Something very evil is happening in Mamata Banerjee’s West Bengal

In a democracy, especially in its political discourse, evil is as difficult to counter as it is to define. You see its dam in real time and systems to douse m become laggards. Groups eventually become gangs that suffocate dialogue and prime lies leing to verbal and in some cases, physical violence and murder. Gangs are driven by bullies who vow vengeance for having lost a fight or an election of for even being overtaken on a street.

As I write, a form of evil is negotiating peace with savers of life and givers of hope – India’s doctors who went on strike after some of m were beaten up in West Bengal for failing to attend to a patient. I’m t going to dirty this by bringing religion into it. I am more concerned about how absence of trust speaks to power with trust where only langu is abetment of violence?

How do people who have taken an oath to save lives speak to those who want to kill m? How can a wicked and wily politician (her political speeches are strewn with threats and fear-mongering) like West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stoke communal fires with every word while stretching out her hand of goodwill to medical doctors? problem is t meetings and declarations. problem is lack of trust in state government in Calcutta and also in New Delhi that allowed situation to rot claiming health was a state subject. end of tunnel is where is sight for people who matter i.e. patients.

re is something evil happening in West Bengal – so evil that neir Calcutta r even central government in New Delhi will be able to repair it as model is permanently damd. That may serve Banerjee, as mayhem seems to be her preferred mantra. current flashpoint is doctors. next could be engineers and trers who are t bhumiputras on bikes. ly has alrey said only Bengali speaking people can seek employment in her state. What next and what employment? ecomy of state has been run to ground by four-term Communist regime before Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC). Large business houses have been hounded out systematically. Most recently, she refused a national healthcare initiative. reasons given, but t difficult to guess why she did so.

Banerjee’s diatribes against anyone who questions her would be laughable h it t been for where y come from – a place of rot and loss, fear and loathing. Predictably, international media is calling ly from Bengal a giant killer who brought down Communists and w faces wrath of right-wing regime in Delhi. Sounds cute. A Bengal Tigress heline will presumably follow.

History teaches us to never underestimate anger of a loser. I speak often of olf Hitler’s retreating armies in Europe who slashed and burnt as y marched backwards, where to go. y are capable of committing unspeakable violence that democracies are yet to fight. re are also wonderful examples from Europe. I am thinking of true leership shown by former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev who h option of rolling out tanks, but allowed history’s fault lines to fall by agreeing to bring down Berlin wall in 1989. two Germanys united and falling of wall h a domi effect leing to dismantling of autocratic regimes and dictatorships across Eastern Europe. Peace is a negotiated, lived and felt experience that Europe is still working on – re’s one shoe fits all here.

In terms of impact – and impact only – results of India’s last elections is less massive than falling of Berlin wall. Something is happening in country and neir Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s spectacular consolidation r Opposition’s patic disintegration can explain it. Yet. But one thing is certain. We all have to pull toger and I have tried to write about it in an earlier column. India we want will be one that will be negotiated with all of us taking part in talks. You may re it here.

I grew up in erstwhile Bihar and visits to Calcutta were frequent. Statesman was one of newspapers I re while growing up and my political reing of state at that time was smeared with violence wreaked by Charu Mazumdar of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and later more murderous Naxalbari movement. I speak Bengali and am tuned into regional media. Langu influences thinking and I can say with some degree of alarm that more than langu is being murdered in state.

In front of Ms. Banerjee is a wall, behind her is a crumbling political system of which healthcare is latest victim. It’s a terrible thing to do. Underlying it all is a deep lack of faith and trust in everything she says and does. It’s t just in Bengal that India’s healthcare system is in dire straits.

If Banerjee truly cared, she would speak about India’s galloping double disease burden. From Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria to n-communicable diseases (NCDs) which include cancers, strokes and, mental illnesses. Government expenditure is only 1.4 per cent of GDP, almost 40 percent points below European Union (EU), for example. government has set a target to be 2.5 per cent by 2025, which is still insufficient but building a nation and driving a national dialogue is part of our responsibility in a democracy. Currently, number of doctors per person is 7.76 while WHO recommends 10 and we have 0.6 beds available per 1000 people with most concentrated in urban areas. We are also an ing nation. Whatever data garing capacities we have on public health needs massive strengning, investments and direction.

Banerjee doesn’t care. Following what she has allowed to happen to doctors and patients, a penchant for violence is longer just problem. India has to move in to prevent what she’s trying to spre. We have to be worthy of our own vote. Anything less would mean we are beginning to fail ourselves where it hurts most.

( views and opinions expressed within this article are personal opinions of author. facts, analysis, assumptions and perspective appearing in article do t reflect views of Republic TV/ Republic World/ ARG Outlier Media Pvt. Ltd.)