By Anshul Tewari:
Mamata Banerjee is one lady who cannot afford to be out of news for her controversies. It is almost like the relationship between Vikram and Betal. I am getting an overdose of Banerjee and her LOL-worthy acts.
On Friday, Banerjee completed one year in power. The last one year was full of incidents that had irritated the common Paschim Banga citizen to the core. The Park street rape case, the arrest of Ambikesh Mahapatra of Jadavpur University, for the cartoon he had made. She even made the decision of having only Bangla newspapers and books in libraries.
Post CPM West Bengal looks like a Dud. And Mamata like a let down.
So what happened this time. On Friday (18th May 2012), Mamata was in an open discussion with CNN IBN’s Sagarika Ghose when a student asked her about the way the judiciary was handling cases like the Park Street rape cases. Another student joined in and suggested to Mamata that politicians must behave in a responsible manner. Both questions put in a very respectful, non-tormenting manner.
Banerjee’s reaction to these was rather shocking. She snapped out after calling the students CPM Cadres, Maoists and members of the SFI. The first time she said, it was okay. And then she became the Bengal Tigress and the rest is just her shocking statements. She kept reiterating that the students in the hall were Maoists and Left sympathizers and had been planted there purposely. She finally got up, threw away her microphone, and walked away to glory.
What followed was a series of criticizing statements by the audience. Watch her remarks and audience reactions in the video below:
Leadership is not about lampooning at others and calling them names. Leadership is about accepting and adjusting with different point of views and then reacting to them in a civilized manner. What is surprising is the intolerance that the Chief Minister of a state like West Bengal has.
West Bengal had voted for Mamata to see change happen. Change did happen, but a rather negative one.
Mamata Banerjee, I guess, has gotten used to facing the flak from all sides.