Asia-Pacific, Gender, Headlines, Human Rights

POLITICS-INDIA: A Fighter Without a Pause

Monobina Gupta

KOLKATA, May 7 2009 (IPS) - Mamata Bannerjee, six-time member of Parliament from West Bengal, bucks the stereotype of women political leaders in India.

Neither heir to a political dynasty nor blessed with a political godfather, she has picked her way through the labyrinths of power, evolving her own distinct style of politics.

As leader of the Trinamool Congress, West Bengal's main opposition to the long ruling Communists, the outcome of the ongoing 2009 elections could catapult her into the chief minister's chair two years from now in assembly elections in the state.

Five years ago Mamata disappointed the electorate, restless for a change of guard in West Bengal when she failed to checkmate the state's Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front government in polls to the assembly. The communists have ruled continuously for three decades.

An Independent Viewpoint Sumit Chowdhury, a filmmaker and activist, who has been closely associated with peasants' and tribal resistance in West Bengal, is one of the many searching for an alternative political discourse in the state. He spoke to IPS about the politics of Mamata Bannerjee. Excerpts. IPS: Would you say that between 2006 and 2009 Mamata has matured as a politician? Sumit Chowdhury: Yes and No. Yes, because she has challenged the three-decades-long Left Front domination in every sphere of life by taking up all the issues Leftists anywhere should have taken up (Left is Right/ And Right is Wrong). No, because she's unable to come up with an alternative political ideology and practice, having her roots in Congress politics and driven as she is by a burning personal ambition to occupy the throne in that red building called Writers. IPS: How would you explain the evolution? Is it because of her key role in peasants' resistance in Nandigram, Singur? SC: Oh, yes. Singur and Nandigram allowed her to locate a political trajectory she was desperately looking for after her party, a constituent of the NDA, was routed in 2004 general elections (she herself was the lone winner). IPS: As a woman she has been target of malicious gossip and sneering comments in the media and ruling CPI (M)? SC: Not so much the media but the chattering socialites who benefit most from globalisation and so-called ''industrialisation''. Also the bhadralok babus (Bengali gentry) high on Leftist rhetoric who are enamoured of the white dhoti-kurtas but cannot trace the bloodstains on them. The Bengali Left, like it or not, is steeped in the feudal psyche and is always derisive of women. No wonder, opposition to the Left Front, in the wake of Singur, came mainly from the three Ms – Medha Patkar (activist), Mahasweta Devi (author) and Mamata Bannerjee IPS: There is a strong bhadrolok culture (culture of gentrification) working against Mamata. Do you believe the turbulence in Bengal and an increasing restlessness for change among the electorate will be able to overcome this bias? SC: Yes, but it may evaporate soon after. One, because Mamata, being integral to the political system, will have to follow the path taken by either Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (Bengal chief minister) or Narendra Modi (Gujarat chief minister), once she is in power. What's the difference! Two, because she's not ushering in a ''cultural revolution''. Did Indira Gandhi (former Prime Minister) being at the helm upturn the applecart of Indian patriarchy? IPS: Mamata has been derided as a somewhat hysterical personality. SC: Both hysterical and unpredictable. Her whimsical nature combined with the absence of cohesive political thinking often borders on an anti-Left fanaticism more dangerous than the fascism of the Left. IPS: Can you recollect any memorable incident revolving around Mamata Bannerjee the fighter? SC: I remember the night of Sep. 25, 2006 when she was heckled, abused and even molested by cops and CPI(M) cadres in cops' uniform in Singur Block Development Officer's office while leading a gherao (blockade)of the block officials to protest irregularities in cheque distribution (as compensation for the plots of land to be acquired for industry).

Since end-2006, West Bengal has been in the throes of a string of upheavals, some with Mamata as the pivot. The Trinamool Congress leader has led strident movements in Singur and Nandigram, successfully rallying peasants who were resisting the state government's forcible land acquisition for industries.

"This (election) is a turning point for Mamata Bannerjee", says Abhijit SenGupta, a retired employee of a private firm and erstwhile Left Front supporter. "I will vote for the Trinamool Congress. This is the only opposition we have. Or else we cannot ever hope to have a different government", he adds.

With a masters degree in work education, in addition to one in law, Mamata, 54, cut her teeth in politics with the Congress Party in 1970. Two decades later, in 1997, there was a bitter parting of ways and she formed her own party, Trinamool Congress.

Mamata's has been an eventful, unpredictable career, swinging between passionate rebellions, moody tantrums and nasty fights with CPI-M cadres, peppered with staid stints as minister in the union or federal cabinet.

Few politicians could equal Mamata's histrionics or her amazingly simple, earthy life style. Despite her high-profile status, she continues to live in her modest home in a tacky lane in south Kolkata's rundown Kalighat; her trademark crumpled saree and hawai chappals (flip flops) never left her even when she occupied the office of Indian railway minister between October 1999 and March 2001.

In 1991, during her second term in parliament, she was appointed union minister of state for human resources development, in charge of youth affairs and sports, women and child development in a Congress government. True to her volatile temperament, at a public rally in Kolkata, she suddenly announced her decision to resign, charging the central government with neglecting sports.

Two years later, the central government took away her portfolios. Her animosity towards the Congress party steadily rising, Bannerjee accused the central leaders of hobnobbing with the Marxists – her rivals in West Bengal – and broke away to form the Trinamool Congress.

People in Bengal still recall the dramatic incident when at a vast public meeting in Kolkata, Mamata threatened to hang herself, tying her shawl into a noose, demanding a "clean Congress".

In 1996, Mamata grabbed Amar Singh, MP from the Samajwadi Party (a major regional party), by the collar in the well of parliament, where she was protesting a petroleum price hike. Next year, following the presentation of the Railway Budget, she threw her shawl at then Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan for ignoring Bengal.

In 1999, she made a drastic ideological shift to team up with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the centre. Her alliance with the Hindu right-wing BJP hurt her support base among minority Muslims, who till then, had regarded her as a champion of secularism.

The NDA government appointed Mamata the union railway minister, indicating her importance in the coalition. But like with the Congress, her relationship with the NDA, was uneasy and turbulent. She kept the NDA government on tenterhooks, every once in a while threatening to quit the ministry and the coalition.

The split finally came in 2001 when, walking out of the NDA, Mamata allied with the Congress Party in the West Bengal assembly elections. She hoped to dent, if not unseat the Left Front government but the results killed her hopes as she failed to make any headway in the red bastion. Returning to the NDA, Mamata became minister of coal and mines, a portfolio she retained till general elections were declared in 2004.

One of the reasons for the Opposition's consistent failure in Bengal has been the fragmentation of anti-Left votes between the Congress and the Trinamool Congress. But for the 2009 general elections, the Congress Party and the Trinamool Congress have entered into a seat-sharing arrangement, hoping to consolidate anti-Left Front votes.

The future seems to be looking up for Mamata, especially after she was able to defeat the CPI-M in local elections in Nandigram – previously a Left bastion that turned into a battle ground between ruling CPI (M) cadres and peasants over the takeover of land by the state government for industry.

Indeed, the CPI-M seems nervous about the Trinamool-Congress tie-up, which could wreck its winning chances. Says Tapas Basu, a former member of the CPI-M in Kolkota who is no longer active in politics: "There is no doubt the CPI-M is apprehensive. In my locality I have got feelers from senior leaders asking me to help them in this election."