The people in a democracy have their own ways of calling their rulers’ bluff. A group of villagers in Bankura found it necessary to tell the local leaders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) to get back to the basics. Their methods are unacceptable in a democracy, but that does not take anything away from their message. The party’s leaders would be fooling themselves if they see in the incident only the Trinamul Congress’s hand and nothing else. The message that the villagers sought to drive home to the leaders was simple. Regular supplies of grain from ration shops are more important in poor people’s lives than the hot air of high politics. And they would have none of the sermons on imperialism from leaders who cannot properly run something as elementary as the rural rationing system. Obviously, the people in the villages are angry about much more than a dysfunctional rationing system. Apart from exposing the sorry state of governance, the incident suggests that the CPI(M), contrary to its claims, may actually be losing touch with the rural realities. But the more important message seems to be that the people, even in the CPI(M)’s own turf, refuse to be taken for granted. The party that rules in their name have to listen to them or pay a price.

However, the message from Bankura has a wider context. The CPI(M)’s tirades over the nuclear deal between India and the United States of America have come in the thick of Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s thrust for Bengal’s industrialization. There is more than a coincidence in the public outrage at Bankura happening almost simultaneously with the chief minister’s announcement about the Jindal group’s new steel project at Salboni. Significantly, the common people, as well as the Opposition parties there, were openly supportive of the government’s initiatives on the project. The message for Mr Bhattacharjee and his party from both Bankura and Salboni is that the people have had enough of high-sounding politics. They want the government to take the business of governance more seriously. They do not want ideological hair-splitting to stall Bengal’s development. The chief minister should know his party’s dilemma in Bengal better than its leaders in New Delhi. He has whetted their appetite for development. Dubious political campaigns may no longer be the Left’s winning card even in Bengal.