Calcutta High Court has cracked the whip. The syndicate raj under the Trinamul Congress government is merely an updated edition of the CPI-M&’s real estate lobby. For both parties, it has been an unofficial and lucrative front unit, indeed a threat to stability and the source of internal bickering even at the level of MLAs… not to forget the destruction of waterbodies. Not unsurprisingly, Mamata Banerjee is loath to opt for the drastic lest it rock the applecart ahead of the assembly elections. While a crackdown is definitely not on her agenda, the onus of self-discipline has been passed onto the syndicates if her statement to an audience of party faithfuls is any indication -“If you are in syndicates, don’t remain in our party.” Much as she has drawn a fine distinction between the party and syndicates, the caveat doesn’t quite address the fundamental issue of sinister operations throughout the state. Syndicates are but a facet of the ascending crime graph generally. The High Court was forthright in its assessment – “The syndicate Raj is not sparing even judicial department projects. They have threatened government contractors at Asansol and Salt Lake where judicial department projects have been undertaken.” From middle class housing contracts to institutional construction, the extortion has assumed endemic proportions with the syndicates insisting on selling inferior building material at considerably jacked up prices. Hence the observation of Justice Dipankar Dutta – “The malaise of syndicates is all over the state. When they are not sparing even government projects, what will be the plight of the common man ?”

While this State government has not done enough to curb the activities of syndicates, not by a long shot, the original sin – as with many of West Bengal&’s malaises – was committed by the Left. It was the Marxists who systematically set up these criminal outfits in their misguided quest to redistribute wealth, in effect to marry dogma to the necessity of keeping the party&’s musclemen gainfully employed. By the time the CPI (M) was removed from power, the monster it so cynically created had grown so big that adopting it might have seemed an easier option to killing it. The present dispensation is paying the price for having chosen the easier option. Now, as it has been for decades, the menace is overwhelming and construction activity is scarcely possible without syndicate intervention. While Miss Banerjee&’s directive to syndicate operators to sever ties with her party is welcome, it is not enough. The beast is too big and too powerful to be affected by words. Indeed, the Trinamul Congress would do well to make a clean breast of the mess it inherited and make the dismantling of these criminal outfits the cornerstone of its electoral blueprint for 2016. Monday&’s proceedings in court should convince the party that the law will be on its side.