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More on ‘Saradha’

The Saradha affair continues to haunt the people of West Bengal, and the human cost of the incident in the form of quite few suicides and pauperization of millions is heart-rending. The attitude of the Trinamul Congress-led Government of West Bengal is patently to shield those leaders of the ruling party who are alleged, not altogether without reason, to have been in league with this fraudulent concern. Mamata Banerjee is afraid that if the task of investigation is handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) the matter would slip out of her hands, and the Congress would be able to use this opportunity against her. But if an MP of the ruling party serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the media channel of the group at a salary of Rs 1.5 million per month, and if the chief of the concern purchases a painting drawn by the Chief Minister herself reportedly at a price of Rs 18.6 million—this allegation has not so far been denied either by the Chief Minister or by any of her close colleagues—the links become apparent. Things become clearer when a painter close to the ruling party, who reportedly formed a media channel, but could not introduce it before the public for want of money, admits that he got more than fifty million rupees as its price from this fraudulent financial concern and when a personality of the world of drama with no experience of journalism admits that she used to get fat salaries from their media organization. It is also intriguing that not so long ago, another MP of the Trinamul Congress declared herself to be a member of the Saradha family and is now desperately trying to eat her words. Of course, the earlier Left Front Government cannot evade its responsibility for the proliferation of such business in the sense that during the period of their rule, they failed to take any drastic action against such companies. Asoke Mitra's steps against Sanchayita more than three decades ago constitute one exception. One of the owners of that concern reportedly committed suicide by jumping from the top floor of a building after his arrest, although there is a widespread belief a venal police officer took him there and threw him to the ground. But according to Asoke Mitra himself, about 40 to 50 billion of rupees deposited by the people could not be recovered. There are also reports that local CPI(M) chieftains collaborated with such financial companies in various capacities during the later stage of their hegemony. There is, however, little doubt that over the last two years, the number and activities of such financial companies have grown on an unprecedented scale. Although Mamata Banerjee has been trying hard to prove that the leaders of the CP1(M), including Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, had close links with the Saradha Group and other such financial concerns, her effort seems scarcely enough for rebuilding her image that has been badly shattered after this scam; her speeches in this regard appear to be delirious talks. The enormous funds reportedly collected by the Saradha group, about Rs 200 billions, have brought home another point. One of the arguments in favour of inviting big corporate capital to West Bengal was the alleged lack of funds in the state. But this episode shows that this is a specious argument. As a corollary, it can be suggested that the programme of employment oriented development prescribed by Professor Amit Bhaduri and the likes of him can be implemented by a state government independently, if it can sincerely and successfully mop up the financial resources lying in the hands of the people. The financial constraint should not be binding for such a programme. Professor Bhaduri has argued correctly in favour of scrapping of the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act of 2003, which ties the government's hands. But there are other possibilities also. What is really binding is the unorganized nature of the credit market, the lack of access of the rural people to banks and other organized financial institutions, and the lack of willingness on the part of the state to mobilize their financial resources for productive investment. The disclosures regarding the assets of such concerns have shown conclusively that a really pro-people programme of employment-oriented economic development need not depend on the corporates for funds.

Frontier
Vol. 45, No. 47, June 2-8, 2013

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