OPINION Method In Mamata’s Madness Mamata Banerjee may have tripped and fallen at times and lost some of the goodwill she had built up among the middle class, bhadralok, but it will be foolish to underestimate her UTTAM SENGUPTA

OPINION Method In Mamata's Madness Mamata Banerjee may have tripped and fallen at times and lost some of the goodwill she had built up among the middle class, bhadralok, but it will be foolish to underestimate her UTTAM SENGUPTA http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?280656 You clearly cannot win an argument with Mamata Banerjee. The West Bengal Chief Minister, much maligned and quite often misunderstood, in some ways resembles Oliver Goldsmith's 'Village Schoolmaster', "who, though vanquished, could argue still". But there is much more to Mamata Banerjee's opposition to the UPA government at the centre than meets the eyes. Part of it is personal. Unlike Atal Behari Vajpayee, Dr Manmohan Singh is yet to make the pilgrimage to Banerjee's humble abode in Kolkata. Nor is the PM as accessible to her as Vajpayee apparently was. What is more, she feels slighted at the slightest provocation. For example, it is said that the fact that the Prime Minister invited BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Sushma Swaraj to the lunch he hosted for the visiting Pakistani President, Asif Ali Zardari, but not the UPA allies, provoked her to point out that opposing the UPA was more beneficial than supporting it. Didn't her predecessor, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, enjoy an excellent rapport with the NDA government and, more specifically, with Mr Advani ? She jumped to this conclusion, without pausing to reflect that the BJP, as a national party and the principal opposition, has a greater role to play in cementing Manmohan Singh's policies concerning the neighbouring country. A reasonable analysis would have given the PM the benefit of doubt and absolved him of any attempt to slight UPA's regional ally. But the West Bengal Chief Minister is clearly impervious to such reason. Yet another instance of her impulsiveness is found in the ultimatum she held out to the union government for sorting out the debt-trap West Bengal finds itself in. If no solution was found within a fortnight, she threatened last week, it would blow up into a huge issue. Ironically, she has claimed on record that her government has fulfilled 90 per cent of the poll promises, that her government has done in one year what it was expected to do in 10 years and that she would give her government 100 marks out of 100. While such claims do not fit with her shrill complaint that the centre is steadily stifling and starving the state, she has also undertaken a populist course by hiking Dearness Allowance for state government employees and raising the 'Special Allowance' for Block Development Officers by four times, not to speak of the money that different departments are allegedly spending in painting the city of Kolkata blue. While Mamata may get away with such bluster, the fact remains that she needs support of the Congress as desperately in the state as the UPA needs her at the centre. Even a cursory look at electoral statistics would indicate that the historic victory of the Trinamool Congress in last year's Assembly election, was as much due to the AITC-INC ( All India Trinamool Congress and the Indian National Congress) alliance, which harnessed the anti-Left votes, as the general disenchantment with the Left rule. Figures for the past several elections, in fact, show that there never was much of a difference between votes polled by the Left Front and votes cast in favour of other parties. Pro-Left and anti-Left votes were by and large the same and it was a divided opposition that helped the Left Front win election after election. Once the AITC and the INC came together in 2011, the result was already a foregone conclusion. Could Mamata Banerjee, who derisively describes Congress Party in her state as the 'B' team of the Left or a water melon (green outside but red inside), be actually pushing the national party back to sup with the Comrades ? While there is little doubt that one of her key objectives is to weaken the Congress, discredit it and ensure that it does not find its feet, it remains to be seen if the strategy actually pays off. She obviously reckons that has nothing to fear from the BJP, which has drawn a blank in the state in all past elections, and does not really care if a BJP-led government is voted to power at the centre. But whether a NDA government at the centre will play footsie and bail her out is by no means certain. Her incessant quibbling, nit-picking and sarcasm may, on the other hand, force the Congress to align with the Left for its own survival—a prospect that ought to worry her. But, it will be foolish to underestimate her. She is a political animal and is on a roll. She may have tripped and fallen at times and lost some of the goodwill she had built up among the middle class, bhadralok. But it will require a lot more to pull her down. The litmus test will be the panchayat election in the state, slated to be held next year. If rural Bengal stands by her, it would add to the myth of Mamata. More importantly, the Congress will run out of both time and steam. That is why the Congress will have to act now, if it wants to retrieve the situation. Mamata Banerjee, almost certainly, is aware of the threat and that would explain the frenzied political skirmish one is likely to witness in the next few weeks. COMMENTS PRINT MORE SHARING SERVICESSHARESHARE ON FACEBOOKSHARE ON MYSPACESHARE ON GOOGLESHARE ON TWITTERSHARE ON EMAIL TEXT SIZE    FILED IN:  AUTHORS:  UTTAM SENGUPTA  PEOPLE:  MAMATA BANERJEE  TAGS:  TRINAMOOL CONGRESS  SECTION:  NATIONAL  SUBSECTION:  OPINION  PLACES:  WEST BENGAL TRANSLATE INTO: Select LanguageAfrikaansAlbanianArabicBelarusianBulgarianCatalanChinese (Simplified)Chinese (Traditional)CroatianCzechDanishDutchEsperantoEstonianFilipinoFinnishFrenchGalicianGermanGreekHaitian CreoleHebrewHindiHungarianIcelandicIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseKoreanLatvianLithuanianMacedonianMalayMalteseNorwegianPersianPolishPortugueseRomanianRussianSerbianSlovakSlovenianSpanishSwahiliSwedishThaiTurkishUkrainianVietnameseWelshYiddish Powered by Translate   Post a Comment You are not logged in, please log in or register DAILY MAIL HAVE YOUR SAY |  READ ALL 8 COMMENTS  8/D-13 APR 27, 2012 01:49 AM >> "Gee, is this a recommendation to vote for BJP ?" - Pinaki That is precisely the problem with Bongoland. When we are discussing state politics, they start ranting about national politics. As far as Bengal is concerned, BJP's dominance is limited to the Barrabazaar and Salt Lake, and for obvious reasons that the trading communities like Gujaratis (gujjus) and Marwaris (meros) have a high proportion there. Those ranting about the Gorkhaland movement must know that the demand for separate administration (and post-independence, separate state) has been there sine 1900s (yes!!). It gained momentum in the 80s, long before BJP set up its shithole in Kolkata. BJP's position has alwasy been in favour of smaller states. The jokers from Poschim Bongo are happy to welcome the muslims from across the border, even as they rant about Jinnah's Direct Action.  The Bongobasis and their Bangladesh imports have no issues disrupting the lives and properties in Assam, but develop cold hatred for the Gorkha movement that has existed since 1900s. I DO NOT SUPPORT the Gorkhaland shit for it has no justification and is simply a game of ethnic one-upmanship. The movement needs to be crushed with an iron hand. But, your duplicity on the issue needs explanation. THE IRREVERENT INDIAN ONLINE, INDIA  PERMALINK  |   LIKE (2)  |   DISLIKE (0)  |   REPORT ABUSE 7/D-98 APR 26, 2012 06:35 PM "The problem is more fundamental. Bengal will never vote for BJP because it is a party of the 'Meros' and 'Gujjus'..." - 4/D-73 Gee, is this a recommendation to vote for BJP ? Let me recall, BJP's maestro Lal Krishna Advani is a Sindhi refugee from Karachi.  Another leader is the Jaswant from Rajasthan, who knelt down to the Jehadis in Kandahar carrying a box of finest Darjeeling tea as a present to those islamic terrorrists. So how can be BJP just a party of 'Meros'and 'Gujjus' when their distinctive leaders are not? And what are these two maestros preaching for sometime now ? That Jinnah was secular ! How can that be forgotten ? Wasn't Jinnah the politician who unleashed attacks on Bengali Hindus in Calcutta by his Muslim thugs as per his direct action plan in 1946 ? And as for Jaswant - he has been inciting the Gurkhas in the northern hills of Bengal to rise up and fight for creating a new state "Gurkhaland" to be carved out of Bengal. So how can the Bengalis vote for a party headed by political leaders totally insensitive to Bengal and are out to break up Bengal ? This online poster confirms himself to be a moron with his regular anti-Bengali fits. PINAKI S RAY ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA  PERMALINK  |   LIKE (2)  |   DISLIKE (1)  |   REPORT ABUSE 6/D-108 APR 25, 2012 09:34 PM There should be a definite objective behind every political activity and a party like All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) which claims to be wedded to the welfare of common citizens should clearly spell out the objectives. By merely harping on the aam adami's welfare without doing anything to increase industrial investments in West Bengal (and thereby creating jobs), Ms Mamata Banerjee's is likely to face deeper troubles. Her government's performance can only be disastrous. In such a scenario she would feel more and more insecure and would do be able to do nothing except blaming the former government and UPA for her inability to control further worsening fiscal situation. Her problems would only increase by having a continuous confrontation with the Indian National Congress (INC) and UPA. Further, in a changed situation the INC can join hands with the leftists and make her life difficult in future. Her whimsical behaviour would make her party AITC a very undependable ally in the months to come.   NARENDRA M APTE PUNE, INDIA  PERMALINK  |   LIKE (0)  |   DISLIKE (0)  |   REPORT ABUSE 5/D-80 APR 25, 2012 06:36 PM Everything falls to its lowest position (from the highest) before it re-attains the high. WB is passing through this cycle. The once revolutionary, forward-looking Bengal, the Bengll of Tagore, Bose, Ram Mohan Roy, Chittaranjuan Das is paying the price fpr neglecting the dignity of labor, by falling prey to the Marxist mobs, which promised prosperity to all without hard work, an ompossibility by fundamental laws of Nature. The Bengalis must rededicate to hard work, discipline, and industry would return, to bring prosperity. Mamata is just another dream merchant. Sooner you arise, my bretheren, better it shall be for the posterity. SHUBHANG PANDYA AHMEDABAD, INDIA  PERMALINK  |   LIKE (3)  |   DISLIKE (2)  |   REPORT ABUSE 4/D-73 APR 25, 2012 05:30 PM >> "CPM had to go and Mamata won by default. " - Pinaki That is wrong. Mamata won because she was more leftist than the Left Front. Remember Singur and Nandigram. People's protests there made it quite evident that development was not on the electorate's agenda, with possible exception of Kolkata. Her electoral campaigns in Burqa and with Maoists and Osama lookalikes should have been a warning sign of things to come. The problem is more fundamental. Bengal will never vote for BJP because it is a party of the 'Meros' and 'Gujjus'. It will not vote for Congress because it does not indulge in disruptions and strikes. Mamata will easily get another term as the rural Bengal can be fooled many times. THE IRREVERENT INDIAN ONLINE, INDIA  PERMALINK  |   LIKE (1)  |   DISLIKE (1)  |   REPORT ABUSE HAVE YOUR SAY |  READ ALL 8 COMMENTS  Comments Policy