Mamata’s mimicry

Mamata Bane-rjee seems keen to add acting to her portfolio of artistic achievements. She already writes poetry and fiction. She paints passionately. She sings loudly and proudly into the mike whenever she can, with her characteristic disregard for rules, like scale or tune. And now she has made her fondness for acting public.

Of course her talent for the performing arts was never in doubt. Theatre-lovers have always been in awe of Ms Banerjee. As an Opposition leader she kept us all forever fascinated by her tales of murder and conspiracy, her bandaged head or surgically belted waist, her hunger strikes, endless bandhs and ruthless roadblocks. She had the most amazing stories, the most dramatic explanations, the most fascinating accusations. And whatever part she played — mostly battered innocent victim, but occasionally the crouching tigress as well — she looked every bit the part. She was not the drama queen for nothing.
And now Queen Banerjee is branching into mimicry. Naturally, she is starting at the top, mimicking the Prime Minister. In a recent television interview, the anchor pointed out that the Congress says she was indeed consulted, in the coordination committee meeting where various issues were raised, including the fuel price hike and FDI in retail. “Absolutely wrong!” said Queen B. “Just coordination committee meeting started, then PM started saying…” Queen B quickly changes her tone and her look as the mimicry begins: “‘Wee have the problem, thees and thees, wee have to think over when will discuss…’ And when he started saying, I said ‘No. don’t discuss these thing. Don’t bulldoze us. Or don’t impose all thees thing.’” So the Prime Minister had tried to raise the issue, persisted the anchor. “No, no!” shouted Queen B. “He never tried. He said…” And Queen B was back as the actress, with a changed voice, changed look, describing the scene. “He said, just quietly, goody-goody: ‘Ye-e-s, wee have the problems, so let aas discaas some-taims.’ Like this.” Sadly, the drama queen is not particularly good as a Manmohan mimic. Her voice is too robust, her accent too thick and her grammar too absent for a good rendition of Prime Minister talk. But when the point is to mock, such things don’t matter.
So let’s follow her lead. As it is, Queen B’s persecution complex makes all of us suspect — we could be Maoists, Lefties, Congressies or just demented fools. In the interview she denied it spiritedly, explaining how everyone is happy and all negative publicity comes from paid news, because “wrong information is feeding by some corners”.
What about criticism from people like the celebrated writer Mahashweta Devi, who had championed her earlier? “Mahashweta Devi, she is aged lady,” Queen B screws up her face in pity and nods. “Pliz realise. She is having some problem, because now she is staying with some pippul.” She nods some more. “I do not know whether sense is okay or not.” And she laments that “some pippul have misused it.” Sadly for Queen B, Mahashweta Devi is perfectly in her senses, which is why she refuses to be hoodwinked by all the Trinamul gibberish.
Never mind. Queen B repeatedly declared her dedication to “pippuls’ feelings” because “pippuls is the supreme”. So “in our government, within one year our achievement is too much!” But then there is history. “What the Left left out I cannot left it,” says she wisely.
The new enemy is the Congress, who “are used to misuse their power”. And like any streetfighter with no understanding of life beyond the street corner, she does not wish to pay taxes to the Centre. “Let them not to collect taxes from the states.” The Centre does nothing, she shouts. “Let the debate started!”
If only she did not have to pay taxes to the Centre, there would be investment, employment, food security, healthcare for all and presumably another Rabindranath Tagore in Bengal. But now, with the wicked witch of the Centre, she has reason for concern. “Do you know that the farmers are going to be committed suicide?”
Sadly, Ms Banerjee has turned out to be a curious disciple of the Left. She is the perpetual Opposition, even when she is supposed to be the establishment. In Bengal, the Left found a way — it made the Centre out to be the enemy they were opposed to. So they could rise in furious opposition to the Centre while actually ruling — for over three decades — in Bengal. In the Left Front’s Bengal, an unfriendly shatru sarkar (Congress) was good for politics, everything could be blamed on its “stepmotherly treatment”. Things got itchy when you had a friendly bondhu sarkar at the Centre. Thankfully, they didn’t last long.
Ms Banerjee has stolen the Left’s formula and is improving on it. Exactly the way she appropriated the Left’s dharnas, hartals, strikes, leading to former chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s exasperated opposition to bandhs, the time-honoured tool of the Left. She appropriated the Left’s Opposition to industry when the Left wanted to woo back some industry in a state they had financially ruined; she chased away big money like the Tatas. Now her passing a resolution in the Bengal Assembly opposing FDI is a continuation of that same Left technique.
The difference is, that the Left was civil, at least on the surface. They would mock the Prime Minister with sophistication, not mimicry. And at least the leaders were somewhat more educated. They would not say, like Queen B did some time ago, that during Gandhiji’s fast in Calcutta’s Beleghata, Rabindranath Tagore raised a glass of fruit juice to his lips to finally end his fast. They would respect the fact that Tagore had died several years before Gandhiji’s Beleghata fast.
Then last year, at a public function commemorating the Santhal rebellion of 1855, Queen B enthusiastically paid tribute to “the three leaders: Sidhu babu, Kanu babu and Dahor babu”. From now on she would pay homage to the three leaders every year, Queen B thundered. The descendants of Sidhu and Kanu were present. But, the chief minister demanded to know, where were the descendants of Dahor? They too must be brought on stage and felicitated. Which was a bit of a problem since “dahar” (or daahaar) is the Santhali word for road. And clearly Dr Banerjee’s great admiration for the cult leaders of the Santhal rebellion was limited to an acquaintance with Sidhu Kanu Dahar (Or Sidhu Kanu Road) a street in Kolkata named after them.
Anyway, why worry about facts when you have drama instead? Of course with Trinamul Congress leaving the UPA the theatrics of threats are gone. But there will be other drama. As Queen B now says: “I never threat. It is not my duty to threat anybody.”

The writer is editor of The Little Magazine.