Mamata in a wheelchair!

The tigress shook off her travails, got her mandatory 6-week plaster cut in less than 24 hours, got her discharged within 48 hours of admission into the hospital. A shocked world saw her in neat blue linen, matching with her party colours and a thick plaster around her feet, not in an orthopedically perfect angle. But who cares? The pictures spread faster than a threatened ‘cobra bite’ by her political opponents. While the alleged miscreant, a pole which did the purported damage, Mamata moved to the pole position in this lap of campaigning.

The plaster around her leg magically vanished even before it could have dried and emerged as a crepe bandage. Again, who cares? The much-oved leader was hurt, with or without a bandage. For her party supporters, it was the handiwork of the outsiders, despite the eyewitnesses stating otherwise. In their usual wisdom, the police gave a confusing report; none were able to make head or tail out of it, prompting the Election Commission to send their observers and seeking a more responsible report. The EC ruled out any attack. But who cares? Didi was hurt was all that mattered!

Be that all as it may, the game of politics is converting every difficulty into an opportunity, and there is none to beat Mamata Banerjee in the art. She has confounded poll-pundits by winning handsomely in the wake of a serious Narada sting that singed many of her colleagues. She has braved the jailing of many of her leaders on the Sarada chit fund scam. She could tickle the sentiments of her slumbering voters when the bust of Vidyasagar imploded, the CCTVs non-functional, and no arrests done to this date. But who cares? She was, after all, Bengal’s Didi!

I was waiting for a game-changer, which Didi alone could do. There can be no doubt of hurt, though the degree of damage done to her ligament is only known to the doctors treating her. Even before fully healing, she decided to make the best of the situation, appearing in the wheelchair, sombre and agonised, the whole State grieving with her.

I received a clip from a Bengali movie, the script by an aspiring politician, asking his assistant to beat him up, hospitalise him and distribute the pics all over before appearing dramatically in a wheelchair to win the election. Though the plot matched one hundred per cent, I would not belittle the State poll strategist, PK, who would not stoop down to imitate old plots. He is an imaginative professional, indeed. But who cares for all these trivialities, except for Didi’s hurt?

As the pole in Nandigram stands in mute silence, Didi has notched up the pole position for the poll’s initial phases. The only grey area is there are two weeks for her election, and it would be worth a wait to see if the Delhi plot-developers are as imaginative. The BJP must do better than serving stale CBI notices to a few leaders. I guess Delhi is no match for the ingenuity of Bengal.

Bengal cares!

Sampath Kumar

Intrépide Voix