Is there a method to Mamata's madness?

How do you solve a problem like Mamata? How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? How do you find a word that means Mamata? A flibbertijibbet! A will-o’-the wisp! A clown! Outlook magazine thinks it has found the word that means Mamata – Lady Dada! In its cover story about West Bengal’s mercurial chief minister it says “She is no Lady Gaga but quite the Lady Dada” with her own brand of didigiri. But her latest muscle-flexing vis-à-vis the Congress has left many political observers scratching their head. What does the woman in white want? Outlook posits an interesting theory which you should read in detail here . It’s main gist is that the TMC, now that it has achieved its Holy Grail of ousting the Communists from power, is pursuing a two-pronged strategy as it charts its future. Nationally she has no stake in the longevity of UPA-II. She could actually pick up seats if there is a mid-term election. She is expected to campaign in UP where the TMC is fielding its own candidates. “The land agitation in UP is modeled after Nandigram and Singur. Mamata would like to play that up during the UP polls,” political analyst Tarun Ganguly tells Outlook. [caption id=“attachment_178692” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Outlook calls Mamata Banerjee Lady Dada who has ambitions outside of West Bengal. But industrialists in Bengal are minding the gap between words and deeds. PTI”] [/caption] In West Bengal, she is keen to become the only anti-CPI(M) force in the state. “There is a perception that Mamata Banerjee wants to occupy the entire anti-Left space,” admits Shakeel Ahmed, CWC member in charge of West Bengal. But here’s the problem for Mamta as a CPI(M) central committee member points out – she wants to occupy the entire anti-Left space but by trying to out-left the Left. She speaks out against the MNCs, she fights against FDI in retail, she holds her ground on land acquisition. Her party would claim that’s about those left out rather than Left Front. MP Derek O’Brien extols  “her long struggle on behalf of the underprivileged and the oppressed.” The  catch-22 she finds herself in was clear from the Bengal Leads 2012 (BLEADS) industry meet and exhibition her government organised this week. She could offer the industry captains little – no movement on the urban land ceiling law or any relaxation on existing land laws. Singur and Nandigram helped catapult her to victory. That fame might help her campaign in UP. But they are also the albatross around her neck because she has found it hard to articulate an alternative strategy that would attract business to the state, investment she desperately wants. As an editorial in The Telegraph points out :

What is significant is that the gathering of industrialists was devoid of any out-of-state businessmen. Those from outside West Bengal who attended – Prasoon Mukherjee, Rajiv Singh, Sajjan Jindal or Mallika Srinivasan – had been roped in by the Left Front government to invest in West Bengal. The new government failed to attract any new face, not even as a token presence.

It sounds more like Bengal Bleeds than Bengal Leads. As a colleague this site pointed out, Didi put on her best didimoni-headmistress air and hauled up industry leaders and consular officials and demanded to know how they were doing on her homework assignment for them – the development of West Bengal. Mr Goenka, power ta barbe to Haldia te, na ki? Na barbe na? (Mr Goenka, will the power generation increase in Haldia? Or not?) Mr (Sajjan) Jindal, kobe hobe industry ta? Aamra to shob kore diyechhi. Apnarar ektu taratari karun. (Mr Jindal, when will industry happen? We have done everything. Please hurry up.) That makes for funny copy. The CM is often very entertaining. But the industry leaders in Bengal are wondering why it’s always “ask not what my state can do for you, ask what you can do for my state.” “Will you only come, listen and go back? " Mamata asked the industry big wigs.  But there was no Q&A.  So the industrialists only got to do exactly that. “Look at the state of infrastructure in Bengal. The government is telling us to invest but how can we invest if the basic infrastructure is not in place?” one industrialist told the newspaper. The AMRI hospital disaster also has industry nervous. Since the deadly fire there has been a panic wave of resignations from boards of other hospitals reports The Times of India. Sources told the TOI that at least 10 directors and trustees in the state’s hospitals have resigned to “minimise the risk of harassment.” A number of AMRI directors are still behind bars as if their guilt has already been established complained FICCI which wants the release of those not involved in the day-to-day operations of the hospital. What makes it even trickier is they are all members of the Marwari community. “What happened at AMRI is very sad but elderly persons like RS Agarwal and RS Goenka should not be arrested without trial,” Videocon chairperson Venugopal Dhoot told TOI. Mamata, as is her wont, didn’t try and assuage their concerns. She just came down even harder. “I want industry but not killer industry. A murderer is a murderer. A terrorist is a terrorist,” she huffed.  “The bit about Banerjee being ‘anti-Marwari’ is rubbish” writes Swapan Seth in the Hindustan Times .  He says not even Marwari industrialists believe that. Her problem is different according to Seth. “They say you campaign in poetry. But you govern in prose. Banerjee’s governing with populist poetry.” If she doesn’t resort to less crowd-pleasing prose soon, T__he Telegraph says “a potential investor cannot be faulted if he concludes that West Bengal is not the place for either his money or his faith.” But there’s no indication that Didi is in any mood for prose yet. She is releasing a book of her poetry at the upcoming Kolkata Book Fair later this month.