Renaissance CM

Mamata Banerjee is an almost comically prolific author. Each year, the book fair features several new works by her. Among the half dozen offerings this year was, inevitably, a book on ‘Notebandi’. The West Bengal CM is a published poet too. In November, she released a 32-line poem lambasting the PM for demonetisation and, in passing, his authoritarianism. Mamata is also a painter. But the value of her work has nosedived. Much was made over the Rs 1.8 crore Saradha boss Sudipto Sen supposedly paid for her painting. Even the PM mocked the price at rallies. But the Enforcement Directorate has now confirmed that the painting sold for just Rs 14 lakh. What a comedown.