As one who had hobnobbed with several ministers, political leaders and senior bureaucrats during my career, I can see the difference between the quality of leadership between Bengal leaders and those from other states.
Most of the leaders live in their own small cocooned worlds, daring and roaring inside their shells and are neither articulate nor focused to have any visible impact on the National scenario.
I take on the Trinamul leader Mamata di, how she trusted and embraced wily leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav during the Presidential election. She was isolated and was an object of ridicule in and outside the state.
She committed the same mistake, this time walking with Anna. For the present Anna is a spent force! All famous faces are leaving to join BJP; Gen (Retd.) VK Singh, Kiran Bedi (in the queue) etc. He is isolated and cannot resist to be alone during the most critical political battle in the country. He cannot openly support BJP or Modi, though he has not uttered anything against both so far. He cannot go to Congress, against whom he was fighting all along. He has no support from any other major political party. Justifiably he was looking for a shoulder, which Mamata di lent. How royally he ditched her! The Ramlila maidan with a capacity of 12000 had a mere 2000, who could have been a few dozen bonafide listeners and the rest could have been the contractors’ men who had supplied chairs and the sound system. What a shame!
Trinamul IS a regional party. Didi should keep the whispering astrologers that she could become a PM, away from her and concentrate on the State, which has stood by her in the assembly elections and then at the Panchayat Polls.
100 number candidates spread across the country is a harakiri and would further erode her and her party’s national image.
Her sudden found love for Jayalalitha is another example of Mamata’s political naivety. Has Jayalalitha uttered any word in public supporting Mamata? No, because Jayalalitha is far more matured, clever and crafty. The simplicity and trust of our leader should not result in the rout of her party’s image and result in another change, nullifying her hard fought victory over 34 years of left misrule.
