Mamata Banerjee begs for help from CPM/Cong and Bhadralok bowling noes and wides to BJP

I must say I am disappointed in how Mamata Banerjee is playing here. No matter what, I used to think that she is a fighter to the core. That belief is shaken now. Otherwise, how do you explain this?

My eyes! Mamata Banerjee begging with the Left for an alliance. What a moment for the young firebrand Congress leader who fearlessly took on the Jyoti Basu regime in Bengal. It appears that age has taken its toll. And more than that, comfort.

All politicians pursue power, but Mamata was somewhat different. All her life, she chased a very specific target. She had been Cabinet minister under both Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh. Being Railway minister is huge. But you could tell that the position meant very little to her. She was ready to quit, all the time. For Mamata Banerjee, nothing mattered. Except the chair of Bengal CM.

And when she finally achieved her dream in 2011, she set about creating a new Bengal. Like an empress, she ordered all of Kolkata painted in her favorite blue and white colors. She designed a flag for “Biswa Bangla” (universal Bengal) that all officials were required to fly. She wasn’t just going to rule Bengal, her taste in culture, art and music would run through the state. Her poems, her paintings, even a theme song she composed for Durga Puja were supposed to be central to the celebration of Bengali culture. She didn’t just want to the CM of Bengal, she wanted to embody Bengal itself.

Check it out here, it’s actually quite good. And if anybody in India still cared for Manmohan Desai style secularism, it would have worked.

In short, Mamata Banerjee wanted to be seen in Bengal like the history books tell you to imagine Akbar. And of course, like Akbar and Jyoti Basu, she would rule for life.

Now those dreams are all but shattered. It’s not just the chair she could lose, but her entire legacy. She risks being written off as a mere two term CM. That’s hardly enough to distinguish her in Bengal’s political history, let alone on the national scene. So many people have served as two term CMs and been all but forgotten.

Weak and desperate, she has reached out to lifelong enemies in the CPM. And her old sidekicks in the Congress. After the 2019 election, I had compared her situation to the last days of UPA 2. If anything, her capitulation is worse.

Not that the Cong nor CPM have responded positively to her appeal. The Congress has made her an insulting offer: to merge the TMC into the Congress. Not that it would have happened anyway, but Mamata’s disdain for Rahul Gandhi is all too obvious. This disdain stands in sharp contrast to her equation with Sonia Gandhi. The latter is someone that Didi fears and respects. The CPM is too flat footed, dogmatic and tied in knots to even come up with a coherent response. And the best part? It wouldn’t matter if all three parties came together. If they try, they will lose bigger. In fact, by even floating this suggestion, Mamata has finished off the last few hopes of winning the election.

With the election done and dusted, it is now amusing to watch the reactions of a certain class that had grown up hating the BJP with elitist passion. Hindiwallahs! Paan, gutkha eaters! These are supposed to be insults. Don’t get angry folks, just laugh. Remember; the election is already over.

And nothing is more funny than watching members of this class squirming and moaning as they realize that the sun don’t shine no more. One Bhadralok babu from Harvard is unable to sleep these days. I heard he is clutching a painting or something by Abanindranath Tagore that has been in his family for generations. He probably thinks it’s some kind of good luck charm that will save Bengal from BJP. Unfortunately, like most of his theories, things like good luck charms and amulets don’t work. Anyway, hard work over Harvard, shall we say?

Then there are the artists, actors and filmmakers. Some have suddenly gone public with various forms of “mental pain” about the way Mamata Banerjee is running the state. It has barely been five years since some of these people went on public platforms asking for a little space at Didi’s feet (one of them literally said this). Now all the “mental pain” and anguish against Didi is surfacing. Basically, they are looking to change camps while the BJP’s recruitment mela in the state is still open.

And finally, there are those bhadralok who seem resolved to go down with the ship. It is a very Bengali way of taking pride in reducing oneself to a pathetic figure. These are the people who did not listen when the Berlin wall fell. They believed that ‘revolution’ would come any day, up until the moment CPM lost power in 2011. The TMC defeated them ideologically, but let the jokers hang around, talking about Bengali exceptionalism. The BJP is not likely to allow any such nostalgia and they know it. As BJP advances, these people are pulling out the same old desperate smears. BJP will ban Hindi in Bengal. BJP will insult Tagore. BJP is against non-vegetarians. BJP will celebrate Diwali which is supposed to be different from Kali Pujo!

ROFL.

As we all know, Bengali intellectuals are much sought after on liberal portals. Nowadays, it is a joy to read their pathetic ramblings. I positively look forward to them. It’s kind of fun, you know. Getting a rise out of the grumpy old uncle who sits with a sour face at family events, complaining that youngsters these days just don’t listen!

Innings defeat for them is now completely certain. Bowling no balls and wide balls is of no avail.