Postcards from the edge of 2 ideologies

In an ongoing saga that might well be described by using a pastiche of James M Cain’s noir novel, The Postman Always Brings Twice, Kolkata, which recently witnessed an epic battle of the ballot box, has now become an arena for a battle of the mailbox. It started when BJP supporters, enthused by the spectacular success of the lotus party in the last polls, began to send postcards inscribed with the message ‘Jai Shri Ram’ to the residence of CM Mamata Banerjee, who was inundated by a rising tide of such missives bearing the saffron salutation calculated to make the redoubtable Didi see red. The feisty CM has had her party workers respond in kind by dispatching what could be called bullet-doux to PM Narendra Modi with the retaliatory riposte ‘Jai Hind, Jai Bangla’.

In an unintended consequence of this distance war of words, the humble postcard has seen an invigorating revival, so much so that there is now a shortage of the epistolary item in question. Unfazed by this dearth, a Trinamool Congress leader has been quoted as saying, “We have decided to print letters and send them to the PM. We will not stop flooding the PMO with such letters.” Such a never-say-die attitude is likely to be given a stamp of approval by the formidable Mamatadi who, once again, has shown opponents that when post comes to shove, she is the equal of any mail chauvinist.