When this refrain extends beyond the perennially deluded Left, however, it is time to expose. Or, to borrow an Arundhati-ism, what exactly is Basu's "Locust Stand I"? It is true that Calcutta has not looked better in years. The phones work well enough today and eight-hour power cuts are indeed a distant memory—which may explain why people forget that both problems were largely the result of the Left's ineffectual stewardship of the state with Basu presiding over the chaos, as chief minister from 1977 onwards. To this one-time Calcuttan, praising Basu for Calcutta's "turnaround" in the past few years seems a little like congratulating an arsonist for belatedly rebuilding the lobby of the grand mansion he burned down. There are plenty of reasons why we should condemn the manner in which Sitaram Yechuri and Harkishen Singh Surjeet hobbled the UF government, but denying Basu the chance to be prime minister is not necessarily one of them.
