Mamata’s test: Governance without vendetta

Shyamal Datta

WEST Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has summarily removed  as many as 17 senior police officers  of all Commissionerates  and some  divisions and districts in the third round of transfers, after returning to power. The transfers have caused no surprise but have definitely set off considerable dismay and anguish  among members of the law-enforcement fraternity. The police machinery stands frustrated  and demoralised.

There was lurking hope that the ruling party and its supreme leader, after a triumphant return to power, would act with empathy, rising above political considerations  in the interest of the state and its people. The hope was that the TMC government under Mamata Banerjee, in its well-deserved second spell, would  have nothing to do with vendetta or vengeance, especially against those who had acted according to law and in good faith.

A section of the intelligentsia in the state had hoped that post-May 27, 2016, Mamata Banerjee might stand out as an  example of a mix of motherly affection and empathy. This hope was belied when the CEC appointee Soumen Mitra, Commissioner of Police, Kolkata, was shown the door much before the swearing-in of the new government. It suggested rancour and vindictiveness.

Contextually, through these selective and extraordinary transfers and postings,  the government has made it crystal clear that officers must be ready to pay  penalty for actions that would undermine the interests of the party in power. Those who make the "mistake" of acting tough, independent and neutral  in order to  uphold the rule of law,  should be prepared to face the consequences of their actions. 

In the instant case, the "mistake" that the officers, hand-picked by the Central Election Commission (CEC) from the list provided by the state government on the basis of  their competence and reputation, committed was to act under the directives of the constitutional body (CEC), to maintain law and order and  ensure free and fair elections. These officers exemplified how a difficult and politically vitiated situation could be dealt with competence, without compromising with the enforcement of law. In fact, they made the people of West Bengal proud and showed that the police, if allowed to function without much interference, could  enable the state to maintain order and stability, essential for development.

Intent on the part of the state is very clear. Demean and demoralise them for causing an affront to the Chief Minister and the ruling party, so that such conduct is not repeated in the future. A liberal-minded and visionary leader would have seized the opportunity and hailed these officers for helping in a free and fair conduct of the Assembly elections in a state notorious for electoral malpractices for nearly 40 years. 

Does the Chief Minister realise that her image  as an invincible political leader has sky-rocketed like never before, largely on account  of  fairness  in the conduct of the poll? Her unprecedented victory delivered by the people came in a free and fair manner. Will the Chief Minister care to appreciate that her image would have been sullied and the victory denied of its  legitimacy,  had the total tally of her seats (211 out of 294 ) increased by another 20-25, with the “complicity” of the officers commandeered by the CEC for specified tasks, “out of sheer fear of the state CM?” Then the officers would not only have let down the CEC, but also fallen in their own esteem, and above all that of the Service. For them, this cross of ignominy would have been too heavy to carry for long. As a long-retired member of the Service, I deem it as my privilege, to salute these officers for the fearless manner in which they discharged their respective responsibilities and did the Service proud. The massive electoral victory offered a golden opportunity on a platter, to Mamata Banerjee to seize and herald the new dawn of order and progress in the state. Had she acted with greater circumspection and refrained from teaching a lesson to lesser mortals like the government servants, for action done in good faith, she would have earned the unstinted support and loyalty of the entire administration and adulation from all sections of people for her political sagacity. Those at the helm, not only have to be strong but also magnanimous to enlist voluntary submission of the people. In its absence, the divisive politics bereft of empathy tends to cause enormous damage to the administrative framework and the polity. The administration which is partisan and afraid of taking lawful action is a slur on society.

The 34 years' misrule of the CPM-led Left Front politicised administration cannot be substituted by another which is driven by whims and caprices of one individual. Democracy will then turn into oligarchy and soon mobocracy would make a mockery of democracy. No government can either indoctrinate the officers in their  party ideology as a prelude to enforcing party administration  or make the officers function as a pliable  administrative tool to suit the interests of the supreme political boss. A politicised and  personalised or a centralised administration is anathema to democracy.

 The CEC  is bound to face a far more murky situation in the 2021 poll in the state when this government will pitch for a third term in office. The CEC has to think seriously on the imperative need for adequate steps to safeguard  the legitimate  interests of officers when they act at its behest, and in good faith. For its part, the TMC in West Bengal has already announced its firm opposition to the “takeover of the state administration by the CEC” during the electioneering and elections. It has called for electoral reforms to do away with such provisions.

Those in favour of party rule and personalised rule tend to forget that the bureaucracy and the police are trained to be servants of the public, upholding the rule of law and with loyalty to the Constitution. Any demand for loyalty  on any other consideration  undermines the institutions which along with the state last permanently, while governments come and go. It is for all to see how a most industrialised state of the past continues to be treated as a pariah by those genuinely interested in its industrialisation.

No state can make any worthwhile headway in growth and development unless the investors find its political climate industrially congenial. The favourable political climate is, inter alia, contingent on maintenance of peace  and stability. No amount of window-dressing and hollow political rhetoric can restore confidence in those willing to invest in this state. Things are complex and situation intractable for any leader to appreciate that any “division in the rank and file of uniform service along the lines of loyalty to an individual”, does not augur well for good governance.  For a charismatic mass leader like Mamata Banerjee, it is child's play to restore unity and confidence in the police in particular, allowing it the space and responsibility to make things better and different from the past, as a prelude to the  all-round rejuvenation of West Bengal.

— The writer is a former Director of  the Intelligence Bureau & former Governor, Nagaland.