It's the season of creating new highs and turning a new leaf -- we are basking in the glory of our fascinating ICC WC 2011 win; a devout Gandhian is making us sway to his anti-corruption mantra, while a churning of a different kind is on in the eastern part of the country -- a very determined Mamata Bannerjee is all set to change tables in Bengal (read: chairs, cushions, in fact a complete overhaul of Writer's Building!!)
The lady in question is the firebrand Trinamool Congress leader, being described as the one who might topple the pious 34 year rule of the Communist Party of India in Bengal. Its mid April now, with the sweaty summer month making us cringe, and the scorching heat making tempers fly! Quite naturally therefore the mud slinging contest between political parties has reached a feverish pitch. But nothing can beat what a senior CPIM man said about Mamata a couple of days back -- he compared her to a sex worker! It is no surprise that in the male-dominated pious bastion of red politics, women have very little role to play. But this isn't about some party ideology. It's about a man's inherent belief that a woman is nothing more than a 'physical entity' sans emotions, intellect or wisdom. She is to be taunted and ridiculed as and when one wishes to. Surprisingly Mamata, who in a very populist way has been associated with all things disruptive (never mind even if her intentions were pure)chose not to comment about this controversy, distancing herself from this very dirty and demeaning brand of politics, and concentrating on the task at hand. And this is exactly the kind of evolution that she wants to see happen in the state which has lost its moral and philosophical grounding under the left rule. Is it another history in the making?
