While the people celebrated a new dawn in West Bengal politics (2011), behind the cover the smiling tyrant was assuming more power by every strike of the clock. Bengal went to assembly elections in the summer of 2011 in the hope of a better future. Out of the 35 years of Left rule, the Bengali masses who had eargerly awaited for the CPI(M) to deliver on its promises, turned out to be oppressors in the garb of a Marxist flag. This was a clear case of the prophet turning the devil!
The attempt to put the “Indian Left” to sleep had been reflected in agitations since the Singur and the Nandigram incident against forcible land acquisition and the final nail on the CPI(M) coffin was hammered in the 2011 polls. But all the great hopes of the Bengali masses have steadily faded and the real face of Mamata Banerjee‘s government soon became apparent. The civil society withdrew its support and then came the day when the autocratic attitude of Mamata Banerjee came into full light, when during a Television show, a teenage girl asked her some very uncomfortable questions. Having no satisfactory response in her armoury, she instead chose to brand the 19 year old a Maoist and staged a walk out.
Flip flops have not been new to the Mamata Banerjee’s genre of politics for she has been quite infamous for switching parties and changing alliances in lieu of greater political power. This sort of political brinkmanship had always been the hallmark of her politics. This took a new turn, when the Congress led UPA government decided to go ahead with the highly unpopular FDI in multibrand retail.
In her election manifesto, Mamata Banerjee had promised support to FDI in retail to gain support of the corporates and funds for her election campaign. However sensing the mood of the masses against FDI, she decided to oppose the bill. To earn some legitimacy in the public eye and avoid the discomfort of having to justify her turnaround post elections; she decided to withdraw her support to the government. She took it a step further by bringing a no-confidence motion against the central government with a clear knowledge of the fact that she did not have the requisite numbers to bring down the government.
In a more recent development Markandey Katju (otherwise known for his twisted understanding of peoples’ rights and freedom of the Press), the current chairman of the Press Council of India, made a strong criticism of her role in media censorship and shot off a letter criticising the West Bengal State government. Asked for comments, Mamata Banerjee refused to even acknowledge the receipt of such a letter and in her signature style hurled abuses at the media and indirectly at Katju himself by saying “the king walks unperturbed as dogs bark”.
Such brazen display of arrogance and power cannot continue for too long, especially without making any meaning-full change on the ground economically speaking. If anything, this one-upmanship is turning out to be much worse than what anyone had actually bargained for. And pretty soon Mamata Banerjee will also be shown the door, just as her predecessors who had taken their anti-people’s rule for granted.
Saptarshi Banerjee
Bangalore
It seems obvious that Mamta thinks that public stunts and false assertions are enough to keep people believing that she is trying to bring a change beneficial for the mass for real, without understanding that sometimes her actions/statements have been becoming ludicrous,improbable, if not condemnable. She probably has forgotten that voters are not stupid and they have ability to think critically about her action. Being surrounded by a bunch of sycophants, it is not likely that she will be even able to figure out what kind of lie she must utter to at least prolong the downfall which,quite tangibly, has begun. How will she fund her election campaign, unless taking stand for FDI officially? I have read and commented about the same author’s another article earlier. I appreciate and support wholeheartedly the steps he has been taking to unmask Mamta and her government. . Also the cartoons are nice 🙂