The recent election was a war fought between the un-equals: the giants and the dwarfs. In Bengal, the diminutive Mamata Banerjee was the sole woman, slender and tiny, fighting the giants in the BJP
When Mamata Banerjee declared being just a “streetfighter”, she was clearly underplaying her might. If anything, Mamata’s strength lies in her capacity to fight and fight well.
She did exactly that in the recently concluded election of West Bengal. She not only fought but fought well, demonstrating her ability to vanquish and overpower her alleged oppressors, in this case the BJP. Angels fight demons; the Goddess slays them but Banerjee fought the goons.
That Mamata Banerjee is a street fighter is a given. But the recent election was not a street fight; neither was it a battle. If anything, it was a war and, that too, one which was fought between the un-equals: the giants and the dwarfs, or to borrow from Jonathan Swift: the Lilliputians. In the West Bengal election, the diminutive Mamata Banerjee was the sole woman, slender and tiny, fighting the giants in the BJP.
The giants had descended on her state with full might: they pulled all sops, used both money and muscle to make her bend. But she did not succumb. She campaigned and campaigned well, strapped to a wheelchair.
The wheelchair became controversial and then symbolic: quite like Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s erstwhile muffler: his trademark when he had coughing bouts. It was only after he underwent a surgery that he shed off his muffler. Mamata Banerjee too gave up the wheel chair after she won the election.
The wheelchair had gained prominence after Mamata Banerjee’s alleged accident: alleged because there were, then, several theories doing the rounds. One that she was pushed by the BJP goons and the other that she is faking it to gain sympathy and paint the BJP black.
Politics is in Mamata Banerjee’s blood. And painting the BJP black is like Chandi path that she was heard reciting publicly when the competition with the Gods got a bit much. The BJP had tried to invade West Bengal with their brand of Gods more prominently Lord Ram. TMC’s counter came through Goddess Durga who is all pervasive in the mind of every Bengali.
However, BJP stoked the fires when the state chief questioned the lineage of the goddess even as it eulogized Ram on grounds that even while the world knows the names of Ram’s ancestors, the same cannot be said about the Goddess.
