FILTHY LUCRE

TT, OPINION: The pursuit of money can be endlessly exciting. It can also be consummately disastrous. The latter is evident in the present crisis, which has affected a large number of ordinary people in West Bengal. 

At one level, it can be said that these people are paying the price of their own mindless greed. But it is also true that a group, apparently with powerful connections, was playing on the greed of the common people with the sole purpose of feathering its own nest, and maybe also the nests of its political patrons. 

One kind of greed was feeding another kind of greed. It is easy to put the entire responsibility for this terrible state of affairs at the door of the ruling government of West Bengal. What, however, should be borne in mind is that the Central government could easily have set up a model law for the regulation of these chit funds and fly-by-night deposit-taking firms. The Central government failed to do this. This is not to say that the West Bengal government would have necessarily followed such a model had it existed. But, at least, a legal framework would have been in place.

Where the West Bengal government cannot escape responsibility is in its failure to take action even when it was apparent that the crash was looming. It could have used whatever laws that exist to bring the fraudsters to book. Instead of doing that, members of the current dispensation actually supped with the devil. 
Given the kinds of instruments that a state government has at its command, if it really wanted to clamp down on the sham company, it could have easily done so. It chose not to and now it faces what looks like an insuperable problem. 
The reality is that the company that has collapsed, leaving thousands in dire straits, is not the only one of its kind. The danger is that the collapse of one entity may push the panic button and lead to depositors taking their money out from similar deposit-taking firms with dubious track records and intentions. The consequence of such a rush could be a very serious breakdown of law and order in West Bengal. 
The state government is only just waking up to the enormity of the situation confronting it. It needs to act swiftly without fear or prejudice and without the desire to salvage some political capital from the mess. The situation is so serious that the usual blame game may not cut any ice. In fact, it may turn out to be self-defeating.