The bindi rises in the east: Is Deepa Das Munshi the anti-Mamata?

In West Bengal, the bindi rises. Three leaders have made it into the cabinet thanks to the reshuffle. Adhir Chowdhury, the newly minted minister of state for railways, was once accused in a murder case but is the strongman who turned Congress fortunes around in Murshidabad. Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury, the brother of the late A.B.A. Ghani Khan Choudhury, is a nod to the Muslim vote. But all eyes are on Deepa Das Munshi, she with her one-rupee coin sized bindis and her handloom saris, now the junior urban development minister. She is the perfect antithesis of Mamata in the state. If Mamata is the state’s Didi, then Deepa Das Munshi is the boudi or sister-in-law of Raiganj from where her husband Priya Ranjan Das Munshi was elected. He’s been in a vegetative state since 2008 and questions have been raised about the government money being spent on his care in Apollo hospital which had wanted him shifted  home. She’s the politician’s wife who has become the politician unlike Mamata who came up on her own. [caption id=“attachment_506421” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Deepa Das Munshi being sworn in. PTI.[/caption] She’s soft-spoken but aggressive and says she can never stoop to the kind of street language her opponent uses. She’s comfortable in English and took her oath in Hindi because many of her constituents are Hindi-speaking. She’s had to face snide attacks about sporting colourful saris and giant bindis while her husband lies comatose. “I will not wear a torn sari because I am grieving within,” she told The Telegraph . “I have to accept that life is like that. I can’t sit and brood at home.” “I wear bright colours when I am in a bad mood,” she told the Mumbai Mirror, “and dull when I am happy. These days you will always see me in bright colours". Some call  her a modern Sati Savitri for rushing from stem cell experts in Germany to Baba Ramdev to stories she reads on the internet to revive her brain-dead husband. Others are more skeptical. “Unlike Savitri, who did penance under a Banyan tree, Deepa spends most of her time touring Bengal and giving speeches,” quipped a senior Bengal PCC functionary. But Deepa has also made a name for herself for being a critic of Mamata even when her party colleagues were cozying up to Didi when Mamata’s star was on the rise. She’s locked horns with Mamata many times but most of all about a super specialty hospital she wants to bring to her constituency Raiganj. Mamata wants it shifted to Kalyani. Whether Raiganj gets its hospital or not, one thing is clear. The Congress-Mamata breakup is now personal, not just political. By appointing three well-known Mamata-baiters as ministers, that too to ministries formerly occupied by the Trinamool, the Congress is sending a “stern message” to its former ally say television channels in West Bengal. That’s if you believe the beleaguered Congress has much political ammunition left in its arsenal to be stern with anyone. Trinamool has been quick to scoff. Speaking to media, Trinamool leader Subrata Mukherjee said the three appointees were just part of the “shouting brigade".  Anyway as ministers of state they have more pomp than power. The state Congress used to take digs at the Trinamool at one time saying its ministers in the UPA were “half-pant ministers” not taken seriously by anyone. Its Rail Minister Mukul Roy was more often found by Mamata’s side than in his office in Delhi. “Now it seems the state Congress has been happy to put on those discarded half-pants,” sneered Subrata Mukherjee. “They won’t be able to disturb or weaken the Trinamool or throw any challenge to the party,” scoffed Saugata Roy whose ministerial berth Deepa now occupies. He pointed out that in 2009, West Bengal held two of the most important cabinet posts – Pranab Mukherjee in finance and Mamata Banerjee in railways. “Now, it has none,” said Roy to The Times of India. But the move does come as a booster shot to the state Congress which the Trinamool had tried to muscle into irrelevance in the state. It’s a clear indication that the Congress has unmuzzled its vociferous state leaders and they can now go all out against the Trinamool. It’s a well-calculated move to energise the base, the Congress’ Shakeel Ahmed told The Telegraph because “rebuilding of the organisation from the grassroots is the need of the hour." Ahmed said now the  state Congress was getting ready to “independently” fight the Trinamool, the Left and the “fledgling BJP” in the coming panchayat polls and then the Lok Sabha polls. The Trinamool scoffed, “Dream on” saying that without Didi, the local Congress was nothing. It is significant that all three are from North Bengal, one of the last bastions of the Congress in the state. Trinamool leaders like Saugata Roy have sounded the alarm about the new ministers of state stirring up unrest in the region to rattle Mamata. Now Deepa is seeing the state Congress’ big chance. “We have seen Mamata rise step by step. Now she is sliding down in a lift,” she told a rally. However the question is if, despite its current makeover, the UPA is on a faster elevator to the bottom, quicker than you can say bindi.