What the “Madhya Pradesh” exchange tells us about Mamata as a leader
There are times when even simple conversations between two mortals can be elevated beyond the mundane.
We recently bore witness to such a remarkable exchange between well-known polyglot and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and a rotund gentleman who was the chairman of the Jhalda Municipal Corporation.
Not since Lord K’s tete-a-tete with Partha have we seen such a divine conversation.
While listening to his report, Didi suddenly becomes concerned about his health and particularly his ever-expanding “Madhya Pradesh”, the best euphemism one has ever heard about one’s girth.
Aghast, Didi asks him about his health without ever venturing into the territory that Buzzfeed Marxists call ‘fat-shaming’.
Fat-shaming indicates mocking someone’s weight while the West Bengal CM’s consternation for her constituents’ expanding waistline almost resembles a maternal concern followed by incredulity that the gentleman with the ever-expanding waistline ate pakodis every morning.
Read: A poorly-translated transcript
Her disbelief grows even more when the rotund gentleman assures her that he does a thousand kapal bhattis twice a day.
Unimpressed with his technique she offers him a Rs 10,000-reward if he can do them on stage. The equally nonplussed gentleman assures her that it’s not the right time – that one only ought to do kapal bhattis in the morning or after 5PM.
When a person spends a lot of time in the media spotlight, their ability to surprise us diminishes over time. That is not the case with the West Bengal CM.
Media watchers and critics, particularly from the North, who can’t fathom her popularity tend to view Mamata with a few chosen lenses – seeing her either as a minority appeaser or a vehement autocrat. Others, mostly cultural philistines who Oscar Wilde labelled “brutes and illiterates”, mock her paintings and writings, mostly because they lack the faculties to appreciate them.
Didi is, without a shred of doubt, one of modern India’s most remarkable politicians, inspiring mashups and scolding errant journalists in her signature amalgamation of Hinglish-Bengali.
No person is just one single trait, but one single trait can define them and for Mamata’s political avatar that is her people connect. The way she speaks English, is the way the average Bengali speaks the language, without minding their Ps and Qs.
Whether playing love guru or asking people to come to Bengal to observe its secularism and “the best tiger in the world” she never appears to have lost the grassroot connect that saw her build a political force strong enough to overthrow hitherto-unbeatable Communists.
And at the heart of it was a genuine connection with the people of the state that opponents, particularly those sitting in Delhi who can’t pronounce Bengali words, fail to comprehend. And that’s why they lose.