‘Incumbency’ is a double-edged sword in Indian politics. If you are not as recumbent as Rahul Gandhi, being the incumbent puts you in the driving seat as far as the state apparatus goes. Bureaucrats are at your beck and call and the police will do your bidding, viz., lathi-charge when you give the nod, and look the other way when you feel appropriate. On the other hand, it could also happen that the electorate is angry with itself for the blunder they had made five years ago and itching to get back at you. The descent from unfounded hope through disappointment to the depths of despair occurs with comforting predictability. But Mamata Banerjee has broken the vicious cycle, and this makes her hat-trick in West Bengal special. The pundits attribute it to the pandemic or Prashant Kishore or …some secret sauce. My vote is for the sauce, and that is why I think Didi should head for Delhi.
Here are good reasons why she could make a fantastic prime minister:
First off, she is a woman, and the Angela Merkels and Jacinda Arderns of the world have proved beyond reasonable doubt that women are more adept at pulling a country out of a crisis. For that reason alone, Banerjee can qualify as India’s prime minister-for-life as we can be trusted to always have some crisis or other handy.
Charisma is supposed to be essential for mass leaders if they don’t want to end up like the unsung Dr. Singh. Banerjee has fashioned her own homespun brand of inverted charisma. It may not excite you and me, but frankly, neither your views nor mine matter. What matters is that it drove enough people to give her a whopping vote share. Didi has also exhibited good marketing skills. Think ‘poriborton’, think wheelchair – both mnemonics that the country’s brightest marketing minds would be proud to pass off as their own.
If you are looking for a leader who can drive national reconciliation, Didi could qualify. She is not communal – at least not in the conventional way the term is understood. Yes, she knows how to play her cards – the constituencies in which to sing aartis and when to green light a religious procession. Don’t forget, her preferred attire is a white sari with a mono-coloured border. How does that matter, you ask. Well, a decade ago, Kolkata had a woman in a white sari who spread the magic of healing care throughout the city and elsewhere. That woman in white is now a saint. Banerjee of course is not Mother Teresa (at least not yet). If anything, she is the slugging saint who, when push comes to shove, can cast her halo aside to butt her opponents in the face. Even saints need to update their modus operandi.
On current form, she is not a friend of industrialists. Most of them would still be having Nandigram in mind. But if experience is anything to go by, there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies in the system. Our industrialists are a practical lot. If there is one phrase they know, it is if the mountain does not come to Mohammad, Mohammad must go to the mountain. Go they will, and who knows, some may even return as cronies.
Apart from Bengali, her verbal skills are not in the top bracket. If you hear her speaking English or Hindi, and didn’t know that the subject was serious, you would bet she was a stand-up comedian parodying the Bengali stereotype, turning ‘v’s into ‘b’s, ‘a’s into ‘o’s and introducing vowels you never imagined existed. But then after years of a sonorous nasal drone, I wouldn’t mind a screech. And if I want to hear cut glass English, there’s always Shashi Tharoor.
Of late, she has demonstrated a weakness for word play and juvenile rhyme. In a recent interview, when asked about current political problems, she came up with: "There’s no solution, only pollution." A red flag immediately went up in my mind. Rhyming couplets and acronyms is somebody else’s territory. It is also the slippery slope to believing that clever slogans can substitute for policy.
Take a look at Banerjee’s cv. In times past, she had laid claim to a doctorate from the East Georgia University. But when doubts were raised if such a university exists at all, she sportingly relinquished the ‘Dr.’ to remain plain Didi. She has written many books – 102 at the last count. I am not aware of their literary merit but all of them are bestsellers, and we have the author’s word for it. She also paints, writes lyrics and composes music. The royalty she earns from these efforts is apparently sizeable enough to meet all her expenses. As prime minister, perhaps her expenses may go up but then so will the sale of her books once she begins to command nationwide readership. (Watch out, Chetan Bhagat!)
Despite all this, I am the first to admit that Mamata Banerjee may not belong to the intellectual elite of Bengal. It is said the bhadralok are those who can dissect Hegel and hilsa with equal aplomb. I don’t know about Didi. High intellect is not her strong suit. But then are we any better off now?
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of THE WEEK.
