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When Mamata should return to her Biplabi root

Only a Biplabi Mamata can take on the collective might of the BJP and the overwhelming popularity of the Prime Minister, and not the Chief Minister of West Bengal who is securely cocooned in the chief ministerial nest. It is only the revisiting of her Biplabi image that will see her through in this upcoming fiercely battle fought against the Himalayan odds stacked against her: Whereas her victory will rejuvenate India’s highly emasculated democracy, her defeat will further boost the ever expanding footprints of authoritarianism in the republic.
 Vivekanand Jha Ranchi: It was a Rajiv Gandhi’s meeting in South Kolkata’s Deshapriya Park, where the then Prime Minister had come to address a meeting. Unfortunately, it was the last few meetings, perhaps the penultimate one, before he was assassinated. This writer too, being a political enthusiast, had flocked to attend the meeting of Rajiv Gandhi. Mamata Banerjee by then, was already a well known face, having trounced Somnath Chatterjee, a veteran leader from CPIM, from Jadavpur constituency. In a sweet fragrance of the recollection of some of the happenings on the stage, I can vividly recall that, before Rajiv Gandhi had arrived on stage, the panegyrics were played for Mamata Banerjee, almost equating her as an icon of a new Bengali hope and aspiration.
However, with Rajiv Gandhi having taken the stage, the focus apparently shifted on him, yet Mamata, intermittently, would wave her hand to make her presence conspicuously felt among the crowd, inviting Rajiv Gandhi’s mild rebuke, for Rajiv felt that, Mamata’s overt exuberance was an undue interjection, especially after he had taken the stage. Mamata, in the wake of such a public rebuke, apparently felt chastened, because her waving of hand completely ceased after Rajiv’s castigation.
In fact, Mamata was almost on the threshold of transformation of her personality–from Mamata Banerjee, she was about to become a household Didi. But then Mamata’s image of being a street fighter, started gaining currency ever since she began demonstrating her political tactics which were starkly different from others: Her dancing on the bonnet of the car as a means to celebrate the demise of Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan to impress Indira Gandhi, the empress of India, was the vindication of the heralding of a new politician of different hue and colour who meant to be different from the rest. No wonder her extending a daunting challenge to the Communist veteran, Somnath Chatterjee, had surprised the political pundits as much as it caught many politicians off guard, for seldom anyone believed that, a novice, relatively far less experienced woman will be able to decimate the veteran of several battles. While Mamata’s stock rose by several notches, yet she was dismissed as someone who will ever be subordinated to Priya da and Subrata da in a male dominated political bastion. In fact, Priyaranjan Das Munsi, Somen Mitra and Subrata Mukherjee were the famous names in the Congress Party, with Siddhartha Shankar Ray, having been re-inducted by Rajiv Gandhi, after he fell from grace in the wake of emergency when he sought acquital from all omissions and commissions of emergency era, laying all the blames on Indira Gandhi and her son, Sanjay Gandhi. Interestingly, Pranab Mukherjee was never considered a serious player in Bengal politics. With the rise of Mamata Banerjee as another key player in Bengal politics, she soon realised that, notwithstanding all her efforts and popularity, she would be stifled in her onward journey by her seniors in West Bengal politics. Moreover, Congress Party, in the aftermath of the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, appeared emasculated, with the defeat of Narsimha Rao and Sitaram Kesri taking over, Mamata found herself not getting the traction that she had always desired.
Moreover, her street fighter image continued, as she was beginning to prove to be the nemesis for the Communists and the Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. Such was her resistance meted out to Jyoti Basu’s government that a proverb was doing the round: Hearing the name of Mamata, Jyoti Basu’s strand of hair would stand erect. No wonder the government of Jyoti Basu was in awe of Mamata and consequently it was during such time, rankled my Mamata’s conspicuous protests at government’s multiple omissions and commissions, a murderous assault was unleashed upon Mamata Banerjee by Lalu Alam, brother of Badshah Alam, a leader of CPIM. No wonder her survival against the deadly attack, transformed her image into that of an eternal Didi, from that of a street fighter Mamata. But then Mamata, a whimsical politician, was not amenable to reasoning or counseling from others–her infamous pulling out from Vajpayee’s government on the flimsy ground of the hike in petroleum price, and her blunt refusal to pay a visit to Jyoti Basu’s corpse–were two distinct incidences that vindicate Mamata Banerjee’s characteristic obstinacy and whimsicality that do not yield to rationalisation.
Especially when the leader of Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s calibre bent down to touch her mother’s feet should have been the appropriate ground for her to show leniency to Ataljee’s urging her to remain in his government. With the floating of her own party, Trinamool, Mamata Banerjee became a new legend in the polity of West Bengal where she was eventually to rise as its iconic figure in its political firmament. Her real heroic moment arrived when, doning the image of a Biplabi, Didi had thrown a gauntlet at the ruling czars of the Communist Party, left front government in Singur and Nandigram farmers’ Movement against the the Tata Motors on the one hand, and the Communist government on the other. It was this unprecedented mobilisation of masses in West Bengal in particular, and the nation in general that lent Didi an image of a ‘Biplabi’, an image of Rani Rashmony Devi and others during the Independence Movement, was unequivocally conferred upon Mamata Banerjee as a Biplabi, a revolutionary, whose life was meant for those languishing at the bottom of the pyramid of the society. Mamata Banerjee became known as a Biplabi, ever since she pushed the Communist government on the back foot and eventually defeated it. The upcoming election of 2021, in the month of April is between two individuals: Narendra Modi, an outsider from Delhi and Mamata Banerjee, a daughter of the soil. With the consecutive wins to her kitty, Mamata is naturally suffering from an anti-incumbency factor. Coupled with this, the charges of rampant corruption against her party as well as her anointment of her nephew, Abhishek Banerjee as her successor, have surely resulted in her losing some of the advantages that she had already enjoyed. Moreover, her opponent BJP, which she strengthened, by demolishing the Communists, is snarling at her throat with far greater resource at its command. Worse still, Mamata is increasingly negotiating with the popularity of Narendra Modi who is being flaunted by the BJP for seeking votes from the people of Bengal. Hence in this backdrop, when the scores of Trinammol leaders, succumbing to greater temptation of power and pelf, have already made a beeline towards BJP, Didi appears invariably nervous despite her bravados and blusters. Significantly, as the situation so unfolding, where BJP appears ever more resurgent to win the upcoming election, Mamata can fend it off by returning to her Biplabi image; her chief ministerial image, when it ceases to appeal, Mamata’s eventual doning of a Biplabi image will surely ensure her victory where she will have to show to the Bengalese that she has nothing to lose; she lives for the people and eventually will die fighting for them.
She is fighting against the BJP for the preservation of the hard earned democracy of the country; she is fighting for the preservation of our Constitution which is fearing an eclipse from the recent mushrooming of thugs masquerading themselves as Hindu nationalists; she is fighting for the nation as a crusader against the mighty BJP which has all potential to vanquish her with the resources at its disposal; she is standing rock like as the flag bearer of the priceless legacy of Raja Rammohan Roy’s Brahmo Samaj that relresents the liberal Western Values with Oriental priceless legacy as,espoused by Swami Vivekananda; she will have to walk alone, as,Gurudev Tagore had suggested to do, when none follows you, ‘ Jadi tor daak sunay kyou na assay taholay aekla chalo ray’; she will have to profess without least of equivocation, that she is the pall bearer of Swami Vivekananda’s vision of ‘Vedantist mind and Islamic body’, not only will Bengal rise up to her call, but the entire nation will bless her to defeat her enemy. No wonder only her Biplabi image will yield her the bonanza, which her chief ministerial image has already lost. Didi will once again have to resurrect her image of being a Biblabi, more than that of being the chief minister of the state, which alone holds the lamp to her another victory at the hustings.
Vivekanand Jha, author of Delhi Beckons: RaGa for NaMo, 56 Inches and The Making of Narendra Modi, Unmaking of Jawaharlal.

Vivekanand Jha is an author and a Public Intellectual.

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