As Mamata Banerjee starts her third term as Chief Minister of West Bengal, Derek O’Brien, leader of the Trinamool Congress in the Rajya Sabha, tells DH's Archis Mohan that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is currently the most experienced political leader in the country. Not only a third-time CM, but Mamata has also been a seven-term MP, he said, adding that she will only be 70 years old when she completes her third term.
Q: What worked in your TMC's favour in the elections?
The people of Bengal believed in Mamata Banerjee. The people of Bengal told her that listen, we hear you. You have done good work in the last 10 years and we want you to continue to do that work. You have touched our lives in the last 10 years. You have been humble in telling us that some of the things were not accomplished and these you will do in the next few years; that you have kept peace and harmony in Bengal, you have touched our lives.
On offer on the other side was a divisive agenda, hatred, big talk, failure to understand Bengal and a track record in the last six, seven years of making huge promises and not delivering.
Q: How important was Banerjee deciding to contest from Nandigram?
A. All that is now history. She is the captain of our ship, and the captain said, “Listen guys, you know there may be some mines there and I will go there in the mines.” This was a tough election and she led by example. The subliminal messaging was that these guys – Modi and (Amit) Shah, there was no third face in the campaign — will come hard at us. So, she went there. Actually, Nandigram may have won us 50 seats more.
Look at the results more closely and you find that of the BJP’s 77 seats, 22 were won by less than one per cent margin. This is when they had full support of their usual allies, the CBI and Enforcement Directorate (ED), and direct support of the Election Commission (EC) as well. These officers took notes from Modi and Shah’s assistants. They were not EC officers, they were stenographers. These election commissioners have ruined the entire commission. They should introspect in their retired lives the damage they have done to this country.
Q: Some in your party believe Bengali chauvinism helped Trinamool win. Analysts say women voters swung the election in your party’s favour.
A. Didi has got votes from all sections. It is an endorsement of her approach to governance and her social welfare schemes, like Kanyashree. When you get nearly 50 per cent of the vote share, and that too after 10 years of rule, you become a legend.
No leader before her who quit the Congress to float their own party has ever been a three-term CM. There is another significance of this win. By the time Mamatadi completes her third term, she will just be 70. She has been a seven-term MP apart from being a three-term CM. That is a lot of experience. (Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik is in his fifth term as CM but is only a two-term MP) Modi is into his second term as an MP.
Q: The BJP has alleged Trinamool Congress has unleashed a wave of violence in Bengal?
A: A false narrative is being amplified by the BJP’s lapdog supine media. Who appointed the top police officers in Bengal? It was not Mamata Banerjee, but the EC and they had the reins of the administration until she had taken the oath of office. Why on earth would we, a party that has won a huge majority, spoil it all? This is a strategy to take the focus away from the Covid-19 situation.
Q: Banerjee has shaped the opposition narrative at least since November 2016 when she protested against demonetisation. Given her experience as a seven-term MP and three-term CM, shouldn’t she lead the federal front against the BJP in 2024?
A: She has shaped the opposition narrative even before demonetization. We opposed the land bill during the UPA government, and asked for a division when it was passed in the Rajya Sabha in 2012, but only got 10 votes. We all know what became of the Bill in 2015, and the Trinamool was proved right. She was the first big leader to oppose demonetization. We supported the GST, but opposed its implementation and our stand on the farmers’ bills is well known.
However, we are not talking of any federal front at the moment. Right now our focus is to deal with the Covid-19 situation. We will focus on other political issues later. One of the important constituents of the non-BJP front is the Congress, and the Congress will need time to sort out their internal issues. I am sure they will sort these out.
Q: Do you expect a more confrontational relationship between the governor’s office and the government?
A: Which governor’s office? Where is the governor’s office? You mean the RSS shakha. The people have spoken. The governor should occupy himself with tweeting a couple of times in the morning, taking care of his dogs and birds and honouring his ceremonial duties.
Q: How does the Trinamool government plan to handle the Covid-19 situation?
A: That is our priority for the next three months. We are leading by example, including holding an oath-taking ceremony where only 10 people were invited. I, the party’s leader in the Rajya Sabha, did not attend. We were the first to demand vaccination in the country last year. We are the people who were thrown out of Parliament for wearing masks. We demanded that Parliament be shut. We are the people to write to (Serum Institute of India’s) Adar Poonawalla in March last year to give us vaccines and he told us he cannot give us directly and that the vaccines can only reach us from the Centre.
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