Rahul rips Left rural record

Rahul Gandhi today termed the situation in rural Bengal worse than that in Uttar Pradesh, launching withering criticism of the Left in its lair.

“I understand communists are those who look after the interest of the poor. But what kind of communists exist here? When I was coming here by helicopter, I saw the pathetic conditions here.

“I have worked in UP, I have travelled extensively in UP…. I have thought that UP was backward. But now I find the situation here is far worse. You have to change the government here,” the Congress leader told a meeting in Malda.

Any comparison of Bengal with Uttar Pradesh — counted among the “Bimaru” (sick) states — is red rag to the Left. CPM state secretariat member Benoy Konar said: “Rahul appears to have become too clever for his age (enchorey paaka). Will anybody in Bengal believe that our state is lagging behind UP?”

If the question is posed against the record in implementing the rural job scheme — the UPA trophy to which the Left also stakes claim — Uttar Pradesh is ahead of Bengal on at least three counts. (See chart).

But on other parameters such as infant mortality rate (UP’s 79 per cent against Bengal’s 47 per cent) and child immunisation (UP 29.7 per cent, Bengal 40.9 per cent), Bengal appears to be better off than Uttar Pradesh, according to government data.

Rahul’s statement also stirred memories of a comment made by his late father Rajiv Gandhi in 1987 that Calcutta was a dying city. A controversy broke out then but the substance of the young Gandhi’s observation today reflects the plight of voters like Butu Karmakar even if language was a barrier between them (see report on top).

If the Left is seeing a predictable political pitch in Rahul’s speech, he did make, unwittingly or otherwise, a point that cut across party lines.

Rahul underscored the failure to use funds not just in Purulia and Bankura, both Left strongholds, but also in Malda where the last-mile administration is in the Congress’s hands.

“I can say about this district (Malda) that the UPA government had given Rs 30 crore (to build homes for the poor), but Rs 12.4 crore remains unspent. We had also given Rs 70 crore under the NREGS (the rural job scheme) but only four families found work for 100 days,” he said.


Rahul in Purulia. (Amit Datta)
A Malda official said it was the responsibility of the zilla parishad to take the funds allocated and spend it through panchayats. In Malda, the zilla parishad is run by the Congress.

It was not clear whether Rahul made the statement in Malda because of a political slip of the tongue but he appeared to have done his homework — a not too familiar trait in politicians on the campaign trail. In Purulia, he said: “In your district, people did not get work for even 20 days.”

Inability to spend money is a paradoxical curse of welfare schemes in the country. “One of the main reasons is political. Panchayats run by a particular political party may use the funds for only their supporters. How else can you explain Bengal’s record of providing only 25 days work under the NREGS? It is the marginal farmers who are most dependent on the NREGS and funds going unutilised means they suffer the most,” economist Kalyan Sanyal said.

Rahul referred to another issue relevant to Bengal now: power crunch and how the nuclear deal may one day help tackle it.