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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Hunger games in West Bengal elections -Aniruddha Ghosal

Hunger games in West Bengal elections -Aniruddha Ghosal

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published Published on Mar 30, 2016   modified Modified on Mar 30, 2016
-The Indian Express

The reasons for TMC's confidence that their 'rice politics' in the state will surmount all other criticism are rooted firmly in history.

It is hunger that dominates discussions about elections in West Bengal. Starvation doesn’t need to be imagined in Bengal, it’s not a distant memory — the word still conjures up images of gaunt ribs, filthy rags and lethargic limbs with unnerving clarity.

The reasons for TMC’s confidence that their ‘rice politics’ in the state will surmount all other criticism are rooted firmly in history. In the list of achievements that Mamata Banerjee reiterates at every election rally, is her extension of the National Food Security Act – increasing its reach from 3.5 crore people to 6.5 crore – that is, over 70 per cent of the state’s population – as her prime achievement.

The Bengal famine of 1943 and consequent cases of what the government euphemestically refers to as ‘hunger deaths’ or death due to “chronic ailments neglected in the past” have entrenched hunger as a vital issue during elections. The many representations of hunger by artists ranging from Chittaprosad, Somnath Hore, Ramkinkar formed the iconography for hunger in the post-colonial Bengal.

In 1944, the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) toured Bengal with their dramas documenting famine, hunger and the struggle to live – prime among them was Bijon Bhattacharya’s play Nabanna (New Harvest). Images from filmmakers like Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen have combined to form the backbone of Bengal’s collective conscience. Even today the names of these artists, their stories and work are passed on from generation to generation, in some cases even substituting bedtime tales, embedding hunger into the very culture of Bengal.

It comes as no surprise then that hunger has traditionally been the electoral issue that rises above all else. The Tebhaga movement initiated by the Communist Party in Bengal from 1946-1947, demanding the rights for landless peasants formed the foundation of the party’s future dominance in the state. This was followed by the Food Movement of 1959, a turning point in the political history of the state when food insecurity threatened yet another famine in the state. Protests at Writers’ Building saw clashes with the police, leaving 80 dead. As young Jyoti Basu compared the incident to Jallianwalabagh in the Bengal Legislative Assembly, cornering the Congress government and cementing his own political status.

After coming to power in 1977, the Left Front government amended the Land Reforms Act, making cultivation absentia an exclusionary clause for eviction of sharecroppers – they were to be provided rights and the place of crop share was shifted to sharecroppers homestead plots.

Even in the days of its decline, West Bengal politics saw hunger taking centre stage. Subsidised rice was introduced by the Centre and the Left Front government in Bengal in 2009, covering 2.64 crore people living below the poverty line. It soon became the prime incentive offered in areas affected by Left-wing extremism to wean tribals away from Maoists.

Mamata Banerjee is not unaware of this. At Silda, an hour away from Belpahari where many had died of hunger in 2004, Mamata Banerjee is introduced as the ‘Anna Data’ – goddess of food – by her party members. She speaks in detail of the Belpahari famine in 2004, squarely blames the previous Left Front government and reiterates her government’s promise of providing food to all. It is no accident that the new secretariat in the state is named Nabanna – after Bijon Bhattacharya’s play on famine, nor was it was a mere knee-jerk-reaction when she delinked ration cards from the food distribution scheme.

Concerns have been raised in all quarters over whether the available stocks would keep pace with meeting the demand. By March, 300 rice mills had shut down, citing falling prices, shrinking exports as the key reasons. But these are questions that the Mamata Banerjee government is content to leave for later.

Right now, as conversations in tea shops and street corners are dominated by “du takae chal” (rice at Rs 2), some uncomfortable questions are already being asked – how long can this last, where will the money to pay for the rice come from and most importantly what happens if the rice runs out?


The Indian Express, 30 March, 2016, http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/tmc-west-bengal-elections-2016-mamata-banerjee-the-hungry-tide-tmcs-food-politics/


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