MAMATA GOES TO WAR

The Trinamool Congress chief dusts off her ‘Ma-Maati-Manush’ slogan to pitch the 2021 assembly election as a battle to save ‘motherland’ Bengal from ‘outsider’ BJP

- ROMITA DATTA

ON October 3, the heart of Kolkata was besieged by thousands of Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters decrying the alleged gang-rape and torture—and eventual death—of a Dalit woman in Hathras, in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh, and the state machinery’s perceived apathetic handling of the case. Leading the protest—her first in six months since the Covid outbreak—was West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Marching to the cries of “BJP Sorkar Aar Nei Dorkar (No More of BJP government)”, Mamata came across as a fiery national opposition leader determined to hold the ruling party accountable. The BJP is the “biggest pandemic” and is torturing Dalits, she declared.

Just two weeks ago, on September 20, when eight opposition MPs in the Rajya Sabha, including two of the TMC, were suspended for ‘unruly conduct’ during the passage of contentious farms bills, Mamata had announced a sustained agitation on the issue in Bengal, home to an estimated 7 million farmers. “There’s an immediate need to form an alliance against the Centre, which has passed these controversial bills in Hitler’s style,” she said. In August, Mamata had rallied behind students when the Centre decided to hold the NEET (medical) and JEE (engineering) entrance examinations amidst the pandemic.