Is Mamata the ‘cancer’ of West Bengal?

Frustrated with the Nano pullout from the state, people give Mamata the tag of a villain

KOLKATA: “And the award for the Gujarati of the year goes to…. No, it is not Mukesh Ambani, Tulsi Tanti or Narendra Modi. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together and clap for Mamataben Banerjee.”

“By gifting Nano to Gujarat, Mamata proves her alliance towards BJP.”

“In December 2007, Mamata congratulated Modi with flowers and now she felicitates him with Nano”.

These are some of the SMS messages that have been doing the rounds in Kolkata since Tuesday evening after the official announcement by Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata, declaring Gujarat as the new home for his dream project Nano.

The strong anti-Mamata Banerjee and anti-Trinamool Congress sentiment among the public is exactly what the CPI(M) would like to cash in on as their theme campaign for the coming Lok Sabha elections scheduled next year.

The CPI(M) will also not spare the Congress in their campaign by projecting it as the “clandestine villain” to facilitate Mamata’s anti-Nano drive by rejecting the new compensation package at the all-party meeting. The Left’s target in Congress would be mainly the Union broadcasting minister, Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi and state Congress spokesman, who had been repeatedly saying that Nano pullout will have no effect on West Bengal.

CPI(M) has already started portraying Mamata as the facilitator for setting of Nano in Gujarat. The party’s organ in Bengali, Ganashakti has come out with a series of articles on these lines on Wednesday. “Nano is Modi’s, courtesy Mamata” and “The congratulation and now an entire factory,” were the headings of the Ganashakti on Wednesday.

Interestingly, a group of Bengali intellectuals have already started portraying Mamata as the cancer of Bengal. Says renowned educationist and poet Subodh Sarkar, “Durga Puja was never so black and sad for me. The opportunity that our state received is destroyed because of the destructive politics by the opposition.” According to film director Sharan Dutta, “West Bengal is going through a very bad time and only one person who is responsible for this is Mamata Banerjee.”

Probably such statements would be the key of CPI(M)’s campaigning propaganda in the days to come. But in the midst of all this, Singur has plunged into total darkness.