West Bengal is staring at an outbreak of dengue which has reportedly reached the proportions of an epidemic. Instead of tackling the problem, the Mamata Banerjee government is more interested in suppressing data and intimidating those who dare reveal the truth.

When a government declares war on news about a disease more than the disease itself, it becomes clear how deep the insecurity is and where the priorities lie.

Lack of preparedness, civic apathy, administrative failure, ham-handed attempts at suppressing data, denial of the scale of the problem, blame-shifting and bullying of those who dare open their mouths: This latest eruption of vector-borne disease has slammed home many home truths about the state of affairs in Bengal.

The most startling thing is that nobody has a clear idea about the number of people affected or killed by what appears to be a virulent strain of the disease. The chief minister, who is now on a tour of the UK, has made matters worse by a series of apparently contradictory statements.

Early in October, she put the number of dengue-related deaths at 30 and reeled off statistics to claim that the situation is worse elsewhere and she is being wrongly held liable. She also blamed private clinics for "causing panic.

According to a 12 October report in The Telegraph, the figure of 30 was actually misleading because many state-run hospitals had been asked not to mention dengue as the cause of death in certificates. One official was quoted as saying by the newspaper that "high fever with thrombocytopenia (low platelet count) is mentioned as the cause of death without a direct reference to dengue."

Mamata revised the figure to 34 on 25 October and blamed the Opposition in the state for causing alarm, once again claiming that there have been more vector-borne related deaths in BJP-ruled states.

Curiously, on 30 October, during a news conference at the state secretariat, the chief minister slashed the dengue death figure to 13, claiming that other 27 deaths may have been caused by "malaria, dengue or swine flu".

Since these deaths occurred in private hospitals, she said these cannot be classified as "dengue deaths without checking blood samples."

The focus seemed to be on controlling the spread of news, not the virus. The district of North 24 Parganas ranks, for instance, is reeling from the scourge. Deganga, a community development block under the Barasat Sadar subdivision, is among the worst hit.

In his ground report, Sougata Mukhopadhyay of News18 found that government figures are vastly understated. They have been rejected even by some doctors who put the figure at "at least 200-300". In some hamlets nearly every household is affected, in some 20 have died in a month alone.

The report quotes Sikandar Ali Mullick, the relative of a patient, as saying that "the situation at Deganga is such that we have no choice but to perish to this disease one by one. I have never seen such pestilence in my life. It’s spreading from one village to another. And we have no relief from the administration. Not even spraying of insecticides or bleaching powder."

The number of dengue deaths have reportedly crossed 150, while 1200-1400 patients are being treated "at the outdoor unit of the Deganga rural hospital every day", according to the Block Medical Officer of Health (BMOH) who has also been quoted in the News18 report.

A spate of reports have emerged on how the disease is spreading and claiming lives.

If these create a bleak picture, the chief minister is dismissive. She claimed during a news conference in October that "in Deganga only one person had died due to dengue. But news reports give the impression that there has been a death parade." She appeared more intent on blame-shifting. Accordingly, newer and newer excuses were invented.