Doctor's Protests, Floods May Dampen Bengal's Durga Puja Festivities

The firestorm over a Kolkata doctor's gruesome rape and murder and the flood crisis threaten to severely impact Bengal's Rs 50,000 crore Durga Puja economy.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her government and her Trinamool Congress party have been under the kind of pressure not seen before in their 13-year tenure in West Bengal.

The mishandling of the grisly rape murder case and its fallout have dented the state government's image. Amid the (partially withdrawn) junior doctors' strike, floods have subdued preps for this year's Durga Puja celebrations, so integral to Bengal's culture and economy.

The floods saw the Chief Minister finally on the offensive after weeks of fighting on the back foot over the rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9.

Proactively raising the issue of floods in her state, Mamata Banerjee wrote a series of letters lamenting the 'manmade' calamity in the southern districts of Bengal. She accused the DVC (Damodar Valley Corporation) of releasing 5 lakh cusecs of water over three days, inundating 11 districts in south Bengal. She also shot off two letters to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, requesting his intervention.

Widespread protests

The flood crisis in West Bengal has sparked a face-off between Mamata Banerjee and her INDIA bloc ally and Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren. She accuses the Jharkhand Chief Minister of not responding to her repeated appeals and releasing DVC water to protect his state from flood while endangering neighbouring Bengal. A furious Mamata Banerjee ordered the sealing of the border between the two states, which led to a retaliatory threat from Jharkhand's ruling JMM to block goods trucks heading to Bengal, escalating tensions between the two states.

Mamata Banerjee claimed that water from the DVC reservoirs was released without any notice to the Bengal government, and the views of her government were not honoured.

Mamata Banerjee's critics accuse her of trying to divert public attention away from the doctors' protests with her letters amplifying the flood crisis.

The people of Bengal are not in a mood to forgive, she realises.

In her letters, she stressed that flood waters had destroyed Durga Puja pandals - an emotional subject for the people of Bengal.  

In the meantime, the junior doctors have also decided to take necessary steps to provide medical relief to the flood-affected.

As for their strike, they finally agreed to meet Mamata Banerjee across the table after she backtracked and put out an apology.

The doctors' demand for the removal of Kolkata Police Commissioner Vineet Goyal, the Director of Medical Education and the Director of Health Services was actioned almost immediately.

 Yet there are still unresolved matters.

Though the Chief Minister's secretariat directed doctors' safety and security measures, the timeline of implementation has not been specified.

But to Mamata Banerjee's great relief, junior doctors protesting outside the health ministry headquarters, Swasthya Bhawan, in Kolkata over the RG Kar hospital rape-murder have partially withdrawn their strike and resumed duties at emergency and essential services in state-run hospitals last Saturday. The medics, who have been protesting for 41 days, announced that they would not return to the outpatient departments (OPD) in government hospitals just yet.

Subdued mood

There have been social media campaigns calling for a boycott of Durga Puja celebrations until there is justice for the murdered doctor.

According to the Forum for Durgotsab, an association of community puja organisers in Kolkata, the city's pujas have received only 40-45% of the sponsorship money they get by this time, compared to 70-80%. The pre-puja consumer demand and corporate funding have declined, affecting sales in apparel, fashion products, and restaurants. Brands are not eager to sponsor pandals and shying away from financial commitments for fear of negative public sentiment. The footfalls at malls and shopping hubs are significantly lower than usual. Local markets too are far from swamped with shoppers. Many artisans and labourers depend on community puja organisers.

Financially, it's worse than the Covid years when the organisers had voluntarily curtailed the Durga Puja budget. This year, many may be forced to resort to personal loans to meet the expenses, which they will repay with interest for the next few years - definitely not viable puja economy.     

The state of affairs could adversely affect Bengal's financial performance for the October-December quarter; the state typically accounts for 15-20% of the national festival sales.

Bengal has one good news, however, from Bangladesh. The interim government there has decided to export 3,000 tonnes of the Bengalis' beloved hilsa fish to India, reversing its earlier decision.