Violence and the Modi vs Mamata battle - the latter, a crucial factor in determining what BJP’s final tally will be - have, of course, made Bengal an election hotspot. Will Bengal change political loyalties, and, if so, by how much?But the real story of Bengal is of ‘no change’, 40-plus-years of terrible stasis. Informal employment is a term used by economists that, in plain English, means jobs like small traders, street vendors, cabbies, shopkeepers and all their assistants. Like Marxists, Mamata has presided over a period of high agricultural growth that’s unsustainable in a small plot/labour-intensive production framework. The only difference is that religious polarisation perhaps plays a greater role in Modi versus Mamata battles than it did in Mamata versus Marxists ones.

Source: Economic Times April 29, 2019 18:11 UTC