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By:

Kiran D. Tare

21 August 2024 at 11:23:13 am

Bengal’s Ludwig Erhard

For decades, Swapan Dasgupta made a career of diagnosing India’s political ailments. As a columnist, editor, author and public intellectual, the erudite and scintillating Dasgupta dissected challenged orthodoxies and defended the intellectual traditions of the Indian Right. However, following his new appointment as the new Finance Minister of a West Bengal in economic doldrums, he perhaps faces the most demanding assignment of his career. His supporters however are confident that if there is...

Bengal’s Ludwig Erhard

For decades, Swapan Dasgupta made a career of diagnosing India’s political ailments. As a columnist, editor, author and public intellectual, the erudite and scintillating Dasgupta dissected challenged orthodoxies and defended the intellectual traditions of the Indian Right. However, following his new appointment as the new Finance Minister of a West Bengal in economic doldrums, he perhaps faces the most demanding assignment of his career. His supporters however are confident that if there is anyone most suited to sort out Bengal’s messy economy, it is Dasgupta. His appointment following the Bharatiya Janata Party’s ascent to power in Bengal after overthrowing Mamata Banerjee’s TMC regime is among the more intriguing political transitions in recent Indian political memory. India has seen journalists cross into politics before. M.J. Akbar moved from the newsroom to the Ministry of External Affairs. Arun Shourie, one of India’s most formidable investigative journalists, became a reform-minded minister in Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government. Others, from Manish Sisodia to Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Chandan Mitra, have made similar journeys. Yet Dasgupta’s case is distinctive. Unlike many journalists-turned-politicians, he was never merely a ‘reporter.’ Whether in debate or through his prolific and trenchant writings, he has always been an intellectual combatant, a scholar of political ideas with a sweeping knowledge of world history by which he leavens those ideas. Dasgupta has always been one of the most articulate exponents of modern Indian conservatism. Educated at La Martiniere College in Kolkata, St Stephen’s College in Delhi and later the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, where he earned a doctorate, Dasgupta cultivated a reputation for formidable scholarship. His books, including Awakening Bharat Mata: The Political Beliefs of the Indian Right and The Ayodhya Reference, revealed an uncommon ability to place contemporary political disputes within a broader historical and ideological framework. For his supporters, he was among the few intellectuals capable of articulating conservative ideas in a language usually dominated by the Left. To critics, he was a sophisticated polemicist. Yet, even his opponents seldom questioned the breadth of his reading or the sharpness of his arguments. However, the challenge facing Dasgupta now is no longer intellectual but administrative. The Bengal he inherits bears little resemblance to the state that once led India in industry, commerce and scientific innovation. As he himself quipped in trademark fashion with a sharp historical analogy, the state’s economy resembled postwar Germany. The figures are sobering. West Bengal’s state debt has ballooned to around Rs. 8 lakh crore during the TMC regime. Thousands of companies have relocated or curtailed operations over the years amid a hostile investment climate. The new BJP government has inherited not merely a fiscal challenge but a crisis of confidence. “We are left with a near-bankrupt treasury,” Dasgupta said. Equally troubling, in his view, is the erosion of trust among investors and entrepreneurs. Bengal’s relationship with business has been uneasy to say the least. First the long night of the Left, followed by the TMC’s anti-business, appeasement brand of politics has ensured that the scars of industrial disputes and land controversies remain fresh. In this dire situation, reviving private investment will require convincing businesses that Bengal has changed. In this respect, Dasgupta’s strengths may prove unexpectedly useful. Throughout his career he displayed an ability to engage with ideas, institutions and stakeholders across ideological divides. His early moves hint at a broader vision. Rather than confining pre-budget consultations to Kolkata, Dasgupta shifted the Finance Department’s attention to Siliguri in a moved suffused with deliberate symbolism. North Bengal has long complained of neglect by governments centred on the state’s southern districts. By engaging tea producers, agricultural interests, tourism operators and local business groups, the newly-minted finance minister appears eager to demonstrate that economic revival will not just be a Kolkata-centric project. That said, debt servicing consumes a substantial portion of state revenues. Welfare commitments are politically difficult to unwind and infrastructure deficits remain significant. While public intellectuals excel at identifying problems, governing demands compromises and the acceptance of imperfect solutions. Still, Bengal’s new finance minister possesses as fine an appreciation of history than any Indian politician around. He knows that states decline not just because economic mistakes but because they lose faith in their future. Restoring that confidence may be the central task of his tenure. For years Swapan Dasgupta chronicled India’s political story from the sidelines. Now he finds himself at the centre of one of its most consequential state-level experiments. Whatever the outcome of his tenure, few would deny that Bengal’s finances have acquired perhaps their most learned custodian in decades.

From Shadow to Sovereignty

Samrat Choudhary’s ascent marks the BJP’s long-awaited primacy in Bihar but escaping Nitish Kumar’s towering legacy will define his rule.

Reaching the summit of power in Bihar has never been easy. Staying there, while commanding acceptance across the state’s intricate social mosaic, is harder still. The recent elevation of Samrat Choudhary as Bihar’s 24th Chief Minister marks the beginning of a new political phase, one in which the Bharatiya Janata Party finally assumes the role it has long coveted of being the senior partner in the state’s power structure.


For decades, the BJP played second fiddle in Bihar, notably under the long stewardship of Nitish Kumar. With Kumar’s move to the Rajya Sabha, a political, administrative and symbolic vacuum has opened up. Filling it will test not just Choudhary’s political instincts, but his capacity to redefine leadership in a state accustomed to a singular, stabilising figure.


Determined Rise

Choudhary’s rise is neither sudden nor accidental. It is the culmination of legacy, calculation and persistence. Born in 1968 in Munger, he inherited political capital from his father, Shakuni Choudhary, but did not rely on lineage alone. His early induction into power as one of the youngest ministers in the Rabri Devi government in 1999 had offered a glimpse of his promise. Yet his journey since has been marked by ideological flexibility and strategic repositioning.


His shift to the BJP in 2017 proved decisive. The party, seeking to recalibrate Bihar’s caste arithmetic, identified in him a potent OBC face capable of countering the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s entrenched Muslim-Yadav alliance. As a leader from the Kushwaha community, Choudhary became central to the BJP’s attempt to consolidate non-Yadav OBCs under its fold. His subsequent appointment as the party’s state president signalled trust. His elevation to Chief Minister now signals necessity.


Great Expectations

Yet with elevation comes expectation. Choudhary is only the second leader after Karpoori Thakur to have served as Deputy Chief Minister before ascending to the top post. For nearly two decades, Nitish Kumar had personified Bihar’s governing framework. His tenure reshaped the state’s administrative narrative, emphasising infrastructure, law and order, women’s empowerment and prohibition.


The question confronting Choudhary is stark: will he remain an inheritor of that model, or attempt to recast it?


For now, the answer remains uncertain. Political longevity in Bihar depends not just on authority, but on acceptability. Kumar’s appeal cut across caste and gender lines, drawing support from Mahadalits, Extremely Backward Classes and women - groups that had historically remained politically fragmented. Choudhary begins with strong organisational backing and the imprimatur of the BJP’s central leadership. But governance demands a different temperament. His reputation as an aggressive political operator must now give way to administrative composure.


Every decision he takes will inevitably invite comparison with his predecessor. On issues like prohibition (an emotive and contested policy) ambiguity will not suffice. Nor will rhetorical positioning replace policy clarity. The first hundred days of his tenure will shape perceptions of his intent.


Furthermore, challenges before Choudhary are not merely confined to the opposition benches. Many fault lines persist within the ruling alliance itself. With Kumar’s departure to the Rajya Sabha, questions swirl around the future of the Janata Dal (United) and the potential political role of his son, Nishant Kumar. Unease within the JD(U) is palpable. Managing this delicate equilibrium will require great tact on Choudhary’s part even as he consolidates his own authority.


Within his party, too, ambitions must be managed. Senior BJP leaders who were overlooked for the top post will expect some accommodation. Political transitions often falter not because of external opposition, but internal discord. Choudhary will need to ensure that his leadership does not deepen latent fractures.


The opposition is unlikely to grant Choudhary a grace period. Past controversies, from his early removal as a minister to questions surrounding his academic credentials, are likely to be revived and amplified in Bihar’s unforgiving political theatre.


Durable Edifice

For the BJP, this is a moment of both arrival and risk. Having emerged from Nitish Kumar’s shadow, it must now construct its own durable political edifice in Bihar. Choudhary is both its architect and its test case.


His strengths are evident. His OBC identity positions him well within Bihar’s caste calculus. His proximity to the BJP’s central leadership ensures political backing. But his greatest obstacle remains the enduring aura of Nitish Kumar.


Developmental aspirations in the state coexist uneasily with entrenched caste loyalties. Any attempt to push reform must navigate this dual reality. Choudhary cannot afford to ignore either.


His personal story of ascent from grassroots politics to the state’s highest office fits neatly into the narrative of democratic mobility. But this sympathy (if any) will not help Choudhary govern the restive state.


The larger question is not whether Choudhary can rule Bihar. It is whether he can redefine it. Can he shed the state’s lingering ‘BIMARU’ image and push it toward sustained economic and social transformation? Can he balance continuity with change, retaining the gains of the Nitish era while imprinting his own ideological and administrative vision?


Whatever the future may hold, it is clear that Bihar stands at an inflection point today. While power has come to Samrat Choudhary, authority must still be earned.


(The writer is a senior journalist who has authored a number of books. Views personal.)


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