Shine Off Sonar Bangla

Since the ant displacement movements against the Left Front government in 2006-08, Bengal has seen increased corruption, communalisation of politics and the rise of welfarism

- Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

WHEN the Trinamool Congress (TMC) first came to power in West Bengal in 2011, says a hooch seller, he had to close down his business for a few months. It was not because Mamata Banerjee’s TMC was running any anti-alcoholism campaign. His illegal shop was located near the boundary of two police stations. The seller, a voter of the Chinsurah assembly segment within the Hooghly Lok Sabha seat in southern West Bengal, says that during the Left Front government rule, cops from only one police station used to reportedly ask for their “monthly payment”. But after the TMC came to power, he allegedly faced payment demands from not only the other police station, but also from three local TMC leaders.

He got arrested, allegedly for refusing to pay up. On being released, he resumed his business only after settling the “payments” of these people. He alleges that prices of hooch and marijuana—both illegal items—shot up during the beginning of the TMC rule as “protection money” to the police and politicians increased with time.

But it is not just these contraband items that became costlier. Land, real estate and local businesses, dealers in all these sectors allegedly had to account for a “cut” or “cuts” for the local TMC leaders and “syndicates”.

‘Syndicate’ refers to extortion rackets involving unemployed youth that force people—whether realtors building apartments or individuals building a home for their family—to procure construction material from them at unreasonable rates.