The endless, topsy-turvy saga of West Bengal politics!

In Alice in Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts is fond of the game of croquet, where the balls are hedgehogs and the mallets are flamingoes. And, “The Queen had only one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. ‘Off with his head!’ she said, without even looking around.”

In Bengal’s political wonderland, Queen Didi is better off: she has two ways of getting around all difficulties. Uncomfortable things like crib deaths in hospitals or rape-and-battery cases are either shajano, staged, or chakranto, conspiracies. All this staging and conspiracy are supposedly the work of a defanged CPI(M).

Between shajano and chakranto, Didi has found time to order Kolkata to be painted blue with her MPs’ development funds. She chose the colour herself: blue stands for the sky, which reflects the aspirations of Bengal. Now, Bengal aspires that strikes and bandhs, which were Didi’s modes of expression when out of power, become taboo after she became Queen.

A bandh called by the Left this week had to be opposed by the government and it was, in wonderland way: Didi told all government employees if they didn’t report for work on the day of the bandh, it would mean a break from service. So, Bengal’s babus, fearing traffic disruptions on the day of the bandh, slept at office the previous night, to wake up to another busy day of tea and gossip.

Buses and vehicles plied the roads, but empty, because those who had a choice, stayed indoors. As is common in wonderland, TV crews or journalists who went about their job that day were beaten mercilessly by Trinamool goons, while the police dawdled. And the Queen declared that a popular Bangla news channel, which had backed her to the hilt before elections in 2009 and 2011, was now to be shunned for it was, ahem, now under the control of the CPI(M)!