Mamata Banerjee Return of the street fighter

Delhi: A podium sporting the tricolours of the Indian flag and a blue Save India’ hoarding sprang up at the corner of a busy thoroughfare along Kolkata’s Esplanade. Sitting in the middle of a saffron-white-green shamiana was Mamata Banerjee in her trademark white and blue bordered saree. The colour coordination was a conscious move, and on the lines of the Mahatma’s satyagraha, the West Bengal chief minister had donned the role of a crusader. On behalf of Ma, Maati and Manush (mother, motherland and people), she was protesting against the alleged assault on democracy, the Constitution, state institutions and the federal structure of India by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

With less than 100 or so days left for the Lok Sabha election, the battle lines have been drawn it will be Modi-led NDA versus a coalition of once unimaginable allies such as the SP and BSP. And with her 48-hour-long dharna, Mamata sent out a clear message she’s ready to lead the anti-Modi alliance.

• Technically, it’s a victory for the CBI, backed by the Narendra Modi government. The central probe agency wanted to question Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar for his alleged role in the disappearance of certain papers and electronic evidence related to the Saradha scam.

• The CBI visited the residence of Kumar, Mamata’s most trusted officer, to interrogate him, but were stopped at the gate. The central government wanted to unnerve the West Bengal chief minister. Her unprecedented mode of counter-attack derailed the BJP’s plan.

• By sitting in a dharna against the Modi government and roping in support from fence-sitters opposition parties, including such as Naveen Patnaik, Mamata has positioned herself as the leading force among the rivals of the BJP, with
  the ability to take Modi and Amit Shah head on.

• The BJP, however, feels that the latest fiasco has given the party an opportunity to spin the 2019 contest as honest Modi versus a corrupt coalition of opposition parties.

• With no strong leader in the state to take on Mamata, it will be challenging for the BJP to win 10 seats in West Bengal, as planned by Shah. In the 2016 assembly poll, the BJP’s vote share had dipped to 10 per cent from 17 per cent in 2014 Lok Sabha election.

• Following her street-fighting instincts, Mamata ignored protocol, drove to the commissioner’s home, got her police officials to detain the CBI officials who came knocking at Kumar’s door and that very day, with Kumar in tow, staged a dharna. Mamata effectively converted what had remained a protracted game of legal hide and seek between the CBI and the Kolkata police into a battle between an autocratic Centre and the victimised state of West Bengal.

  To target Modi, Mamata chose an issue that will find immediate support among all opposition parties. Even Rahul Gandhi and Mayawati, her close competitors and fellow aspirants for the prime minister’s chair, extended solidarity and promised to fight shoulder to shoulder with her. RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav and DMK’s Kanimozhi visited her at the dharna mancha. The Shiv Sena in its party mouthpiece Saamana too, said that the CBI raid was orchestrated by the BJP to win 10 to 15 seats and seemingly lauded Mamata for hitting back at the Centre with equal force.

  Even BJD chief and Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, who had shown no interest in the opposition mahagathbandhan, seemed to voice his discomfort at the CBI’s action, remarking that the institutional integrity of the CBI has to be restored. However, a careful press statement from the BJD later said that grouping the BJD with some political parties because of this statement is incorrect.

Mamata finally declared a moral victory’ and called off the dharna on February 5, after the Supreme Court directed that the CBI could not arrest Kumar, although the officer was instructed to present himself in neutral’ Shillong for questioning by the investigative agency. By then she had achieved her goal of showcasing herself as a leader who can take on the might of Modi-Shah and rally the support of political parties across the opposition spectrum.

I will ask all political parties to work together to oust the BJP, she said, adding that Modi had planned a constitutional coup against her because she had organised the United India Rally on January 19, when several opposition parties shared the dais with her in Kolkata. On February 5, Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was standing next to her.

Mamata Banerjee has deftly defined the CBI stand-off as a moment of crisis in Centre-state relations and used it to find common cause with other regional leaders, says Louise Tillin, a political scientist at the King’s India Institute, London. In declaring their support for Banerjee, this loose alliance has demonstrated that it can unite around flashpoints of Centre-state tension. Whether they can develop this defence of federalism into a coherent platform that could challenge the nationalising politics of the BJP will be tested during the coming elections.

West Bengal is now the epicentre of the saffron party’s mission to establish itself in the east all the more urgently since its drubbing in the assembly polls in three Hindi heartland states in December. In Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP won 71 out of 80 seats in 2014, the party faces a stiff challenge from the SP-BSP combine. That’s why Bengal has become a crucial battleground for the BJP in the Lok Sabha election. It won 2 seats and 17 per cent vote share in the 2014 polls, but in 2016, its vote share went down to 10 per cent, primarily because the Left and the Congress fought together.

While the BJP hopes to win at least 10 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal, Mamata is not ready to cede an inch. Be it on the issue of demonetisation, the Goods and Services Tax or the proposed Save Democracy Ratha Yatra, Mamata wouldn’t give the BJP a free run in the state. She’s been at her combative best, denying BJP leaders permission to land on government helipads and obstructing their political rallies. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath was prevented from holding rallies in South Dinajpur, North Dinajpur and Bankura before he finally made it by landing in Jharkhand and travelling 28 km by road to Purulia. Mamata, however, insists she has done nothing out of the ordinary. Modi came here, Rajnath Singh did six rallies and even he (Shah) came here with swine flu, she declaimed.

While Mamata has gained what she wanted, Kumar now stares at more trouble. The home ministry has asked the state government to start disciplinary proceedings against the officer for indisciplined behaviour and violation of All India Services Conduct Rules. The ministry has clearly stated that Kumar sitting with some police officers at the chief minister’s dharna amounted to contravention of the AIS Rules, 1969. Is there a skeleton in the CP’s cupboard that the chief minister wants to hide? asks state BJP president Dilip Ghosh. For now, Kumar is said to have written to the CBI that he would depose before the agency. Mamata has also lightheartedly promised to treat the CBI officers well, feed them with Bengali delicacies, roshogolla and mishti doi, lest anybody think she had anything against the agency. The smart politician knows that every battle cannot be fought on the streets especially when the highest court of the country gets involved.