The real disaster: National calamity tag is not the solution.

The Left Front has been quick to follow the example of the then Congress government in cyclone-hit Orissa in clamouring for the floods in West Bengal to be declared a "national calamity". Whether the two disasters are of the same proportions is an open question; the more pertinent point is that Jyoti Basu pours scorn on NDA leaders visiting trouble-torn Midnapore but offers the red carpet to a central team hoping that they come with generous allotments from the national calamity management fund. The difference is not difficult to see: the first shows up the state administration for what it is, thoroughly inept in controlling CPI-M goons who have run amuck against villagers who …