Akash -Tales from Shining and Sinking India's photostream  

A year after being decimated in the West Bengal elections - the CPM is smarting and the hurt shows. However going by what you can see at Alimuddin Street, a little has changed at the CPI(M). Their press briefing room still is a shot from the 60's ... there is still Marx/Lenin/Stalin hanging from the walls - reflecting a party that still is stuck in an outdated ideology... (even the map on the wall is pathetically outdated).

The only change that I saw this time is that Biman Bose (who usually snaps when he sees me) actually had a two minute chat with me.... out of power - perhaps the arrogance is wilting.

One year of Mamata Banerjee and the land that saw the resurgence of Didi's political fortune - still is awaiting the Poriborton that was promised. Neither was the Nano allowed to go into production and today the farmers are still to get their land back.....what you have is a local contraption for public transport is a 'thela' on a motor - called a VANO. Nano's are not seen here.

As a political analyst told me; "Mamata Banerjee is an agitator and the people of the state elected her. So Bengal now has a perpetually agitated Chef Minister!"

Despite being the undisputed head of the state - Didi has not reduced her shrillness or tempered her state of agitation. She still remains loud and brash. While not being able to pull in investment into the state - she has been able to being relative calm into the Junglemahal area that had been taken over by the Maoists.

What does the CPI(M) do with the lines of Lenin - their ideology still is holy cow for the party - but with the CPI(M) itself getting sidelined, it needs to reinvent itself to prevent a slide into obscurity. For now it seems that there is no one willing to listen to the voice of Stalin and Linin in the Left Front.

The ubiquitous yellow taxis of Kolkata. The question though is, who's really welcome to the state of Bengal. Intellectuals are coming under fine - industry has been shunned away and even free speech is under threat. While Didi retains her popularity in rural Bengal - there is serious evidence that its only Paranoia that is driving Didi's actions.... the promised Poriborton is still far away.