IF we turn
the pages of history in order to reach to the British Colonial Era, we are sure
to find marvelous significance of one state i.e. the state of Bengal. Bengal
was, before the British colonization and for some years during the British
epoch too, was the hub of all Indian activities, i.e. from industrialization to
patriotism, from trade to manufacturing and was once of the most remarkable and
power-wielding state of India whose significance can never be denied. But
unfortunately as time succeeded, Bengal receded to a nadir and haplessly today
Bengal is one of the most impoverished states of India, undergoing minimal
advancements and progress therefore sliding into oblivion day by day.
Gokhale
once said, “What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow”, but today this
quotation by Gokhale seems to be nothing more than a preposterous curse. Today
most of the problems that are being faced by Bengalis can be owed to the
unworthy leadership of various lumped politicians who have done nothing in
Bengal rather than devastating its stature and position. The problems that we
encounter today in Bengal actually commenced during the pre-independence era.
Even Britishers
were pretty much jealous with the development and pace of advancement being
experienced by Bengal at that time, and on finding that Bengal was the center
of the whole nation’s progress and power, Britishers hatched out many plans in
order to completely annihilate this great state of the nation. The foremost and
the most decisive step that Brits took in order to disestablish this great state
was to strip away the state’s business. Britishers knew that as long as the
traders and manufacturers in Bengal survived, they would never be able to carry
out their own work in the nation and hence they went on a rampage in order to shatter
the whole of the business activities in Bengal. Therefore Britishers ripped off
Bengal from its jute mills, engineering units and many other crucial units in
order to mutate the whole of Bengal from a fertile state to that of a barren
piece of land.
After that
when India was freed from the shackles of colonialism, Bengal could have been
made a paradigm for all other states if appropriate actions would have been
taken but due to negligence portrayed by political parties and leaders Bengal
slipped out of the race of becoming a developed and prosperous state. Although
BC Roy, the first Chief Minister of West Bengal, used much of his influence and
power in order to fetch jobs to the state, but the number of jobseekers soon
outnumbered the number of jobs available and again Bengal was left with nothing
and all the efforts remained futile. After that, migration of six million
citizens from East Pakistan between 1947 to 1973, added fuel to the fire, therefore
increasing the population density of Bengal to two and a half times to that of India.
Haplessly India moved ahead but Bengal didn’t take a step forward therefore
left out of the mainstream.
Then to
further the loss, CPM which took charge in 1977, thereby starting the story of
complete decline of Bengal. Despite of distributing land among the people, Left
followed a very much secluded and cloistered policy therefore taking the state
away from progress and jostling it into complete devastation. The communists taught the Bengalis to do
nothing but protest. Bengal protested against everything. From a single rupee
increase in bus fare to small pity things, Bengal was regularly burnt in
protests but unfortunately the people of Bengal never gained anything out of
the protests while on the other hand the CPM thugs at the grass root level
licked away all the benefits from the common man’s pocket and made itself
superior.
After that
a wave of change was observed when Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee tried to influence
his party to ameliorate the level of urbanization and industrialization in
Bengal but this didn’t impressed those ground level thugs and in order to stop
Mr. Bhattarcharjee from taking progress to common people these thugs shifter
towards Mamata Banerjee who was at that time also improving her condition in
Bengal as a better and powerful alternative than Communists. People of Bengal therefore
voted for change and TMC (Trinamool Congress) swept the whole of Bengal’s
elections therefore making the left demit from its 34 years long rule in the
state and then Mamata Banerjee sat in the Writer’s building.
Unfortunately
Ms. Banerjee also let her state down and even send out various investments like
Tata’s Nano Project etc. out of Bengal (which was later taken up by Narendra
Modi-led Gujarat). Her whole tenure was
smeared with allegations of corruption and misbehavior with the denizens of
Bengal. Here callous stand on various issues also aroused huge public fury and
her arrogance also made the whole of the state flow into resentment and
criticism.
n
Even till
now Bengal is facing the consequence of bad political leaders and insensitive
leadership and this great state has been a exemplary of “riches to rags”. But
today something needs to be done for sure. A change needs to be effected in the
whole of the state to make this great part of motherland soar high.
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat
Jai Ma Bharti
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