Dear Mamata... yours truly, “Maoist”

Not every silhouette is a terrorist, Bengal CM should tell cadres, too

shantanu

Shantanu Datta | January 19, 2013



Mamata Banerjee has a lot to tell everyone, every day. The general public, the voters, other political parties, political opposition (“CPM”), Maoists, conspirators, “anti-people central gorment”, “mischievous and conspiratorial media” — they all get their daily dose of homilies from the West Bengal chief minister.

But it’s time Banerjee directed some of those gyaan at her own party leaders and activists, given their explicitly thin skin and awkwardly touchy sensitivity for everything concerning her.

The latest from Mamata-land concerns a police complaint against a student of Kolkata’s Bidhannagar College, Ramnayan Chowdhury, a supporter of SFI, the CPI-M’s students’ front, who got excited at a caricature on circulation about India cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Mamata Banerjee. In his excitement, political foresight or attempt to unseat the Banerjee government (take your pick), the second-year student hit the “like” and “share” buttons on Facebook without thinking about Didi’s thoughts in thought bubbles.

But one Suvakshan Dutta, the Trinamool Chhatra Parishad’s (Trinamool Congress’s student front) Salt Lake town president, found it offensive and filed a police complaint, as reported by newspapers on Saturday.

Written in Bangla, the text next to the duo’s caricature reads: “Doodh maango toh kheer denge, match maango toh series denge” (for Dhoni); and “Jawaab maango toh Maoist bolenge, shilpo maango toh shila dikhayenge”.

Loosely translated, they mean “if you ask for milk, will give you kheer; ask for match, will give series”; and “ask for answer, will brand you a Maoist, ask for industry, will give you stones/brickbats”.

The first, of course, is a reflection on the Indian team’s pathetic performance of late. But since the team won the last ODI at Kochi, and very convincingly at that, one can only guess the caricature is an old one — when Dhoni’s men were in dumps against England.

The second takes a dig at Banerjee’s extremely sensitive nature: she has discovered many “Maoists” among people who dared question her in the past. In fact, even on Friday, the day the “accused” student got a call from Salt Lake police about the complaint against him, Banerjee alleged that the opposition and the media are conspiring against her government and highlighting a “wrong picture” about crimes against women in West Bengal.

The contentious caricatures are not bad artworks but the messages next to them juvenile at best. They don’t rhyme, the sentences are poorly constructed/structured, are more forced than funny, and, well, sort of inane.

Yes, there have been 102 “likes” and 122 “shares” since Ramnayan put it up on his facebook status board yesterday (according to his timeline, though the complaint was filed on Thursday), and yes, they do take a dig at Dhoni and Banerjee, but they are just as certainly not insulting or offensive. And they definitely do not demand a police investigation.

So here are five advises (or instructions, as she keeps issuing others) Banerjee should offer to her party leaders and activists:

1. Don’t ape me. Don’t be so sensitive to criticism.
2. Don’t ape me. Don’t assume everyone is out to get you and me.
3. Don’t ape me. Don’t presume anyone not registered with Trinamool is a potential Maoists.
4. Don’t ape me. Don’t look for conspiracies at every word, action, image and silhouette.
5. Don’t ape me. Just don’t. Let me be unique in some ways.

Comments

 

Other News

India faces critical shortage of skin donors amid rising burn cases

India reports nearly 70 lakh burn injury cases every year, resulting in approximately 1.4 lakh deaths annually. Experts estimate that up to 50% of these lives could be saved with adequate access to skin donations.   A significant concern is that around 70% of burn victims fall wi

Not just politics, let`s discuss policies too

Why public policy matters Most days, India`s loudest debates stop at the ballot box. We can name every major leader and recall every campaign slogan. Still, far fewer of us can explain why a widow`s pension is delayed or how a government school`s budget is actually approved. That

When algorithms decide and children die

The images have not left me, of dead and wounded children being carried in the arms of the medics and relatives to the ambulances and hospitals. On February 28, at the start of Operation Epic Fury, cruise missiles struck the Shajareh Tayyebeh school – officially named a girls’ school, in Minab,

The economics of representation: Why women in power matter

India’s democracy has grown in scale, but not quite in balance. Women today are active participants in elections, influencing outcomes in ways that were not as visible earlier. Yet their presence in legislative institutions continues to lag behind. The Nari Shakti Vandan Adhiniyam was meant to addres

India will be powerful, not aggressive: Bhaiyyaji

India is poised to emerge as a global power but will remain rooted in its civilisational ethos of non-aggression and harmony, former RSS General Secretary Suresh `Bhaiyyaji` Joshi has said.   He was speaking at the launch of “Rashtrabhav,” a book by Ravindra Sathe

AI: Code, Control, Conquer

India today stands at a critical juncture in the area of artificial intelligence. While the country is among the fastest adopters of AI in the world, it remains heavily reliant on technologies developed elsewhere. This paradox, experts warn, cannot persist if India seeks technological sovereignty.


Archives

Current Issue

Opinion

Facebook Twitter Google Plus Linkedin Subscribe Newsletter

Twitter