Kolkata: As Mamata Banerjee stepped out of her car at Esplanade, the very heart of Kolkata, to lead a rally protesting against the arrest of her minister Madan Mitra, the tension was palpable.
Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI) officials had taken him in connection with the Saradha scam
For Banerjee, rallies have been a focal point in her political career spanning three decades.
She always enjoys such occasions, which always meant chit-chats with journalist and camaraderie with party cadres.
But not on this day. Anxiety was painted all over her face as Didi (older sister), as Banerjee is known, was in the news for all wrong reasons.
Her three-and-a-half-year old state government has been embroiled in one controversy after the other.
Her usual defiance and composure was missing, as the stench of the chit-fund scam, has challenged her long crafted image of an honest leader.
The scam that has rocked the state politics for over a year now has ruffled the echelons of power in West Bengal.
Still one-and-a-half years away from state assembly elections, insecurity already looms over her reign as chief minister.
A few years ago, no one would have imagined such a day at Esplanade — the very spot where Banerjee had fasted for 21 days, demanding justice for farmers of Singur, who were to be uprooted for setting up the Tata car plant.
What followed has gone into the history books, as she became the first woman politician to single-handedly uproot the Communist citadel of 34 years.
After the Singur and Nandigram fiasco, Banerjee has resurfaced. The long drawn isolation since the defeats in 2004 and 2006 elections suddenly disappeared and the march to oust the CPI (M) was rejuvenated.
One by one people, be it former rebel TMC MP Kabir Suman, or painters like Subhaprasanna, yesteryear’s actors like Mithun Chakraborty, now a TMC MP, once known to be a confidant of Allimudin Street (CPM headquarters in Kolkata), started to flock over.
The clout of those who were part of “Mamata club” was growing by the day. Even staunch CPI (M) loyalists were shifting sides and Banerjee was welcoming them with open arms.
Banerjee, known to be a loyal friend, has never let down anyone who had supported her cause. In 2009, returning to the Railway Bhavan again as a cabinet minister, she started doling out the freebies.
However, for Banerjee the battle was half over. She never viewed herself at the national stage as her weakness for all things macro has been exposed time again even then and now as Bengal’s supreme leader. Her one point agenda was to to be the chief minister of Bengal.
But for a personality like Banerjee who always expects unconditional loyalty, keeping with the whims and fancies of a mercurial woman was a tough act. Insiders say, she can be quite ruthless, as the dictator in her seems to show up every time things do not go her way.
Monobina Gupta in her book, Didi: A Political Biography writes: “people had watched her oscillate between shouting her tormentors down and breaking into Rabindrasangeet; braving a hail of bullets one minute and ... applying her paintbrush to the canvas the next. She is emotional to a fault, yet ruthlessly dictatorial; a people’s person who could once have passed off as the queen of histrionics” The book is useful in understanding the stark bipolarity that Banerjee has been and always will be.
This bipolarity though comes at a cost, as the transition from an eternal opposition leader, a street fight to an effective administrator is becoming difficult every passing day, at the cost of Bengal’s progress.
The biggest asset for Banerjee has been her sheer determination. In spite of being repeatedly defeated by the CPI (M) she fought back every time, playing her favourite victimhood card, where an underdog is being ruthlessly, many times physically attacked to ensure political gains.
Critics say, Banerjee is the only man in her cabinet who wants to do everything all by herself all the time. At any event, she is simultaneously the chief guest, its anchor, and also the event manager who can easily come down from the podium to manage crowd or break into a Rabindra Sangeet with the chorus. Now as ruler, it is this characteristic that is proving costly as the idea of being involved in everything may be a hallmark of an opposition leader, but being in power, tact is a powerful instrument that often eludes her. Her apparent restlessness to be everywhere, and being involved in everything often boomerangs as quite often she forgets she is now the ruler, the first among equals.
The recent fiasco over the students agitation in Jadavpur University can be a classic example of “being Mamata”. While the issue was of discontent between students and an interim vice-chancellor, Banerjee single-handedly transformed it as an issue of students versus Mamata even students pleaded to keep it apolitical.
However, to her credit, she has always been rooted to modest upbringing. Her tile roofed house, which she shares with her siblings, in the by lanes of south Kolkata. her tant sari (locally made cotton sari), and the famous Bata hawai chappals, wearing which she even went to US are now part of folklore of Bengal politics.
However, this simplicity comes at a price, as Banerjee often does things without contemplating the future. During the early part of her reign, her relation with the media, especially with the local Bengali media baron, who also publishes English daily, has been described by many as cosy. Insiders say that the initial few weeks of her state government was controlled by that individual, who even got Banerjee to hobnob with few industrialists who were close to the Left. However, the fallout has been bitter, the media baron wanted to become an MP and Banerjee refused.
As the largest circulated Bengali daily started to criticise her government, forcing Banerjee to even admonish the newspaper from the local state run libraries. The bitter acrimony literary pushed her to side with individuals like Kunal Ghosh, now accused in the chit-fund scam who by then had launched several newspapers and magazines. Banerjee believed she could counter the clout of the media baron through these new publications.
Kunal along with few other editors were made MP’s including Imran,
Editor of Urdu magazine ‘Kalam’, just to humiliate the media baron. Sources say, now the bitterness has reached a point of no return, as the newspaper is often seen celebrating the rise of BJP in West Bengal.
Many also know Banerjee as a painter, writer, (she recently published her 46th book), singer. However for Banerjee, her greatest creation is her party which she has single-handedly made the fourth largest in the 16th Lok Sabha. A creation she is not willing to destroy even at the cost of losing friends and trusted lieutenants.
The recent demotion of her long time associate Mukul Roy in the party hierarchy is a pointer. Lack of organisational strength has been critical for her past election debacles, and Roy has been instrumental in setting up the party organisation. From breaking the backbones of the state Congress by getting as many as seven of their legislators to join TMC and even performing the unthinkable of getting two Left Front MLA cross vote in favour of TMC candidates in the Rajya Sabha elections last year. Roy always has been a star performer in political labyrinths of Bengal.
In spite of that Banerjee clipped his wings, not only for his supposed involvement in the Saradha scam, but also the fear of his growing clout that one day may bolster him to break the TMC. Insiders say, Banerjee is always wary of anyone surpassing her position in the party which is why in spite of being the largest coalition ally of the Congress in the UPA 2 government, she was the only cabinet minister and other were made minister of state.
Her decision to ascend her nephew Abhishek Banerjee who is already a MP and now nick named Rahul Gandhi of Bengal is a strategic move that will allow Banerjee to directly oversee the affairs of the party.
For outsides, West Bengal’s first woman chief minister is maverick, mercurial and impulsive but she is a shrewd self-made politician. Jayalalitha had MGR; Mayawati had Kashiram as mentors, but for Banerjee it always has been a lone political journey of creating a party by breaking away from the Congress and taking it to the stratum of power. A feat, the incumbent president of India and Bengal’s most successful politicians cannot lay claim to.
