Mamata Bannerjee: Symbol of dignity and honesty

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
May 20, 2011

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1455/mamata-bannerjee-symbol-of-dignity-and-honesty

Friday morning, Mamata Bannerjee has been sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Bengal. Within hours of taking oath, Ms. Bannerjee announced that her government would return 400 acres of land within the Tata Motors' abandoned Singur plant to unwilling farmers. That incidentally was the first decision of the new cabinet. And that's not all.

Banerjee in her first press conference as the Bengal Chief Minister said that the new government would also make public the entire agreement between the previous Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee government and the Tatas. She however said that the Tatas were otherwise welcome to put up industry in the remaining 600 acre of land and also to invest elsewhere in the state in some other projects. Asked if returning of this 400 acre of land to the unwilling farmers would be legally tenable since the entire 1000 acre of land was still in possession of Tata Motors [and in fact the Tatas have recently renewed the lease agreement of the land], the new Chief Minister said, "We know the legal frame works and we have already worked out the ways of implementing it legally. We have already got legal opinions in favour of our decision. We had committed before the people that we would return lands to unwilling farmers and through this cabinet decision we are keeping that commitment."

Singur is widely perceived to the most contentious issue that fuelled the 35-year old Marxist government's nearly total rout at the recently concluded assembly polls.

The icon of determination:

Eighteen years back, Trinamool Congress [TMC] leader and the then Union minister Mamata Banarjee walked into Writers' Building to meet the then chief minister Jyoti Basu, demanding justice for a rape of a deaf and dumb victim in Nadia district. She was thrown out unceremoniously from 'Mahakaran', the secretariat. The Communist chief minister, Jyoti Basu not only declined to listen to the plea of Mamata Bannerjee, he ordered police to arrest her and put inside lock-up, though she also was the Union minister at that time. This was one of the thousands of examples of how Communists in West Bengal not only established reign of terror, but was committing gross violation of human rights. Since that incident, Mamata Bannerjee had promised herself she would return to this building in an honourable manner. On Friday, 18 years later, that promise was fulfilled as Mamata became the first woman chief minister to take office in West Bengal.

In front of hundreds and thousands of supporters, Mamata walked into 'Mahakaran' in the afternoon to enter her new office. As anticipated, she abandoned her convoy after the oath-taking ceremony at Raj Bhaban and decided to head towards Mahakaran on foot. All hell broke loose for Kolkata police. The possibility was not unforeseen and security had been tightened around the one kilo meter path leading to Writers' Buildings from Raj Bhaban. But crowd control seemed impossible as thousands of people wanted to reach out to their 'didi'. After some futile effort, police let down the security cordon and people crowded around their new chief minister, who is to her supporters, more a loving and caring sister, then a leader. Flowers thrown in by supporters covered the entire path. Mamata walked into her office in receiving and replying to greetings.

The communists in power since June 21, 1977 conceded defeat in the historic assembly polls, announced on May 13. Of the 294 seats in the state, the coalition of TMC and Congress bagged 225 while the ruling Left Front 63. Other parties took six other seats.

The mother and the sister:

Mamata meaning of which is affection is the mother and sister to millions of people in West Bengal and India. Deep within, she is a simple, straightforward middle-class educated Bengali woman. Outside, she is the firebrand leader, who will rush in to any confrontation and may the loudest win. Yet, she is a person who deeply cares for her family. She is the Didi who is tough on the outside but soft on the inside.

Ganesh Bannerjee, brother of Mamata Banerjee, says "In our family, Didi was the guardian. We had a great relationship, but we were also very scared of her, because she would always tell us to concentrate on studies. She always inspired us from the very beginning."

Kakali Ghosh Dastidar, Trinamool MP, says, "She lives with her mother and her extended family of brothers and their families. She is honest to T and is very simple. Her lifestyle is very simple. Her means are very frugal."

The street-fighter-turned-rabble-rouser-turned-fiery orator Mamata Banerjee has changed drastically over the years. But people who know her say Bengal's beloved Didi has remained what she always was: A rebel at heart and the toughest of political opponents.

The most courteous and kind:

Since winning the election on May 13, 2011, Mamata Bannerjee spent extreme busy hours, seeing people, who came to greet her. From business honchos to state administration top brass, the man on the street to Bollywood stars, a former CPM MLA to her own party leaders, the destination was the same — 30B Harish Chatterjee Street, Kilkata. The chief minister [at the time in-waiting] met them all. In between, she also stepped out to meet hundreds who had descended near her residence. The most courteous and kind Didi disappointed none.

And here is just one example of the greatest humanity within Mamata Bannerjee. During the swearing-in ceremony, sex workers like Seema Folka were also invited. "We are thankful to Didi for showing a humane gesture by including sex workers in her invitee list. This quality in her will keep her connected with people from every section of the society," said Folka.

Driven to the profession by abject poverty, Folka entered the profession at a young age. Her father used to work as a daily wage earner to feed five mouths till he became bed ridden due to gastric ulcer. Her mother's meager income as domestic help was too insufficient for the family. Most of the time Seema and his two siblings would go without food for days. And when Seema's marriage was arranged, the groom's family broke the engagement as Seema's father could not meet the dowry demand. That was when Seema left her Murshidabad dwelling for Sonagachi, the biggest red light area in Kolkata to salvage the family out of poverty.

This is surely a time of celebration for people in the Bengal, seeing such modest, caring, loving and extremely honest leaders like Mamata Bannerjee being sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Bengal. Naturally, being a Bangladeshi, I will have firm hope that, under the dynamic leadership of Didi, existing relations between Bangladesh and West Bengal will enter a new era of deeper cooperation, understanding and mutual benefit.

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