I wrote yesterday regarding the spontaneous announcement by Mamata of going into a dharna, protesting against the Election Commission’s order banning campaigning for 24 hours by her. She would sit in protest from noon today, and she lived up to her words in style. The State government forgot that prior permission from the army is required for any event in the Maidan. Hurriedly the permission was sought from the army in the morning, and Didi went ahead to sit solo under the shamiana.
If the opponents, the BJP in particular, were happy, the Election Commission’s later order, barring Rahul Sinha from campaigning for 48 hours while serving a show-cause notice to the State BJP President Dilip Ghosh. Both the BJP leaders had made offensive comments over the killing and deaths in Sitalkuchi.
Didi’s dharna was in protest against the unconstitutional and arbitrary actions of the Election Commission. Could she sit-in protest? I guess not, and the court is the only recourse for any relief. The dharna had its special political and psychological connotations.
Hurriedly the party replaced the word ‘dharna’ with ‘satyagraha,’ a protest rephrased to mean a passive and peaceful resistance. Satyagraha evokes passionate memories. It reminds of Gandhi and the freedom struggle; it refreshes memories of Vinobha’s, Jay Prakash Ji’s and Anna Hazare’s protests. The freedom fighters resorted to Satyagraha against the British, which invokes commitment, sympathy and respect. Mamata targeted all these and a bit more.
By evoking local versus outsiders and exhorting the rural women to take up ladles and spoons and resist the outside Central forces, Mamata succeeded in influence the rural minds. Seeking minorities to not divide their votes, per se, in my opinion, may not be a cause of action at all. That’s, however, the domain of the Election Commission, and I leave it at that.
The Election Commission was speechless, seeing Mamata in Satyagraha near the Gandhi Statue. Could a silent, peaceful protest be deemed as campaigning and in violation of their order? The ass that is law is silent on such surprises. There were no party flags, no party-persons around where Mamata sat. She was alone with an oversupply of painting materials: canvas boards, camel acrylic colours, brushes, pallets et al. Effortlessly, Mamata di was squeezing the colour pastes from the tubes directly on to the hungry boards, as her deft fingers worked with ease, similar as her mind dishes out poems.
The sit-in satyagraha is a classic lesson for the management studies on how Didi converts every adversity on her way into an opportunity. The lone diminutive figure seated on her trademark wheelchair at a distance went viral as she scored a classic goal.
West Bengal’s electoral politics has become a keenly watched event all over the country and beyond. One must not miss the finer aspects of Mamata’s reactions if the events have to be enjoyed.
Leaving her style of politics, I can dare say that there may be none to match her cleverness in converting all tribulations to favourable opportunities.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
Pic: By my son Arvind Kumar from Ground zero
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