Mamata - the train has derailed!

What an image it was last year! Mamata Banerjee had rode an amazing mandate and become the first female Chief Minister of West Bengal. On the way, she had run roughshod over a communist party in decline, over thrown 25 years of communist rule, paved the way for "poriborton" as she called it and become the idol for an entire generation of people who wanted change in Bengal.

A year later, (almost a month less than a year to the statistically inclined), the dream lies tattered. There is widespread disillusionment and disenchantment among the very people who dared to dream with her and had voted her to the post of Chief Minister.

A couple of Facebook wall posts encapsulate the story. A friend says, "my first and only vote was for the TMC and I was overjoyed that they came into power. However now I wonder how stupid can they be ..." and  people respond by saying, "we have to accept..an apple will never grow out of a mango seed... !!!!!! lets all acccept our mistake .. and wait to correct it the moment we get a chance" and "Dont blame urself buddy !! We all make mistakes ! The entire state made a mistake by choosing the wrong people only coz they wanted to usher in a change ... not realizing that it could be for the worse !!"

So what did happen in the intervening 11 months that caused such a huge change of heart?

Mamata took on a persona of an authoritarian. She was no longer the leader of the people, the Maa, Maati, Maanush (Mother, Motherland, Public) had stopped identifying with her. Was it the decision to color the city blue that started the trend? I wonder? But, if that was strange, more was to follow.

She started denying the existence of every wrong as a conspiracy to malign her and her government. 2 rape cases (one of which was on the high profile Park Street), were met with the "eta shadajantra (it's a conspiracy)" reply. Even when it was proved otherwise, she did not apologize for her mistakes and the public fallout was critical (http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_apoll&task=view&view=apoll&id=83). Her Ministers only added to the bizarreness of the situation with one of them asking, "what the lady was doing in a nightclub even though she had two children and was separated from her husband"? Other than such gratuitous comments, there were accusations of favoritism being shown towards people who supported her party and political interference in the functioning of the administration and police departments. The police inspector who solved the Park Street rape case and proved that there was indeed a rape was transferred.

People had thought that Mamata would make the transition from a street fighter to a Chief Minister. Sadly, she remains a street fighter. It also doesn't help that the decades of communist rule which had been characterized by the entry of anti social elements into politics under the garb of patronage had not changed. The goons had only changed color (from red to green, or is it blue?). They were still killing, maiming and doing everything for Trinamool that they were doing for CPIM.

The proverbial last straw were the 3 following incidents - 

1. Dinesh Trivedi, a hitherto unknown politician who had survived largely on being a Mamata supplicant found himself as the Railway Minister of India when Mamata resigned to take over the 'throne' of the Chief Minister of West Bengal. While presenting the railway budget, he "dared" to increase the railway fares (which has remained the same for the last 10 years) so that the institution could get some much needed revenue! Mamata immediately took umbrage at a) she not having been consulted, b) increase of fares since it would hurt the common man and c) because her own party man had crossed over to the 'other side'. Her fury knew no bounds and soon Dinesh Trivedi found himself removed as the Railway Minister, even before the rail budget could be debated in Parliament, and a new supplicant installed.

2. Newspaper in public libraries - All leading newspapers were banned from public libraries and only those approved by Mamata were allowed (these also turned out to be ones owned/managed by Trinamool acolytes). Suddenly, the spectre of a dictator arose in the minds of the people. Here was someone demanding that they be told what to read. What next, they wondered? But they soon found out!

3. Arrests over cartoons - this was probably the one that drove people livid. A professor in Jadavpur University was arrested for emailing a cartoon which was quite funny. Drawing inspiration from the famous movie Sonar Khella from the Feluda series, it made fun of Mamata removing Dinesh Trivedi as Railway Minister. For sending out this mail, the said professor was thrashed by Trinamool goons (supporters), arrested by the police, locked up overnight in jail (even though he was charged under a bailable crimes - IPC sections 509 (insulting the modesty of a woman), 500 (defamation) and 114 (abetting a crime), and IT Act section 66 A(b) (causing offence using a computer) ) while the people who thrashed him were arrested after there was a furore over the incident and released on bail almost immediately. 

Mamata's reponse was her standard, "it is a conspiracy". There is still time though and as Vir Sanghvi and Sagarika Ghosh have written. Mamata should let go of the fear that the world is against her, she should stop searching for enemies and get on with administration!