International Journal of Political Science and Governance 2023; 5(1): 344-347

E-ISSN: 2664-603X
P-ISSN: 2664-6021
IJPSG 2023; 5(1): 344-347 The development of West Bengal: Contextualizing
www.journalofpoliticalscience.com
Received: 21-01-2023 different strategies adopted by Mamata Banerjee’s
Accepted: 06-03-2023
government
MD Rameez
Ph.D. Research Scholar,
Department of Political MD Rameez
Science, Maulana Azad
National Urdu University,
Gachibowli, Hyderabad, DOI: https://doi.org/10.33545/26646021.2023.v5.i1e.241
Telangana, India
Abstract
The study explores different schemes and strategies adopted by Trinamool Congress (TMC)
government that enhanced the process of socio-economic and educational development in West
Bengal. In this regard it has found that TMC supremo Mamta Banerjee played a significant role for the
development of West Bengal through providing free rations and free healthcare facilities to the poor
people. The government had focused on the development of women through supplying economic
support to impoverished families. Mamta Banerjee led TMC government also launched many
scholarship’s schemes for the development women education in Bengal. Mamta Banerjee’s different
social-welfare agendas enabled people from economically deprived classes to reap all the benefits and
enhance their standard of living with better subsidised education and health accessibility, grants for
women for their empowerment, and economic development. The study attempts to examine how the
strategies and schemes adopted by TMC government for the welfare of Bengal counter the existing
discourses regarding development of West Bengal under the leadership of Mamta Banerjee.

Keywords: Strategies, trinamool congress, BJP, leadership, education, development etc.

Introduction
Mamata Banerjee's blazing persona rhetorically instituted revolutionary transformation in
West Bengal's political hemisphere. Her brainchild, Trinamool Congress (TMC) the name
carries her deep ideological perspective that symbolises Government servers are no more
considered a monarchy rather they portray themselves as embodiments that value each one
equally and is dedicated to bringing indisputable transformation across all social
constituents. The Pro-BJP, Left, and Congress critics misrepresented the TMC
administration, and they have less focused on the contribution of Mamata Banerjee’s
government's role in improving the socio-economic situation of West Bengal. Hence, the
study encompasses a deep investigation and portrayal of Mamata Banerjee's political journey
and her leadership skills that not only reincarnated a ray of hope across all strata but also
earned global recognition setting instrumental examples for other leaders that struggled to
make a positive change in their heterogeneous political space.
Mamata’s indomitable fighting spirit brought stride in West Bengal democracy
Mamata's relentless spatial protest put an end to 34 years of tyranny and monarchy on the
left front in 2011 and set examples of women's transformational leadership for the rest of the
world. West Bengal patriarchy and male supremacies have been on the verge of extinction
through the phenomenal reincarnation of a female leader appearing with a blazing spirit
(Chaudhury, 2021) [3]. It distorted how society had perceived the socio-technical intercourse
and political mechanism driven by the Left Front and their 34 years of stigmatised political
practice. Democracy can alternatively be viewed as people's equitable opportunity to take
part in political decision-making and give a qualitative opinion, express resentment, and
Corresponding Author: contribute towards rhetorical formation as well as the reformation of government through
MD Rameez casting votes (Dey, 2021) [5].
Ph.D. Research Scholar, However, Bengal saw an array of hoisting and rigging all through the political regime of the
Department of Political Left Front, forcefully snatching the right of people that appeared to be opposing the left front
Science, Maulana Azad
to cast votes. The rhetorical demolishing of democracy across Bengal by intense tyranny and
National Urdu University,
Gachibowli, Hyderabad,
malpractice of the Left Front severely affected people's democratic rights and power as per
Telangana, India the preamble and constitution of India.

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As argued by Chaudhury (2021) [3], the reincarnation of Education, 2022). The Chief Minister rightly understood
Mamata Banerjee capitalised upon a political idealism and that it becomes extremely imperative for people to have
strived to rebound mass faith in West Bengal's political access to proper education as thus perhaps the only way to
system to make by ensuring individuals having voting rights get away to a prosperous life and see visible growth.
without any spatial, non-spatial influence, or threats and To bolster the West Bengal education system, she urged
thus how she aspired to established a stringent democracy, reinforcing the PPP model whereby by the public, through
and a new era began, for West Bengal. private partnership, students can experience positive
In the patriarchal society, for long 34 years, women had changes in education delivery, accessibility, quality of
been downtrodden and discriminated against women in education, and affordability (2022). A rhetorical
rural, and often used to be a victim of sexual assault, breach implementation of Mid-day meals aimed to reduce the
of modesty, and even got killed. However, contemporary number of school dropouts whilst allowing kids to have
mainstream media could not even cover it, and elicit the nutritious meals aiding their physical and mental health
truth exposing, culprits, criminally minded cadres of Left development, and lessen the economic burden for their
Front. In many of the Indian territories, backward-minded parents living below the threshold economic line. Not only
orthodox political parties induced a higher prevalence of that, as a part of the educational empowerment drive, she
social discrimination against women keeping them in social also ensured many of the primary schools upgraded to
inclusion in several spheres of life (Choudhury and Kumar, higher secondary schools, arranged for a scholarship for up
2021) [4]. Perhaps these had been the sole reasons, women in to 10 lakhs, to prevail a high level of convenience
UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh encouraging more young children, adolescents to be self-
were always living in social deprivation with fewer wages, independent and be employable and catch the ray of light.
less education, and very limited control over the means of Another remarkable social agenda has been "Swasthya
production and capital when compared with their male Sathi" by which Mamata Banerjee and her party strived to
counterparts. hedge the health risk of families by allocating 5 lacks for
Even in some cases not only in West Bengal but outside of each family per annum. The paperless Smartcard indeed
it "new forms of female foeticide" has alarmingly jagged the helped many families irrespective of their social status to
ratio of child sex that indeed is disturbing to acknowledge take advantage of it and disdain their worry of meeting
for the people of a developing nation. In a time when India's urgent medical expenses that have skyrocketed these days.
"gender domestic deficit remains extensive" the As the premium is entirely borne by the government, it has
reincarnation of the female leader to be at the socio-political immensely been beneficial for the low to mid-social class to
forefront in an arguably stagnant political scenario of WB, meet medical expenses even from private health care and
reflected that the era of male oppression is going to be an save them from going bankrupt. The previous government
end nationwide. Though West Bengal somewhere boasts of did nothing significant to bring a positive change enabling
its prolonged history of women's participation in broader citizens to have access to superior healthcare affordably
socio-political movements Mamata's blazing spirit (swasthyasathi, 2022) [13].
rhetorically encouraged oppressed females across the nation Kanyashree is another initiative undertaken by the
to raise stern voices against enslavement and ignite the urge transformational leadership in order to enhance "the life and
to develop a spatial protest and thus how the true meaning status of girls by aiding economically backward families
of democracy got manifested. with cash so that their families do not arrange an early
As argued by Van Drunen (2021) [14], media independence marriage for the girls before they turn eighteen due to
can be defined as an absence of external influence or control several hardships". Girls through the "prakalpa" can benefit
upon the institution where media by following their from the privilege of paying only 50% of the cost of
normative principle, strive to establish a high level of admission, zero cost of the form of government job
transparency and unbiasedness to make people aware of examination. A wide range of women's scholarship
everyday occurrences. Contemporary media though we are schemes, reservations in education, and privileges in taking
not extremely vociferous and hyper investigative, outspoken education loans are some of the parks Kannyashree Prakalpa
like today about the malpractice of the Left front which as extends that truly expedite girls' education, stopping the
per Chatterjee and Basu (2020) [2], might be due to the fear tenacity of early marriage (wbkanyashree, 2022) [15].
of getting sabotaged by the left front "Harmad community" Employment generation has always been an overly sensitive
upon the attempt of exposition. However, the rise of issue, and people began being vociferous once there was a
Mamata Banerjee not only gave spines to all media houses sheer surge of literate unemployed striving to secure a
but encouraged them to portray any anomalies witnessed source of income. State government undertook pursuits in
from their side and also to fix internal infections and thus, employment creation for promising youth by encouraging
how true democracy has been established. them to develop an entrepreneurial mindset rather than
struggle to get a job and be self-dependent. The government,
Mamata’s agendas to revolutionize socio-economic through its "Kama sathi prakalpa" injects financial
interplay for the People of Bengal assistance to aspiring entrepreneurs who intend to form their
Mamata Banerjee has been touched by the economic own business and each of the beneficiaries can take a loan
hardship and West Bengal faces low standard of living for 2 lacks whilst enabling them with a provision of subsidy
caused by the incoherent practice and nonchalance of the for taking up new projects from the government (Kama
Left Front that made no progress for West Bengal but Sathi, 2022) [9].
exploited it for many years. In order to bring radical strides
as a part of their socio-political strategy, she induced The transformational leadership skills of Mamata
multitudes of philanthropic agendas for people of all strata Banerjee
(West Bengal Mulling to Introduce PPP Model in School Mamata has been against the approach of the BJP that as per

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Shivaprasad (2021) [12], has done nothing but polarise Indian to secularism without committing a direct attack on the
citizens based on caste and religion ever since its inception, hidden sense of Hindutva (Ganguly and Jha, 2019) [8]. For
which even turned into a bigger threat to India's sovereignty. instance, in 2019, the more BJP promoted an orthodox
Furthermore, Mamata also spatially stratified aggressive approach towards Hindutva, Mamata tactfully began
protests condemning recent CAA and NRC movements by pitching the sense of secularism which also had a
which BJP intended to discard people unable to show their parliamentary and constitutional backup, unlike the BJP; by
birth credentials. Mamata protested by saying it was not this how, Mamata tried to imply that they would not let any
only illogical but tremendously unethical, inhumane, party "mix religion with politics". Mamata was widely
megalomaniac, and contrary to the Indian constitution, and appreciated across Bengal, and beyond for their firm and
human rights. Not only that, but Mamata also raised her independent stance of viewing religion and politics as
voice brutally condemning the demonetisation movement, separate matters.
explaining it to be an unparliamentarily, unstructured, and
irrational act, strengthening anti-BJP slogan movements Mamata's political, and social welfare agendas in
across India. consolidating her regime
A Series of proactive confrontations with BJP indeed Mamata Banerjee and her party adopted a tactical blend of
sparked an incredible political tussle between BJP and their social welfare and political strategy to consolidate their
TMC, provoking BJP to adapt to a non-transparent, fascist, place in the next polls. She showcased her blessing on
dictatorial approach to stigmatise her embodiment, belittling children, testifying their significance in shaping future of
her philanthropic schemes, and its impact. BJP's regional India, enabling her to pledge to initiate "Sabuj Shree and
party in West Bengal severely attacked her ideology, and Shishu sathi prakalpa", which is already in action and vastly
heat also went beyond control several times. BJP also uses implemented (timesofindia, 2022). Despite excelling in
central agencies like CBI, muscle power intended to prevail many areas, TMC got criticised by BJP and other opposition
acute disturbance in West Bengal's political regime to parties due to its lesser emphasis and action-driven strategy
negatively influence its people to go against TMC and to augment employment drive across Bengal. Hence to
accept BJP rule (Nag, 2022) [11]. attract new industries, and make West Bengal a major
However, Mamata, with her indomitable fighting spirit, industrial hub, her relentless diligence was visible when she
singularly shouldered all criticism, and personal attacks, and has been seemed to host several job festivals, seminars, and
remained gloriously focused on how the parliamentary conferences with the presence of leading Indian as well as
could she withstand all these distractions and keep on abroad industrialists that were seeking expansion in West
achieving new milestones in the socio- political sphere. Bengal's market.
Mamata's tactful political strategy embarks upon the She also pledges to initiate multitudes of welfare schemes
ideology of "more focus on Mamata, less on attacking the for the rural people helping them live a sound and
BJP ''. In 2019, a majority of the TMC leaders referred to prosperous life' (Dutt, 2021) [6]. In the budget 2021, she
her as "Maa" or mother, despite her extremely popular allocated the highest amount for panchayat and rural
nomenclature as "Didi" (Nag, 2022) [11]. This slogan development where she pledged to build two million pucca
strategy ideally conducted Mamata's position as Daughter of houses for ST, and SC will be built over the next five years.
Bengal '' launching the official slogan like "Bangla Nijer She also pledged to initiate a new philanthropic scheme
Maa Kei Chay '' which ideally denotes "Bengal wants her named "Matri Bandana", under which the government
daughter". Similarly, the party seemed to switch its political assured to build 10 lakhs new SGH for poor women, and for
strategy and tactics on the way it represented itself in the that, a separate 25000 budget has also been passed. In order
election. to ensure Industrialists choose rural sides for their expansion
In 2019, ahead of the poll of Loksabha, TMC patronised by project, in line with "pathashree Scheme" she vowed to
Mamata Banarjee portrayed itself as the main critic of the build a 46000 km road and communication infrastructure
BJP highlighting Narendra Modi. As a consequence, BJP within the next 5 years (Dutt, 2021) [6].
has been the main target across all the speeches. As per Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee in her last social
Bhattacharya (2021) [1], it was prudent to nullify the non- agendas announced to host social welfare schemes in her
spatial existence of other parties such as CPIM and manifesto where she assured to make Bengal the fifth
Congress which were evolving protests against TMC. largest economy with over 500000 jobs to be generated. Not
Afterward Mamata, in line with its social endeavour, as a only that she announced the scheme of "students credit
political campaign strategy, started to exhibit and flaunt how card" where students aspiring for higher studies are
she has positively radicalised the socio-economic landscape subjected to getting a loan of up to 1000000 at 4% per
of west Bengal in 10 previous years. In place of tarnishing annum interest (LAW, 2021) [10].
and exposing malpractice pointing to the BJP and Modi In a countermeasure of BJP's rampant anti-TMC political
government, TMC leaders as per their political strategy campaign, as per Trinomul Supremo's new strategy, she
centred their emphasis on highlighting the good work that aspires to extend her base even outside Bengal where she
Mamata did for 10 years of its governance (Bhattacharya, aspires to unite with anti-BJP community headed by
2021) [1]. Kejriwal and Mulayam Signg Jadav and vast peasant
In 2019, Mamata to counter BJP also attacked the centre's communities of Haryana and Gujarat. She also strived to
version of what happened in Pulwama and Balakot, Seldom make an axis and collaborate with all anti-BJP sentiment to
TMC brought the Central government's inefficiency in form a great political retaliation towards BJP to eradicate
dealing with the China issue, raising controversy upon (Zeenews, 2022) [16]. As per her future political strategy, she
broader conflicts to strategically corner BJP. Mamata's one intends her voice and campaigns to be telecasted among
remarkable political strategy to counter BJP's those anti-BJP communities across BJP or Non-BJP
overindulgence in Hindutva was her consolidating approach government to ignite holistic protest against BJP. Along

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with Asam, Meghalaya, Tripura, GOA, and Delhi, she https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-

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