Few reasons for Mamata Banerjee to celebrate two years in power

KOLKATA: On May 20, MamataBanerjee’s government in West Bengal will complete two years. The chief minister plans to bring out a booklet elaborating the successes of her administration. Celebrities could be roped in for the festivities.

After all, Mamata Banerjee never stops advertising herself. Actually the going has got tougher for the Trinamool administration every day, over the past 24 months. The euphoria that greeted her when she stepped into Writers Building in 2011 has evaporated.

Mamata’s public meetings in the districts do not attract the crowds they used to earlier. She has emerged as a temperamental person, loud-mouthed, insensitive and short on delivery. The collapse of Saradha and the association of her ministers and MPs with the group, has tarnished her reputation further. This might dent her electoral prospects.
A panchayat poll, which should have taken place now has been delayed, as the court hears out the views of the state government and the Election Commission.

The Lok Sabha polls are scheduled next year, if not earlier. And in 2016 Mamata will to go to the same people who have lost their life’s savings in the chit fund scam, for votes. Giant-killer Mamata made some gigantic mistakes over the last two years. She has shot off her mouth without thinking on many occasions. The latest slip happened when she hiked the VAT on cigarettes to pay Saradha’s creditors.

"I plan to raise Rs 150 crore from this and of course if people smoke more, it will be better," she said. “I am not a smoker. But I am now planning to smoke and tell my friends to start smoking to give more revenues to the chief minister,” painter Wasim Kapoor said sarcastically.

He felt that an increased VAT on tobacco was not the best way to compensate Saradha’s victims. Academician Sunanda Sanyal said, “Why should common people pay extra to help the government compensate victims of Saradha group? The government should collect money from its owner Sudipta Sen.” Mamata made a mess of the Park Street rape case incident, which she initially denied ever happened, and then transferred the police officer who went on to solve the case.

She termed some college students ‘Maoists’ when they asked uncomfortable questions. And she alienated and terrified Marwari businessmen by randomly arresting some of the biggest names in the community after the AMRI fire incident. And, it is becoming increasingly clear that she – and Trinamool bigwigs – hobnobbed with the promoters of bengal’s chit fund industry.

In the 24 months that she has been in power, Mamata has not been able to get even one blue-chip company to invest in West Bengal. Two Bengal Leads campaigns, to attract investors, were failures. A third, scheduled to be held in Mumbai, never took place because there was no response. Pulverised in the May 2011 election, CPM is making a quiet comeback without having to do anything, riding on the Trinamool’s own gaffes.

The Congress, now estranged from the Trinamool, is also seeing its stock rise, with every passing day. Public resentment about Trinamool is red hot. Therefore, whatever Mamata Banerjee does or says to celebrate the completion of two years in office, the only people applauding will be her cronies in the party.