MAMATA BANERJEE: A DICTATOR IN MAKING
“It is a paradox that every dictator has climbed to power on the ladder of free speech. Immediately on attaining power, each dictator has suppressed all free speech except his own.” ~ Herbert Hoover
Our constitution postulates that India is a federal country to balance the power between the center and state government and avert any kind of conflict of interests. A federal government is a system that divides up power between a strong national government and smaller local (state governments). Part XI of the constitution deals with the federal structure in India which specifies the distribution of the legislative, administrative, and executive powers between the state and central government. In the 7th schedule of the Indian constitution, the structure of distribution of powers between the union and state legislature is provided under the three lists (article 246 of the Indian constitution):
- Union list ( parliament legislation)
- State list ( state legislation)
- Concurrent list
Our constitution framers took the feature of federalism from the Government of India act 1935.
What is the current controversy: When the whole world is facing the dire aftermath of corona epidemic it was very much expected from all the state government and political leaders to cooperate with the union government in countering this epidemic at the same time the supercilious behavior of West Bengal Chief Minister is evident by the fact that she didn’t allow the visit of an Inter-ministerial central team (IMCT) to take stock of the situation in the state. Her Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’ Brien made an egregious statement that the visit of the team is an adventurous one it has nothing to do with the COVID-19. In a letter to PM Modi, CM Banerjee claimed that the formation of IMCT was a unilateral move by the union government and it destroyed the federal structure of the constitution. After creating the ugly scene for many days CM finally allowed the team to inspect the regions. Even the governor of the state had to interfere in the tussle.
Yesterday after one video got viral of two dead bodies lying in the isolation ward, the government came up with a notification that no mobiles would be allowed inside the COVID hospitals, all the patients and doctors are required to deposit their mobile phones outside the hospital premises. All this was done to avoid any further criticism.
It’s worth mentioning here that last year during the General Elections Mamata Banerjee government didn’t allow the helicopter of Amit Shah land in Kolkata claiming the sheer objective of Amit Shah to visit Bengal was to create the communal tension in the state and Amit shah was the national president of a national political party still his fundamental right (freedom to travel in any part of the country was violated by this decision of Mamata government.
Last year Mamata also had a tussle with CBI officials when they came to arrest Kolkata police commissioner Rajiv Kumar state police officers arrested CBI officers and then Didi sat on the Dharana against the CBI with 40 other people.
The required course of actions: Under the light of the above-mentioned facts it’s evident that Mamata Banerjee is aspiring to be the first dictator of the Union of India of or at least Bengal. This is the high time for her to understand the federal structure of the government machinery and stop doing such politically motivated stunts for gaining obnoxious publicity. Winning elections forming the government is a part of democracy but the true value and spirit of Democracy should live long.
Authored by: Abhyudaya raj mishra sabhyuday.mishra9@gmail.com
Author: Abhyudaya raj mishra,
himachal pradesh national law university shimla 2nd sem bba llb