QUEEN OF DEMOCRAZY

Almost a year in power, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is inventing newer enemies by the day

For Mamata Banerjee, ending 34 years of CPI(M) rule in West Bengal was the easy part. Even a year after her historic victory, she still acts more like a street-fighting Opposition leader than a Chief Minister. Samples from the whimsical reign of Mamata, Queen of the Absurd.

Don’t Look Left

Addressing a meeting of the party workers on April 16, Food Supplies Minister Jyotipriyo Mullick asked Trinamool Congress ( TMC) party faithful not to socialise with the Left. “Don’t sit with them, don’t eat with them. Unless you don’t learn to hate them, you won’t be able to take revenge,” he said. CPI(M)’ former Rajya

S Sabha member Mohammad Salim laughed at this, saying, “It’s very difficult to read Mamata Banerjee these days. One reason for this could be the panchayat elections due next year. The spirit of debate and discussion is very strong in West Bengal. People gather at tea stalls and social functions and debate politics. Maybe Mamata is worried that her cadres will not be able to defend themselves.” TMC leader Derek O’brien, however, says, “One must look at the context of where it was said. It was mentioned at an internal party meeting to a crowd of 1,500 party workers. The statement was taken out of context.” A TMC worker points out that the

CPI(M) has little reason to

smirk: “Look at their own constitution. They also follow a policy of social ostracism towards expelled leaders such as (former speaker) Somnath Chatterjee.”

Cartoons are Blasphemy

On April 13, the police arrested a Jadavpur University professor, Ambika Mahapatra, and his neighbour for circulating an anti-mamata cartoon on the Net. The cartoon, based on Satyajit Ray’s movie Sonar Kella, allegedly shows Mamata and Railway Minister Mukul Roy discussing how to get rid of party MP Dinesh Trivedi. Mahapatra was charged under Section 66 of the Information Technology Act, 2000, and Sections 500, 509 and 114 of the Indian Penal Code (punishment for defamation) for forwarding “derogatory images” of the West Bengal Chief Minister to nearly 65 recipients. “This is not democracy but democrazy,” Mamata baiter and Congress leader Deepa Dasmunshi told the media. The Congress, which shares power with TMC, has been careful to distance itself from the controversy. Such was the sense of panic in the city that rumours of Big Didi planning to use the state Criminal Investigation Department ( CID) to monitor social media began to do the rounds. The battleground shifted to Twitter, as O’brien denied the CID rumours and tried to defend his leader. Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah jumped into the fray, tweeting, “Do not worry. If I arrested everyone who made fun of me or a cartoon of me I (would) run out of prison space in a flash.”

Protest and be Damned

On April 8, Professor Sarothi Partha Ray, an assistant professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, was arrested for participating in an anti-eviction movement at Nonadanga in Kolkata. His bail application was rejected on April 12 and he was