If Karl Marx wrote the 'Communist Manifesto', Mamata Banerjee has just written the 'Anti-Communist Manifesto'.
The grand vision statement for West Bengal released recently, her party Trinamool Congress' manifesto, is a bevy of promises of a 'counter revolution' against the "oppressive, exploitative and authoritarian party-Cadre misrule" of the Left, mainly the CPI(M).
The 'Vision Statement" is a please-all document with a plethora of seemingly grandiose schemes for the usual suspects - farmers, minorities, workers - with one 'minor' omission. It is absolutely silent how this "revolution" is to be achieved.

Plus, what must be worrying the voters going to the polls is her exalted track record of being high on promises and dismal in delivery.
Sample these potential 'revolutions' from Mamata:
"The next revolution in manufacturing in the country should be led by West Bengal".

"(We will) set up an industrial hub in each district".

"(Our) basic industrial strategy is to create massive employment through development of the manufacturing sector".
"(We) will endeavour to convert Darjeeling and adjoining Alipore Dooars area into Switzerland of the East and Digha into Goa of the East Coast".

"All India Trinamool Congress' job is to benchmark Kolkata with the best cities in the world. Why should Kolkata not be comparable to London?"
"(We will) prepare a vision document to make Kolkata a national and international financial hub".
"(We will) restart (the) Kolkata Stock Exchange".
"(We will) develop an action plan to enhance infrastructure available at the Kolkata, Haldia and Sagar ports and to make these world class facilities matching Singapore and Hong Kong".
Without a doubt, laudable objectives. But what was the Tata Nano factory in Singur trying to do?
Exactly what Ms Bannerjee promises to do - create massive employment through the setting-up of a manufacturing facility which promised turn that area into a mini auto-city, with a total investment of almost Rs 2,000 cr.
Yet, who created the conditions for violence at Singur, even encouraged it, to drive the Tatas out of West Bengal?
Why would the voters of West Bengal think that she would deliver on any of these grandiose and pious ambitions, given her dubious track-record.
Take her stint as the Union Railway Minister, for instance. Under her, Indian Railways is on the verge of bankruptcy reeling under a net deficit of about Rs 2,500 cr. Freight, the real revenue earner for the railways dropped by a whopping Rs 700 cr in the last financial year.
In her first budget as the railway minister, she announced the laying of 1,000 km of new railway lines every year, she has not even delivered 100 km. She has mostly been an absentee minister with reports of files piling up for her attention at Rail Bhawan. She has used the Railways as her fiefdom to seemingly distribute largesses to the state of West Bengal without a concern for the viability for institution or the integrity of her office.
Exactly what she denounces the Left for doing - doling out patronage and goodies to the party cadre and sympathisers; without regard to the integrity of finances of the state, or the interest of the exchequer.
Will a stint as the Chief Minister of West Bengal be any different? An overwhelming majority of MSN readers do not think so.
Asked in an online poll, if they think "Mamata Banerjee will prove to be better for Bengal than the Left?", 65 per cent or 10, 781 MSN readers, "No, she is only hype, as her poor record at railway ministry shows".
Only 29 per cent or 4,853 voters out of a total said, "Yes, she is people-oriented and will bring development" to the state. Six per cent or 931 voters said that they did not have an opinion either way.
This, of course, does not hold a brief for the efficacy of more than three decades of Left Front rule in Bengal. In most parameters, West Bengal, which was once one of the foremost states in India, has become a basket case.
A sampling of the data on the state's development index would bring home the case.
In 1975-76, share of manufacturing in West Bengal's economy was 19 percent. In 2008-09, it has fallen to an abysmal 7.4 percent. In roughly the same period, Gujarat's had moved up to 29.6 per cent.
Agriculture plummeted from a growth of 17.3 percent during 1966-76 to a worrying 7.8 percent during 2001-07.
Kolkata airport is least developed among the metros. In 2008-09, total aircraft movements at Mumbai airport was 2,27,694, at Delhi 2,17,391, and 115,911 at Chennai. Kolkata airport brought up the rear with only 81831 aircraft movements in 2008-09.
Shockingly, West Bengal is ranked 32nd (out of the 35 states and UTs in India) in education in the country, with an Educational Development Index (EDI) value of 0.494 in 2008-09.
However, the point is if Mamata Banerjee's stint as the CM be any different; make a change; and be faithful to the unquestionable genius of the people of Bengal.
The record says no. Will CM Bannerjee prove us wrong?
Source: India Syndicate