Decoding Didi
On May 2, 2021, when the electoral numbers of the 2021 West Bengal election were trickling down, the political experts were observing it with rapt attention. In the backdrop of the country gasping for Oxygen amid the Covid pandemic, the win of TMC, was seen as pumping the life-saving gas into the lungs of democracy. Social media was flooded with praises for Mamata Banerjee as she put up a lone fight by hook or by crook against BJP’s top leaderships and against those, who left the TMC party at the last moment.
This win is also shared with the TMC party’s election strategist Prashant Kishor who along with many tactics, also introduced few immediate fixes for the TMC party to combat against the social work done by RSS among weaker section of the society (SC/STs, OBCs) — ( refer to the book-mission Bengal). Even then, Mamata’s spirit to fightback such an opponent who came out with all gun blazing, cannot be ignored.
I was intrigued by this year’s Bengal election and thought to read about Mamata Banerjee and dig more into her personality. Here I share the details of my readings about the life journey of Mamata Banerjee- before and after TMC (Trinamool Congress) and much more…
Mamata-in a capsule…
During the 2011 budget session, when Mamta Banerjee was still the railway minister of India, actor-turned-politician, Tapas Paul entered her office wearing a pitch-black suit. On seeing his attire, Mamata Banerjee recited ‘baba black sheep have you any wool, yes sir yes sir tapas bag full’, Tapas Paul was taken by surprise and he did not understand if she was complimenting him or ridiculing him. Anyway, he chose to smile, continued his talk, and left silently.
But that’s just one example of her unpredictable nature and the same unpredictability is reflected in her political career also. Clad in a simple white saree, rubber strapped footwear, unpolished tone, and language, she was believed to be a total misfit for the Bengal’s Badhralok culture. The elites, culturally polished Bengal never predicted that it would find its first female Chief Minister in her. She was constantly judged by left elitists and even by her own party members. But nothing deter her from following her political ambition.
What they thought she lacked, actually helped in connecting her with the ‘maati’ of West Bengal. She resonated with the commoners of West Bengal, those who saw a leader in her as she was like them.
She lives in Kalighat’s house with her mother and a large family. Even after being a railway minister twice (1999 under Atal Bihari Vajpayee and 2009 under Manmohan Singh), and held other central cabinet roles (sports and youth ministry under Narsimharao government), no lucrative positions could lure her away from her home turf, West Bengal. It was so because she had an unfettered mission, a mission to remove the left regime from West Bengal.
In the backdrop of corruption, merciless dealing of commoners, rapes, and murders of opposition party members by the left regime in West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee was committed to uproot the 34 years (1977–2011) of left governance in West Bengal.
When 29-year-old Mamata overshadowed red-comrade…
After completing her education(in history, Islamic studies, and law), she started her political journey in the 1970s with Indian National Congress. She joined Congress’s student wing, Chhatra Parishad, in 1972.
In three years of her joining politics, she started hogging headlines — she blocked the convoy of Indira Gandhi’s prime opponent-Jayprakash Narayan, who was on his way to attend an event at Calcutta University. Young and ferocious Mamata Banerjee in a fit of the moment mounted on the bonnet of his car and soon the act flashed as the breaking news on several local TV News channels in Bengal.
Mamata Banerjee in her autobiography categorically mentioned that on entering into politics in 1970, the party members who guided her the most were — Partha Roy Chowdhury, Ranjit Ghosh, Rana Da, and Dilip Majumdar.
The Congress was in power in Bengal for two decades, until 1977, when the red-comrades took charge of the den (and continued till 2011).
The left politics in Bengal was marred with murders, rapes of opposition party workers, ill-treatment of commoners, and corruption.
Against such atrocities by the left government, Mamata Banerjee used to protest and visit the families of deceased, which eventually earned her the title of ‘didi.’
In 1984, after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, a sympathy wave for Congress, highlighted Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal. The Congress leader, Subrata Mukherjee was on the lookout for recruiting a suitable woman candidate and he could find that, only in Mamata as she was the most active female campaigner for Congress in Bengal.
And it worked for the party when twenty-nine year-old Mamata Banerjee defeated heavyweight communist leader, Somnath Chatterjee from the Jadavpur constituency in 1984 (1984, Lok Sabha election).
The history made in 2011
Since then Mamata was on the left’s radar and In 1989 Mamata narrowly escaped a deadly attack by left fringe at Hazra Junction while she was in a protest rally. This brought her back to the limelight.
Here an interesting development is crucial to mention —during 1991/1992, Mamata Banerjee was not only fighting with Left, the party rival of Congress but she also launched a war against her own Congress party leader in Bengal, Somen Mitra. She demanded his resignation and wanted her appointment as the Congress leader in Bengal. The left started ridiculing congress and said that they are doomed by their own internal brawls.
Although she was one of the favorite party members of Rajiv Gandhi in West Bengal, she fell prey to lobbying and other political rifts.
Thus, she left the party in 1998 and started her own party, Trinamool Congress. From 1998, it took 13 more years for Mamata to throw left out of the CM office. The opportunity came in 2006 when after winning the majority of seats in the West Bengal assembly election, the Buddhadeb Bhattacharya-led-left government aggressively rode their industrial plans over the farmers’ lands by launching a land acquisition drive. The government was keen to bring industrial development by allocating lands to TATA’s Nano plant in Singur, the Salem group’s chemical hub in Nandigram, and the Jindal steel plant in Salboni. Mamata Banerjee sat on a hunger strike for farmers’ rights. This was the major turning point in her political career.
The Singur and Nandigram movement solidified her arrival as she coined ‘maa maati manush’ slogan.
In 2011, she became the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal. She resigned from her Railway minister role in the centre and sworn in as CM of West Bengal. Some left figures also joined her.
Is Mamata an opportunist?
The decoding of didi cannot be completed without probing into the allegations against her.
If one looks closely at Mamata’s political career, there have been many instances where her reaction no matter how absurd it looked to the other side, was triggered by her emotions, probably in a bit to grab moral ground on issues — as she resigned twice in 2000 from Railway Ministry under Vajpayee government, once, against the steep hike in petroleum prices, the other time while owning the responsibility for a railway accident in Punjab that claimed 40 lives. However, both the times, her resignation was not accepted.
She again resigned in 2001, pulled TMC out of NDA, demanded the removal of George Fernandes from the Defence Ministry, and an impartial probe against Tehelka tapes. This time her resignation was accepted.
But every coin has the other side too, and so is in this case. Where Mamata Banerjee fought against social injustice in her homeland and in Lok Sabha, in 2002 her party, TMC, supported the Vajpayee government on the motion of ensuring Modi-led-government continue in Gujarat after the 2002 riots.
It was seen as a tactical move, as TMC had won only 60 seats in the 2001 assembly election in Bengal, while the left had bagged 199 of 194 seats. So, by 2002, TMC was trying to find an ally in BJP in West Bengal. This was not the first time TMC was shaking hands with BJP — when Mamata formed her party in 1998, she allied with BJP in West Bengal, however, during that time, BJP’s existence in Bengal was close to negligible. But Mamata took this plunge, so as to fight against the blood-handed left and the Congress, the party she had recently left.
Cut to 2002: her move to incline towards BJP benefited her neither in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, where she was the only TMC MP elected in Lok Sabha nor in the 2006 assembly election of West Bengal. BJP was not the only party with which TMC tried its luck before toppling the left government.
After Singur and Nandigram movement, in the 2008 Panchayat elections, TMC gave a big blow to the left by winning a significant number of seats, and then in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, this time Mamata-led-TMC allied with Congress.
Thus, in political mathematics, one tries various permutations and combinations to find the value of ‘X.’ It can be seen as an opportunist way of solving the problem or I leave this up to you or any political pundit to comment on.
Is Mamata a minority appeaser?
She has been accused of sympathizing with Muslims while ignoring the Hindus by BJP.
Since 2011, the Mamata government has tried to bridge the gap between social and economical development of a rural section of the Bengal — it has constructed connecting roads for better livelihood, introduced ‘Kanyashree’ scheme for girls to prevent early marriage, gifted bicycle to both girls and boys for class 9 to 12 and several other schemes. Just before few months of this year’s assembly election, TMC introduced ‘Maa’ kitchen, to provide ‘rice, vegetables, dal and egg’ meal at Rs. 5/- to the weaker section between 1 PM to 3 PM, daily. In January , the Mamata government launched the ‘Choker Alo’ scheme to provide free spectacles and eye treatment, including cataract operations, over the next five years. She also tried to strengthen the micro industries.
Regarding minority communities, specifically, for Muslims, Mamata Banerjee in 2012, had announced a package for the Imams of the state, which included a monthly honorarium of Rs. 2500/-, a housing scheme and stipends for their children. Along with this, Muezzin, who say Azaan was promised Rs. 1500/- per month. In 2013, Calcutta High Court struck down the state’s decision saying ‘ it is nothing but a way to woo minority.’ Now, monthly allowances are routed through the State Wakf Board.
Then in 2012, Mamata also introduced new loan schemes, creating an employment bank and promised the construction of 10,000 madrassas.
In 2016, TMC inaugurated Rs. 100 crore Hajj House in New Town which provide all sorts of amenities and assistance to Hajj travellers.
The government later included nearly 95% of the state’s Muslim population under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, which has 17% reservation in education. This way, it tried to create job opportunities for the Muslims. It laid foundation for Aliah University in 2011 which now has three campuses. The main purpose of this University is to provide education to weaker section of the society.
BJP used these schemes and policies in polarising the state, however, it said that they have no issues with Imams and Muezzin getting stipends, the issue is the negligence of the Hindu clerics while announcing this scheme. It demanded raise for Hindu priests as well.
Seeing such backlashes, TMC just before fielding itself into the 2021 assembly elections, announced a raise of stipend for the priests and thereafter other schemes for all religions.
Although, when it published its report card of 10 years of work, surprisingly, the report card detailed budgets increased on women and children’s welfare, health, agriculture, and education sectors, highlighted the government’s work for the ST/SC communities, it made no mention of what the government did for the minority community (Muslims).
I read an article published in The Wire in this regard, so, I am posting the arguments as it is shared by political leaders and experts in The Wire article over this omission:
From The Wire report,
Chowdhury argued that the Muslims of Bengal, who make up more than one-fourth of the state’s population but lagged behind in several socio-economic parameters, had benefitted from the government’s rule so much that they “would not mind this tactical omission aimed at denying the BJP a chance of playing dirty politics”.
During this government’s rule, budgetary allocation to minority affairs department has increased from Rs 472 crore in 2010 to over Rs 4,000 crore for 2020–21
He added that the government has included nearly 95% of the state’s Muslim population under the Other Backward Classes (OBC) category, which has 17% reservation in education.
“The reservation in education has enabled many more students from the community to pursue education. This year, of the about 3,300 seats for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test, 650 Muslims got chance to take the test,” Chowdhury said.
Muslim leaders among Mamata Banerjee’s critics interpreted the omission differently. “Mamata Banerjee’s claims of uplifting the Muslim community are a hoax. The government has only talked big. Had they given the data, their lies would have been caught red-handed,” said Md Kamruzzaman, president of West Bengal Minority Youth Forum.
Political observers see this omission as the TMC’s attempt to win over the Hindus, whom the BJP plan to polarise against the TMC citing appeasement of the minorities.
The Wire report excerpt ends…
One can also see these announcements, as payback by TMC to the minority communities as they showed trust in this party. However, if one goes by the employment data, the participation of Muslims in job sectors is still marginal.
Read IE report here: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/the-myth-of-muslim-appeasement-in-west-bengal-bengal-elections-bjp-7280522/
TMC has also been accused of instilling the same kind of fear, once left bored into the minds of opposition party members and people. There are serious charges of attacks on BJP party members and RSS workers by TMC workers. The 2021 electoral win of Mamata saw political violence not just against BJP workers, but against CPI(M) workers as well.
Also…
Mamata Banerjee has been accused of not tolerating the criticism against her governance. One such example grabbed the spotlight in 2013 when in a debate show that was aired on IBN-Lokmat channel, two students asked her questions on safety of women and government’s negligence on handling the goons. Mamata Banerjee instead of answering the questions, called students ‘the mouthpiece of maoists and CPI(M)’ and walked out of the show.
Here is the link of that moment from the show : https://youtu.be/tDs3ZmDPCa8
So, what is next?
It is true that the political turf of the Bengal has been bloody, and history has a lot of stories of political violence in West Bengal, but what Mamata Banerjee fought against in 2011, should not become the reality of her own governance. Thus, political violence by any party under any capacity should not be the reality of today’s political system.
Also, BJP’s recent attempt through its IT cell, to give communal twist to the political violence is nothing but a grave attempt to further polarise the nation at the time of the pandemic.
Coming to the appeasement charges: one may question, if at all there is any appeasement, then why the appeasement for Muslims by Mamata has been more religious in nature than economic.
Is it because the demands by Muslims have been religious in nature than based on the idea of literacy, economic prosperity? And hence, will it serve the purpose to draw an analogy between job creation and Muslim development until it is what exactly been demanded by the minority group? These are the questions that can be answered by political experts, hence, I leave it to them.
The upliftment of minorities should be dealt with utmost sincerity, while maintaining the secularity of the opportunities being dolled out.
The society need a collective conscious effort to not discriminate on the basis of caste/creed/religion, only then the political agendas will not be able to incite the differences.
In terms of development, Mamata Banerjee did try to build micro industries, although, the people of Bengal want to earn a livelihood from industrial development, especially the youth of Bengal. Also, calling it a democratic win in the face of political violence, cornering the voice of dissent and appeasement charges will be a hurried opinion which rather can be reserved until the TMC delivers what Bengal has asked and given it the mandate for.
In the end…
Culturally she loves to paint and sing Rabindra Sangeet, Spiritually, she has strong faith in Kali, beliefs in the teachings of Ramakrishna mission and Vivekanand and Politically, she fought social battles, helped strengthening small scale industries BUT the youth of West Bengal wish for development. Here the challenge stands the same as it was in 2011, 2016 and that is, how can she keep her image of socialist leader intact while meeting the challenge of development youth demands.
Also, political killings which was the nature of West Bengal politics, should not be re-launched in Mamata’s regime. After all that is what she had defeated and she came to power. But recent political killings indicate deflection from her own commitments, rest whatever future holds.
In my opinion, I will comment only on her journey as a female politician, where her success holds no credit to any ‘man’, rather she fought her way through it.
Where we have stories of Jayalalitha, Mayawati having a man in the backdrop, she fought ferociously all by herself. But will she remain like that or we will see Mamata 2.0 in the re-election of her as CM?
