Mamata Banerjee ko gussa kyun aur kab aata hai? (When and why does Mamata Banerjee get angry?) This is probably the question haunting political and media circles after her row with journalists of a Bengali news channel on Tuesday, after which she branded scribes “her potential assassins”.
Going by trend, Mamata’s outbursts peak whenever she is on a sticky wicket in politics. Invariably, the media bears the brunt of her rage. Her branding of two eager journalists as “potential assassins” comes at a time when she is slightly uncomfortable with her present alliance status. The events of the past few months casts doubts on the healthy of the tie up between the Trinamool and Congress.
Her differences with prime minister Manmohan Singh and home minister P Chidambaram on the Maoist issue is a key point. Mamata is emphatic on the withdrawal of combined forces from Lalgarh, but the Centre is in no mood to oblige her.
Besides, she’s also annoyed that the cabinet is ignoring her demand to dissolve the West Bengal government before its term ends in 2011. The Congress taking the Left Front’s support to get its candidate elected as Siliguri mayor has further widened the gap.
This phenomenon was first seen when she was railways minister during the Vajpayee-led NDA regime. In 2001, when she started having differences with the BJP, many scribes became victims of her rage. Journalist and educationist Paranjay Guha Thakurta recalls one such experience with Mamata. When he asked her some technical questions on the railways, he was lambasted thus: “Are you an agent of Jyoti Basu? Do you work for [CPI(M) mouthpiece] Ganashakti?. These were the two questions she asked me,” recalls Guha.
Sudeshna Bhattacharjee, journalist of a popular Bengali news channel, was the victim of Mamata’s outburst in 2006, while covering her agitation against land row for the Singur project. She lambasted Sudeshna for allegedly siding with the CPI(M). The reporter was beaten up by Trinamool activists.
In September 2008, when she was criticised for her “dharna” in front of the erstwhile Nano site at Singur, she called for a boycott of two popular Bengali news channels. Senior journalist Monideepa Banerjee, who works for an English news channel, faced Mamata’s rage at a press conference soon after Ratan Tata said he’s taking Nano out of Singur. Asked for her reactions, Mamata flung back, “How much money do you get from the Tatas?”
