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Bereft of Mamta!
Mamata Baneerjee not ready to tolerate any difference of opinion
BY SAMAR
oor Shakespeare! Good that he is long gone or he would have wanted to die again. He would had to, for that is what people with honour are known to do when they are proven decisively wrong by someone. If only he knew that hatred would never be as strong and self-reinforcing if it came with any other name than Mamata Banerjee. So much for the name, literally meaning love, of the maternal kind on top of that, Mamata, when the woman behind the name is so royally, in a democratic sense, bereft of any feelings of compassion forget love. Poor Shakespeare! If only he knew that a rose can still smell as sweet even if it came with any other name but absurdity can never be as absurd if it had an address other than that of the Writers Building to vouch for. Writers Building! Pronounce the name loudly, maybe for ten times and then the irony lost in the name will reveal it to the unsuspecting ears of the lesser mortals, for Mamta of course and not in the absolute sense of the word. She used nothing named less fancily than the Writers Building to issue her diktat banning certain newspapers and magazines from public libraries scattered throughout the state. Do I even need to add that the newspapers were all that were getting more and more critical of her wayward ways of behaving like a dictator, nay, a hooligan while gracing the chair of the Chief Minister of the state? I certainly need to, however, mention the fact that these were the
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same newspapers that were so appreciative of her, and her wayward ways, till the other day. Wayward, perhaps, need some explanation here.Waywardness for Mamta might actually be some higher order of consciousness, some higher order of knowledge that we, the lesser mortals do not have access to. She has her own scheme of things. She might have her own, and grand, scheme of the universe as well. Waywardness of Mamta might only be our lack of understanding, or stupidity therefore. Is it really right of us to tear her manners apart instead of thanking for her graciousness in not calling us stupid while hinting at that we were, after all? She did tell us that much, didnt she? Why else, she would take the decision in public interest nothing less? We should have thanked her for saving us from the ignominy of falling prey to the rumours and propaganda and the canards that these newspapers were found to be spreading. (The charges remind me of similarly worded differently signed press releases of

the Left-Front days, but then that is beside the point). We should have broken into an Orwellian chant, something like four-legsgood-two-legs-bad in the Animal Farm style for expressing our joys of finding the liberator, finally. And here we, the thankless people are. I am sure Mamtadi would have been laughing at the stupidity of those asking about the past of the same newspapers when they supported her and played a crucial role in the fall of the final frontier. Did the Orwellian chant not change into two-legs-good-four-legs-bad when prompted, and of course, required by the need of reassessment of concrete situations. Ok, I concede that for Mamtadis lifelong opposition to the Left I should had tried to scavenge an analogy from the stables of the Rightwingers. Had intellectually stimulating not been used as a synonym for does not exist I would have done that. So I did not even try, and I am not sorry for that. Period. She had much more on her mind, all in order to enlighten us, the lesser mortals, and to

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deliver us all to a level of higher consciousness. then wasted more by spreading that. Creepy foon, which, to the best of her knowledge and Apparently, she has had enough of our small creature must be on the CPI Ms payrolls. Ah, belief, she is not. Evidently, they have got that pleasures of laughing at the cartoons that CPI M, or as the Communist Party of India proverbial hand (see, thats the evidence for come tucked at the bottom of the front page, (Marxist) is known in our country that is covert conspiracies of the Congress in tandem sometime that of the edit or Op-Ed, of the obsessed with the acronyms. CPI M leadership with the commies) that is behind everything. newspapers. Even if not exactly blasphemous, must be happy with that too, or they would They have got that proverbial hand), or is it does the act not indicate at our stupidity of have found it difficult to explain the meaning of hammer and sickle, that is bigger than the long deriving pleasure from such trivial things, she the term Marxist that adorns their name. I, for hand of the law. must have thought. Add all the loss of working one and also for the lesser mortal I am, could Long hand of the law! That reminds me of hours these cartoons cause to the nation by never understand if it should be seen as some- the miraculous, almost supernatural, powers making us, the lesser mortals, laugh and share thing similar to free in free beer or free as in of Mamtadi who could successfully make out a these stupid jokes and only then rape from an allegation. That would one understand the true logic, too without even any prelimiand vision, hidden in her crackdown nary investigation! She just on such cartoons. sees the reality behind all that After all, have not we seen the crops up in front of her eyes. cartoons tell the same stories, if we The reality, in turn, is way too could call them stories that is, years easy to make out. It is a rape if after years and decades after the accused belong to any of decades? What changes did R. K. the shades of the Red that had Laxmans common man witness dominated West Bengal for so while appearing into our lives day long, and is merely an allegaafter day? Did his life get any better? tion that does not require even It did not, so what is the point to an inquiry if the accused have invest so much of energy and time got anything to do with her stainto making ones. Similar would be ble. Simple logic, isnt it? Just the experience of the cartoonists that its we, the lesser mortals, depicting the politicians and the who do not have access to statesmen though I wonder if there those higher level of consciousare any left of the latter variety. ness that helps one see black What purpose does it solve, then, from white. We, by virtue of our to draw a silent Manmohan Singh ignorance, can actually ask instead of a sleeping DeveGowda, questions like why the police (what was his full name by the way?) officer in charge of the investior a Mamata from a Jayalalitha, she gation then refuted the truth A communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) activist carries a would have asked herself. This, for caricature of West Begal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a revealed by the Chief Minister her, must be a criminal waste of time protest rally against the Sate Government in Kolkata as against the baseless allegaaka the bad old days of the Left Front tions levelled by the victim. The regime when they engaged in good for nothing free speech, but then that is, again, beside the answer is even simpler. The lady officer has strikes. And then there are lesser mortals, like point. been duly shunted out of her office, of course us, who link it all to that abstract concept of Going by the Mamata Banerjees state- after telling the media that Mamtadi did not try democracy and criticise her. This is all a con- ments, if you could actually call her rants that, to influence the investigation. spiracy against her, she must have thought. CPI M must be terribly happy. If they really Perhaps this is the time for us, the lesser Why else the same people who did not go wield all that power the CM keeps accusing mortals, to repent for the sins of launching beyond muttering under their breath when them of, they have never had it better than this. tirades against such well-meaning person. We Manmohan Singh called all the talks of corrup- They are behind everything, from orchestrat- can begin with demanding a law that makes tion as mere propaganda are after Mamatas ing gang rapes to malign CMs image to mak- scoffing at Mamtadi, including by making a life now? ing and distributing cartoons against her. They cartoon, a criminal offence. Scrapping the So she was absolutely in her right to get are the ones that have been successfully sabo- provincial police and bestowing the powers of that fella, whatever was his name, arrested. taging her relations with the Indian National investigations and prosecution unto her (not in One he wasted his time by drawing something Congress and they are the ones who have con- the post for those following her can be fallible) he was not paid for, and was mandated to, and vinced the media to portray Mamtadi as a bufinfallible persona. Amen. UTS
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