{"id":334992,"date":"2021-12-16T05:42:10","date_gmt":"2021-12-16T11:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tehelka.com\/?p=334992"},"modified":"2021-12-17T05:47:38","modified_gmt":"2021-12-17T11:17:38","slug":"did-mamata-overstep-the-line-in-sounding-upas-death-knell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/did-mamata-overstep-the-line-in-sounding-upas-death-knell\/","title":{"rendered":"Did Mamata overstep the line in sounding UPA\u2019s death knell?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Congress is the only opposition party that has a national footprint and whatever Mamata Banerjee or the TMC\u2019s feats may be, they still have a distance to cover. Banerjee may be in a hurry to do so but a giant leap ahead of \u00a0time may be imprudent.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

With West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee\u2019s shocker announcing the demise of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance or the UPA as it is better known, a section of the Opposition is in a tizzy. The UPA, Banerjee had said, was virtually non-existent.<\/p>\n

The Congress\u2019 coalition partners in Maharashtra, namely the Shiv Sena and the NCP, who Banerjee met during her recent visit to Mumbai, were in a bind because of this outburst.<\/p>\n

For the uninitiated, after a meeting with Nationalist Congress Party\u2019s Chief Sharad Pawar, Banerjee had said: \u201cWhat is UPA? There is no UPA?\u201d.<\/p>\n

Earlier during her visit to the national Capital, New Delhi, Banerjee had skipped meeting Congress chief Mrs. Sonia Gandhi: \u201cIt is not constitutionally mandated\u201d she had said when asked why she did not meet the Congress President. Even if the battle lines were, then, a bit hazy, her sounding UPA\u2019s death knell has deepened the political divide.<\/p>\n

Banerjee, it may be recalled, was a constituent of the UPA when it was in power between 2004 and 2014. She even served as Union Railways Minister during Dr Manmohan Singh\u2019s tenure as Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

Till 1998, she was part of the Congress before she broke away to form the Trinamool Congress. At heart, she remained ingrained in the Congress ideology. She also enjoyed a special rapport with Congress chief Mrs Sonia Gandhi.<\/p>\n

However, of late the relationship between the Congress and the TMC has hit an all-time low. The TMC has unabashedly welcomed well- known Congress faces into its fold, particularly Rahul Gandhi\u2019s loyalists.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Congress is crying foul alleging large scale poaching by the TMC that has not confined itself to the home state. If anything, it has extended its footprint even in the north. This is because Banerjee is now looking beyond Bengal and therefore the need to rope in leaders from states like Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Haryana, Bihar and still counting.<\/p>\n

Apart from Sushmita Dev, Mukul Sangma, both from the north east, the most notable inductions are from Uttar Pradesh wherein the Tripathis have joined Banerjee\u2019s bandwagon.<\/p>\n

It is pertinent to point out that Dev was\u00a0considered as part of Rahul Gandhi\u2019s \u201cinner circle\u201d. The Tripathis, on the other hand, have had a long association with the Gandhi family.<\/p>\n

The erstwhile Railway Minister, Kamlapati Tripathi, was Mrs Indira Gandhi\u2019s closest advisers and his daughter-in-law Chandra Tripathi, too, bonded well with her. The relationship continued till Rajeshpati and his son Laliteshpati, quit to join the TMC.<\/p>\n

Earlier Jyotiraditya Scindia had quit the Congress. It is another matter that he chose to join the BJP instead of the TMC.\u00a0\u00a0But when Scindia broke away, the TMC was not in the reckoning. Today, Scindia is a Union Minister, with the coveted Civil Aviation portfolio.<\/p>\n

Apart from recording a mere sequence of events, it is important to underline the fact that the Gandhis have given a short-shrift to people who have stood by them through thick and thin. In fact, if Scindia could leave then anyone can.<\/p>\n

Apart from the association going back to Jyotiraditya\u2019s father Madhavrao, the Scindia scion and the Gandhi siblings were also personally close.<\/p>\n

This perhaps is the reason why Jyotiraditya Scindia did not raise a banner of revolt when he was upstaged by Kamalnath for the office of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister. This was quite unlike Sachin Pilot who extracted a pound of flesh and bagged the post of a Deputy while conceding the Chief Minister\u2019s post to his bete noire Ashok Gehlot.<\/p>\n

Internal politics apart, this time around, the Congress is pitched against an ally turned foe: the diminutive street fighter Mamata Banerjee who is in a tearing hurry to unite anti-BJP forces.<\/p>\n

Immediately after her win, she had signaled the need for Opposition parties to come together to take on the BJP. And she had made it clear that the Time starts now.<\/p>\n

In August this year, a few weeks into the TMC\u2019s spectacular win in her home state West Bengal, Banerjee had said: \u201cNothing can be done by a doctor who comes after the patient has died. The patient can be saved if treatment is given on time. Now is your Time\u201d.<\/p>\n

Even while she sounded the Opposition unity bugle, Banerjee was unwilling to wait and watch. It is her DNA to act and once she makes up her mind then she pursues the course irrespective whether others join in or not. In this sense, she is kind of an\u00a0akela cholo<\/em>\u00a0or a solo politician. She can seek camaraderie but if it does not come her way, so be it.<\/p>\n

Nothing demonstrates this better than what she said recently: \u201cWhat do we do if one is not fighting? …If somebody is afraid, if they cannot take a decision, they just waste time and allow the BJP to become more and more powerful\u2026 we will not allow that. We are watching for the last six to eight years, but if somebody is not coming out openly, then somebody (else) has to bell the cat,\u201d\u00a0Banerjee\u00a0said. Even though she did not name the Congress, the inference was clear.<\/p>\n

Equally, when she referred to \u201cholidays abroad\u201d she did not name Rahul Gandhi but it was clear that she was referring to Gandhi\u2019s sudden, secret and mysterious holidays at the drop of a hat.<\/p>\n

The Gandhi scion is known to be abroad during crucial times including the farmers protests and the Congress\u2019 136th<\/sup>Foundation Day celebrations: \u201cYou can\u2019t be abroad\u00a0most of the time. Continuous endeavor is necessary in politics,\u201d Banerjee said during an interaction with civil society during her controversial Mumbai visit.<\/p>\n

One cannot fault Banerjee for being enraged at the Congress\u2019 inertia. What others can clearly decipher, the leadership seems ill-equipped to decode.<\/p>\n

There is a large-scale exodus from the grand old Party, which is not so grand anymore. Those who chose to stay back are also restless because the Party is doing little to assuage feelings or address concerns. At the macro level, it has failed to comprehend the challenge posed by the BJP.<\/p>\n

This is Banerjee\u2019s angst and hence her outburst because she is unwilling, and rightly so, to stake her or her Party\u2019s future at the whim and fancy of the Congress. Her political upbringing and fiery spirit has taught her to seize the moment and this being the opportune time she is raring to go. Not the one to mince words, Banerjee has, therefore, made her stance and observations about the Congress and its heir explicitly clear.<\/p>\n

Enter Shiv Sena\u2019s trouble-shooter Sanjay Raut dangling a dramatically changed script:\u00a0\u00a0from\u00a0No UPA<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0there cannot be any Opposition without the Congress.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

In an editorial in its mouthpiece\u00a0Saamana<\/em>, the Shiv Sena said that strengthening the UPA is the only option before the Opposition parties. The editorial came a few days after Banerjee\u2019s\u00a0No UPA\u00a0<\/em>remark.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Technically, Raut is right. The Congress is the only Opposition Party that has a national footprint and whatever Banerjee or the TMC\u2019s feats may be, they still have a distance to cover. Banerjee may be in a hurry to do so but a giant leap ahead of Time may be imprudent.<\/p>\n

In a Party to Party comparison, the Congress is way ahead and despite the TMC trying to enlarge its footprint, it still has a long way to go.<\/p>\n

For starters, it would have to shed its\u00a0Bengali Party<\/em>\u00a0tag and pitch itself as one which is\u00a0sensitive to the aspirations of the non-Bengali people who live outside Banerjee\u2019s home state. For this it would have to adjust its\u00a0mental\u00a0<\/em>geography.<\/p>\n

Those who are familiar with Banerjee\u2019s style of functioning are also aware that even as Union Minister her\u00a0national\u00a0<\/em>boundaries started and ended with West Bengal.<\/p>\n

Of course the recent win, and that too a spectacular one has given her bigger dreams and there is no reason why she should let anyone trample over them, least of all the Congress. Hence the need to reinvent her\u00a0Party and go beyond the Bengal-boundary as it were.<\/p>\n

To be fair to Banerjee, she is not suggesting that the united Opposition should be Congress-less. If anything she is advocating a strong alternative force: \u201cWe want everyone to join the fight,\u201d she is reported to have said. This was reiterated by Sharad Pawar who said that the intention is to have a platform of \u201ccollective leadership\u201d.<\/p>\n

Unlike Pawar, Banerjee\u2019s problem is that the Congress does not\u00a0appear<\/em>\u00a0to be in the fight. Irrespective of the ground reality, perception is a crucial factor in Indian politics and on that count, the Congress is on a weak footing.<\/p>\n

Raut\u2019s other salvo was to declare that he had asked Rahul Gandhi to take the lead in discussing the strategy for the 2024 national elections.<\/p>\n

Even if this is not about leadership, pitching the Gandhi scion against Banerjee is bad politics. They would never be on the same page. They think differently and their working styles are poles apart: Rahul elite and suave while Banerjee rustic and ordinary: actually a common person\u2019s version of what an Indian politician should be.<\/p>\n

Add to this, her street fighting instincts and she can easily be shaped into a mould which is\u00a0perfect to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi: the\u00a0recent West Bengal elections being a curtain raiser to the final drama waiting to pan out in 2024.\u00a0\u00a0In this battle of the giants, Rahul has little place.<\/p>\n

It may be too early to project Banerjee as a national alternative to BJP\u2019s Modi. But then the elections are not tomorrow. On the other hand, Banerjee needs to take one step at a time rather than precariously positioning herself at the edge, from where a premature leap can prove fatal.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Congress is the only opposition party that has a national footprint and whatever Mamata Banerjee or the TMC\u2019s feats may be, they still have a distance to cover. Banerjee may be in a hurry to do so but a giant leap ahead of \u00a0time may be imprudent.\u00a0 With West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":128,"featured_media":334993,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[23,2205],"tags":[1344,1889,1892,1486,3817],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334992"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/users\/128"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334992"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334992\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":334996,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334992\/revisions\/334996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media\/334993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tehelka.com\/rest-api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}