An important expressway has been lying blocked for over ten days. On Monday, a gigantic rally brought the city of Calcutta to a standstill. A month from now the celebration of Durga Puja will shut down the city for four days. The society at large in West Bengal actually acquiesces in all this. The three events described above are different manifestations of the same malady. The disease is the belief that in the name of some cause or celebration, life and work can be stopped. Often in the process, the basic laws of the land or injunctions from the court are flouted with abandon. Many, if not the majority, of the pandals for Durga Puja violate fire and safety norms; they block roads; many of the organizers do not immerse the deities on the appointed day; and the very act of immersion transgresses environmental norms. But all these are of no concern to society, which through participation actually encourages the innumerable violations. Bandhs and rallies are also examples of similar violations and these have been commented upon ad nauseam. But no political party gives a tinker’s damn about court’s orders.

Even under these despairing circumstances, Mamata Banerjee’s blockade of the Durgapur Expressway touches new depths of contempt for the law. There is a high court order to clear the expressway: this has fallen into the proverbial Indian ditch. The governor of West Bengal, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, made an appeal, before yesterday’s meeting regarding Singur, to clear the road. Only one flank was cleared. There is thus the bizarre situation where the constitutional head of the state of West Bengal chairing a meeting in which the key players, on one side, are representatives of a political party disregarding the high court’s orders with nonchalance. People who should actually be behind bars for inciting people to break the law of the land are now the governor’s guests. This is the power of politicians that transcends all norms of civilized conduct in a democratic society.

The argument that Ms Banerjee is not responsible for the actions of her supporters or of the various NGOs that form her baggage-train is spurious. She has launched a mass movement, and she has to take moral responsibility for the actions of the people she has rallied. Having incited them she cannot retreat into her wigwam with a paint brush in hand and a canvas in front of her. She has described her movement as a satyagraha. If she is sincere about this she must remember that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi never failed to take the moral responsibility for the actions that ensued from the mass movements he launched. Witness his withdrawal of the Non Co-operation Movement after a violent mob burnt alive some policemen in Chauri Chaura. Ms Banerjee, on the other hand, is an irresponsible leader that the people of West Bengal have iconized to cover up their own irresponsibilities.