Finally, the media has begun reading traces into what has seemingly been evident for long in West Bengal: that the Maoists have backed Mamata Banerjee and her Trinamool Congress in her agitations in the past couple of years.
Nandigram. Singur. Two of Mamata's singular achievements as a politician for over two decades now. Cut out the two, and Didi becomes just another four-letter word: Zero.
In Nowhereland, and with a one-way ticket into further reaches of Nowhereland, she was hurtling from one platform to another in political vacuum when the Singur issue came up, followed by Nandigram. Till then, Mamata and her band of men (for there were hardly any woman in Trinamool till even two or three years ago) could, at best, organise a hartal in Kolkata. And even that would have been an unsuccessful one, leading to clashes between her men and the CPI(M)'s. So much for her organisational skills!
Then came the twin issues, and suddenly Mamata and Trinamool were seen by the Indian media as beacons of virtue, a born-agaon Mother Teresa, with skill sets in organisaing protests equalling that of Mahatma Gandhi's. It was a joke, of course, for all the groundwork was done by the Maoists, and frustrated, rebellious and kicked-out CPM members.
Only, the men and women who should have seen through the joke and called the bluff -- the journalists -- never saw it. Perhaps they did not want to. The hatred against the Left was so deep-rooted that they failed to see the bigger picture. And the far bigger menace: bloody lawlessness like Chhattisgarh or Jharkhand.
The monster's out of the bag now; some of the Maoist leaders have been quoted by the media seeking their pound of flesh from Didi now -- in return for the favour in Singur or Nandigram.
Having half-turned West Bengal into another Naxal-hit area, will The Lady see sense now?
Good question, but going by her antics over the past two decades and more, seems unlilely.
So, burn my beloved Bengal.
