She won't go gentle into the good night

Fresh from losing West Bengal, Didi has declared with operatic conviction: 'No question of my resignation, I have not lost the election.' The line could well have been ghost-written by Donald-da, who continues to insist that the 2020 US election was stolen. The choreography is identical: deny defeat, blame the system, promise resurrection. But Mamata B's performance has a literary flourish. She channels Dylan Thomas, refusing to 'go gentle into that good night'. Instead, in typical fashion, she rages, rages against the dying of her political light, insisting that the fight was not with BJP but with EC, Emperor Palpatine to the former's Darth Vader.

Never mind the vast sartorial difference, Trump had his 'Stop the Steal' rallies, Mamata has now threatened with her 'No Raj Bhavan' press conferences and street mobilisation. Dada thunders about conspiracies; Didi hisses of 'shorojontro'. Both transform loss into theatre, defeat into defiance. Thomas' lines have become parody: 'Though wise men at their end know dark is right' - she insists the darkness is conspiracy, not mandate. So, Bengal, along with India, watches a familiar spectacle: a leader who will not concede, who insists history will repeat itself, who treats democracy as a stage where the curtain never falls. It's rage over resignation - bring out the roshogolla while we watch!