JOIN USMamata didi is on a roll. She is hopefully serene now, having walked out of a bad marriage with the UPA. But she is definitely broke, having to pay a damaging alimony — a snub from the Congress which, for the time being, implies that the Trinamool Congress’ roots in Delhi have been nipped in the bud, besides ramifications that might clip her wings and delimit her scope to West Bengal.
Sure Mamata doesn’t want a bad crash after decades of sloganeering and assiduous politicking that finally bore the fruit only a year back. The red in Bengal’s veins has just started to fade and the honeymoon for the Trinamool Congress is in no way over, especially after dissident farmers and the innocuous youth have chosen to backtrack from asking questions, fearing backlash.
Humour has been wringed out of the average Bengali fond of Satyajit Ray and women being plundered in the dark alleys of Kolkata have stopped complaining. The rancour in the voices of “maa and manush” (mati, ie, soil, the bards say, has always been more of a spectator)” has been quelled. And Infosys is definitely not setting up a unit in Kolkata in the near future.
In need of time
However, undoing what the Left has done for decades is no mean job and Mamata is not complaining yet. She desperately needs some time, which is definitely running out. Regional aspirations have given way to national ambitions and the landless peasants in Nandigram and Singur have by now realised that Mamata unseating the Left government in Bengal may go down in the history books as a watershed moment in politics, but will hardly make a difference to their tryst with squalor and penury.
Entry of foreign investors is a more pressing concern now, even though the states are at the liberty to embrace or discard it. And the issue of subsidised LPG cylinders falls flat, with the Congress governments in states being told to raise the cap from six to nine, i.e, three cylinders at the states’ expense, an indication that the party is going all out to placate the restive electorate by acting benevolent. An example the Bengal government might as well follow, instead of cribbing over the empty state coffers and splurging the left overs on lining Kolkata’s streets with London-esque traffic lights and celebrating Tagore.
Internecine war
With the electronic media already launching an SMS poll on whether Mamata will be a force to reckon with in national politics, it is left to us ignited minds to ponder over her chances. Cosying up to the BJP may have been a safer bet since the party, in the recent past, has played the role of Opposition to perfection by training its guns on the prime minister at the slightest provocation.
However, with the BJP’s top leadership immersed in internecine war and Gujarat’s Narendra Modi looming large, Mamata may have second thoughts as a substantial part of Bengal’s electorate belongs to a minority community whom she cannot afford to antagonise.
As for the regional satraps, Mamata is most likely to shy away from Mulayam Singh, having got a taste of the old man’s below the belt blows during the Presidential election, while Mayawati, Mulayam’s bête noire, may prefer to keep off from the hustings at this juncture, having been humiliated in the Assembly elections not long ago. Mamata may be seen raising a toast with Naveen Patnaik, or shaking a leg with Jayalalitha, even discussing ways to rejuvenate Bengal’s IT sector with Chandrababu Naidu, but one cannot help but wonder whether such alliances will provide enough fuel for her march to Delhi.
Moreover, the glaring red blots against “tolerance” and “manoeuvring” in Mamata’s report card, and the distinction in holding the government to ransom, may scare away potential allies altogether.
If Mamata were given to listening to saner advice, a political doctor would have prescribed a scaling down of her sabre-rattling histrionics and prudent assessment of the odds before jumping in and out of the UPA bandwagon. But, surely, there is no one to beat her in playing the ‘Aam admi’ politics and she must be making her own calculations ahead of the Big Battle of 2014.