Mamata paints Bengal green

She’s done it. Mamata Banerjee has delivered on the first part of her poll promise of ushering in change — of parivartan. The Left Front government in West Bengal, the longest serving elected Communist government in the world, has been toppled after 34 years.
As the results poured in and it became clear that Ms Banerjee would be Bengal’s new chief minister, the lady thanked voters for this “victory of democracy”.

This was a victory of the people, against terror, torture and insult, a victory of Ma, maati, maanush (“Mother, earth, people” the Trinamul Congress slogan). Everyone was included, from up in the hills (wracked by the Gorkhaland agitation) to down in Jangalmahal (the Maoist bastion) to people of all castes and communities. Magnanimous in victory, she compared the historic win to India’s freedom struggle and dedicated it to the motherland, Bengal. And she offered her “pranam and salaam” to the people.
The salaam was a good touch, especially since the scene in front of her house exuded the Hindu festive spirit. Dhaakis that we only see during Durga pujas danced to the drumbeat of their feather-tailed, celebratory dhaaks, the sound of conch shells and the delirious ululation of women mingled with the beat of the kanshor ghanta, the ritual bell. And joyous supporters danced and smeared everyone with bright abir (gulaal). This parivartan was defined as an auspicious moment of joy in Hindu terms.
It was a dramatic departure from victory celebrations Bengal had seen in recent years. The Left was far less colourful in victory, it merely raised its fist with slogans of Inquilaab zindabad! and such like, while some cadres did their joy jigs.
But then, Ms Banerjee plays by her own rules — she does not have a party high command to follow, and mixing religious ritualism with politics doesn’t bother her. Why, just last year the railway minister took out ads in newspapers publicly posing as a Muslim woman in a make-believe namaaz shot wearing the hijab as she presented development projects of the railway ministry — like a new line and a new nursing college — as Id gifts. Ms Banerjee’s keen eye on the Muslim vote was understandable. Almost 30 per cent of Bengal’s population is Muslim. The Left Front has been traditionally Muslim-friendly, but the Sachar report revealed how hollow this friendliness was. Muslims in Bengal may have been protected from sectarian ills, but they did not have education, jobs or positions of power. Ensuring social peace, like the Left has splendidly done for decades, was not enough. Seducing these voters would ensure Ms Banerjee’s win in a state thirsty for change. So what if it involved using the public exchequer to advertise herself and presenting the regular entitlements of Indian citizens as favours to a minority community? All’s fair in love and war, right?
And this was war. Ms Banerjee has been arming for years. She had set her eyes on Bengal and like the young Arjun who could see nothing beyond the targeted bird’s eye, she focused squarely on the Left bastion. Ask those in Delhi who have dubbed her the absentee railway minister. Everything she does as a politician, a member of Parliament or a Union minister, seems to be with an eye on Bengal. And today her arrow has hit the bird’s eye.
This victory was not easy. Especially for a woman from a lower middle class home who was not the wife, widow or daughter of a political leader. But the girl who lost her father in her teens and struggled to get a college education joined the Congress and became a student leader. Her rise was spectacular, helped largely by then Bengal Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee, and soon the girl in pigtails had graduated from pasting posters on endless walls to heading Bengal’s Mahila Congress and then running for the Lok Sabha against veteran Left leader Somnath Chatterjee from a Communist Party of India (Marxist) stronghold, Jadavpur. She campaigned door to door, seeking blessings as a daughter from every family. She even touched Mr Chatterjee’s feet, asking for his blessings. And she won. Ms Banerjee entered the Lok Sabha as a giant-killer. It was the first time she had achieved the impossible.
Now, as she dismantles the red fortress in a landslide win, she earns her place in history. This time too she had appealed to the people as one of them, as “a commoner” fighting for change. The people of Bengal had seen her courage and tenacity in the fight against land acquisition for industrialisation in Singur and Nandigram, they had experienced her splendid theatrics, seen her swinging in and out of political parties and alliances, witnessed her incredible determination, felt her unbreakable spirit and recognised in the shrill, temperamental woman in the crumpled cotton sari and rubber chappals the shrewd giant-killer they could depend on.
So the woman from a Kalighat lane once derided by the Bengali bhadraloks will be the first non-Communist chief minister of Bengal in 34 years, and the state’s first woman chief minister.
But can Ms Banerjee truly deliver on her promise? Will there be real change in Bengal? Will the cycle of violence end? Trinamul is not a peaceful party, and it is believed that CPI(M) goons have already switched over to them. Politics in the once progressive state of Bengal is ruled by organised violence. Besides, the Maoists have officially declared that the Trinamul has been an ally of the Maoists from the time of Singur and Nandigram, movements that finally swung public opinion against the Left and for Trinamul.
Ms Banerjee herself is short-tempered and not confined by political decorum. During the Singur agitation, she had barged into the Bengal Assembly and vandalised the premises with Trinamul legislators, breaking furniture and equipment and injuring Left MLAs. Parliament has seen Ms Banerjee’s anger over the years — she has lobbed papers at the deputy Speaker, collared other MPs and even dragged one away, and thrown her shawl at a railway minister for ignoring Bengal in the Rail Budget.
Besides, like the Left in national politics, Ms Banerjee is the voice of dissent, the natural opposition. She would need a remarkable makeover to deliver good governance and go beyond populist measures. She has breathed hope into a tired population and there are great expectations. She would have to learn the art of administration. She promises industry, but has to find acceptable ways of land acquisition. She cannot blame the CPI(M) conspiracies for every misfortune anymore.
In short, the enfant terrible of Bengal has to grow up. The CM’s chair is a good spot  for that. And as Ms Banerjee has proved over and over again — nothing is impossible.

Antara Dev Sen is editor of The Little Magazine. She can be contacted at:
sen@littlemag.com