Mamata Banerjee. Didi to her fans, possibly a deity in her own view, and simply ‘dei’ to those in South India. The leader of the Trinamool Congress, and Chief Minister of West Bengal since ousting the Marxists in 2011, Banerjee currently heads a rabble of bizarrely behaved and varyingly inappropriate Indian political leaders. If you follow Indian politics with even the most passing curiosity, you’ll know that this is quite a feat: there are the money-launderers A Raja and Suresh Kalmadi, the porn-watchers Lakshman Savadi, CC Patil and Krishna Palemar, and the falling star Rahul Gandhi, among a hundred others. In a nation that leaps almost daily from one political scandal to the next, Banerjee’s staying power is impressive.
Since taking office, Banerjee has set about remaking the state of West Bengal in her own image. She’s already changed its official name from West Bengal to Paschim Banga, leading to widespread frustration and ridicule. She’s also sacked her own party’s Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi for announcing a fare hike in the 2012 Rail Budget, which was supported by all five of India’s rail unions (Banerjee then rolled fares back). And just over a week ago, she had Jadavpur University professor Ambikesh Mahapatra arrested for circulating derogatory cartoons about her.
Some have called Banerjee a ‘megalomaniac’; others have suggested she is establishing a ‘dictatorship’. Now, after repeatedly accusing the media of a bias against her party, Banerjee has announced plans to set up a government-run TV channel and newspaper, to be called Paschim Banga and Dainik Paschim Banga respectively. She promises they will offer “correct information”, unlike “two-three TV channels of the CPM that you should not watch”. Way to put those ‘megalomaniac dictator’ claims to bed, Didi.
I wonder, what would comprehensive Banerjeevision on your newsstands and TV sets comprise? One thing’s for sure: it certainly won’t be in English, as Mamata Banerjee has banned all English newspapers from West Bengal’s state libraries. In a country for which English is about as close as you can get to an all-inclusive national language, that decision certainly added momentum to what looks to be her march towards preposterous isolation.
There’s a spanner in the works there, though: she banned all political-party-affiliated newspapers, too. So it’s irrelevant. Dainik Paschim Banga will not sit alongside Dainik Statesman in West Bengal’s public libraries. No, a better indicator of Banerjee’s disdain for English is in the way she disregarded its conventions in a recent speech. Mind you, she also showed little regard for geography either:
“Bengal is a foundation state for the northeastern countries [sic] and also I believe that Bengal is a border of Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh is the border of Pakistan [sic]. If you want to see the investment in Bangladesh, if you invest in Bengal, the automatically [sic] the Bangladesh will be benefitted.”
It’s easy to take pot shots at someone for their poor command of language, and I generally refrain from doing so, but Banerjee is different. The semantic and grammatical errors in her speech aren’t really a problem (though they do sound funny coming from a leader of millions). It’s the fact that Banerjee is also actively widening her censorship net in West Bengal, tightening her fundamentalist Bengali grip on more and more of a state that used to be India’s literary pride and joy. First she limited access to publications she found to be biased against her; now she’s written them all off and chosen to impact the media narrative by instituting her own vetted mouthpiece.
Put in the context of cartoonists being thrown in jail, Banerjeevision is no laughing matter, and I suspect its content won’t be as easy to write off as her speechmaking abilities in English. The core of the issue is that Banerjee, after years in opposition, is so used to being in a corner that she still lashes out at naysayers despite an overwhelming voter mandate (184 out of 294 seats). Combine that with her massive ego and you have a juggernaut of exaggerated defensiveness – which at present appears only to be picking up pace.
Photo credit: Al Jazeera
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Barnaby Haszard Morris is a formerly Kerala-based writer who, having learned from Malayalis of the true importance of family, is now enjoying some time with his loved ones in NZ. He dearly misses daily masala dosas, Mallu friends and Mumbai (in that order) but hopes to get back to India soon. Follow him on Twitter: 
Peta Jinnath Andersen is a freelance and fiction writer. Born in Sydney, Australia, to a Fiji-Indian father and Scottish mother, she’s a bit confused about her background, but loves it all the same. Currently living in the US, she has just had her first child, and is busy studying hard in an effort to learn more about her Indian heritage – including taking Hindi lessons – so she can teach her son about just what it is that makes an NRI special.
on April 25, 2012
at 12:26 am
Well said but where would satirists like me go if there were no Mamata Banerjees and Rajas in India? Have some sympathy for us:)
on April 25, 2012
at 1:54 am
I think its needed to neutralize the cpm raj created by cpm goons in the state fr 34 yrs. we had already been living in hell for such a long time. her actions r welcome. its nice to see some of the cpm tyrants suffer.
on April 25, 2012
at 4:32 am
There was Hitler then, now there is Mamta didi..hail Mamta didi
on April 25, 2012
at 5:36 am
Good one.
Mamatha Banerjee, the Bandh-it queen, shortly after coming to power said, “I have now realized that a bandh is not a good way to protest. So please refrain from bandhs!”
on April 25, 2012
at 12:22 pm
The king is dead. Long live the king!
Before there was Mamata, there were the Communists, the epitome of authoritarianism. Now there is Mamata.
on April 26, 2012
at 10:26 am
I’ve just posted a blog titled “Mamta di, the Dictator”. Thanks for this.
on April 26, 2012
at 12:29 pm
Whether a dictator from West Bengal, a marxist from Kerala, or a democrat from Maharashtra, leadership in India is still juvenile!