing to “apply force for a shutdown”  during a “general strike” is itself telling. Although Trinamool has called for and enforced plenty of strikes against the Left Front, its leaders are exhorting the people to keep Bengal open for business and reminding them that it has not called for a strike in the last three years.

That might be true but the shutdowns are deeply ingrained in the image of West Bengal and the Trinamool cannot escape its share of blame there. The strike has become a prestige issue for the government and the opposition but as always the ones caught in between are the ones who suffer.

Ask the parents who wonder whether to send the children to school.

Ask the headmasters who wonder whether to reschedule examinations.

Ask the mini bus and taxi operators who have to decide whether to risk their vehicles being damaged. Insurance companies will not cover them.

Ask the thousands of ordinary people who will lose a day’s livelihood.

The last thing West Bengal needs is a general strike. The CPM is delusional to think there is widespread support for that. But Mamata can hardly get on the high horse and self-righteously oppose it. Her hands are too strike-stained and all the perfumes of Paschimbanga will not sweeten that little hand of hers.

If there is anything the state needs, it’s to change this bandh culture. And since that is unlikely complains a disgruntled friend at least they could have scheduled the strike on Monday. “I could have at least stayed home and watched Meryl Streep win her Oscar,” he says.