This Icon Of The ‘Liberal’ Brigade Is The Most Intolerant Of All

If Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has her way, any post on social media that she, or her subservient administration and fawning followers, deem as ‘incitement to violence’ would attract life imprisonment and a fine of Rs 30 lakh! A bill in this regard that will be introduced in the next Assembly session would surely be the most draconian piece of legislation in India.

While Banerjee’s motives are, no doubt, driven by the recent Basirhat riots that were triggered by a Facebook post, the fact is that the provisions of the bill are not only extremely severe, but also reveal the deeply vindictive nature of Banerjee. She has, all along, been deeply malicious, intolerant of criticism and opposition, has been revengeful of anyone who dares cross her path and has no regard for democratic norms.

It is, thus, highly ironical that Banerjee has become the icon of the camp that calls itself ‘liberal’. A liberal, by definition, is one who is intrinsically tolerant. But Banerjee is the antithesis of a liberal. Instances and examples of her intolerance of even mild criticism, her hatred for political opposition and her proclivity to misuse her powers, even let loose her goons, to silence or subdue opposition litter the present political landscape of Bengal.

Perhaps the most telling instance of her intolerance was her angry and ugly reaction to a student of Presidency College asking her an uncomfortable question during a recording for a English TV channel show at Kolkata’s Town Hall in May 2012, a year after she coming to power in Bengal (watch this video clip). “Only a highly intolerant person who believes he (or she) is beyond any criticism could do what she did. It also showed that she is basically authoritarian and dictatorial who has no regard for democratic practices,” said a psychologist who did not want to be named since he did not want to run the risk of being targeted by the Bengal government.

Earlier, in April that year, a Jadavpur University professor was beaten by Trinamool goons and arrested for circulating a cartoon of Banerjee and two of her colleagues. Her police force slapped serious charges on him and Banerjee went to the extent of saying the professor was involved in a murder conspiracy against her. That was not the only time she imagined plots to murder her; she has spun such conspiracy theories many times. The most hilarious among such incidents was the one involving her flight from Patna to Kolkata in December last year. The flight hovered over Kolkata for quite some time due to traffic congestion, prompting her and her party to allege a failed assassination attempt. “Only a megalomaniac without any scruples can cook up such an allegation to gain attention and create a hype,” said the psychologist.

Banerjee does not brook even the presence of political opposition in Bengal. She has systematically deployed her cadres and musclemen to decimate the opposition. Opposition leaders and activists have been threatened, physically assaulted and even murdered. False cases have allegedly been slapped on many opposition leaders. Many of them have been bought over by allurements or threats of being implicated in false cases. Congress leader Manas Bhunia, for instance, was named accused in the murder of a Trinamool worker last year, but his name was dropped from the chargesheet after he joined the Trinamool a few months later. He has now won a Trinamool Congress nomination for a Rajya Sabha seat.

One of her first acts of highhandedness after becoming Chief Minister was the shunting of IPS officer Damayanti Sen who persevered and solved the Park Street rape case that Banerjee had tried to dismiss as a fabricated one aimed at maligning her government. Sen was targeted because she had chosen to act professionally and investigate the case even after Banerjee’s open signal that the case should be left alone.

In August 2012, a farmer from West Midnapore who had put uncomfortable questions to Banerjee at a public rally was slapped with non-bailable cases and put behind bars. The farmer, Shiladitya Chaudhury, had asked her about the high prices of fertilizers. Mamata promptly dubbed him a Maoist and asked the police to take action.

Former Press Council of India chairman Markandey Katju wrote an open letter to the Chief Minister accusing her of intolerance. Katju had written: “You seem to have become increasingly intolerant and whimsical, which is only going to land you in big trouble. From what I could gather during my visit to Kolkata, your ministers and bureaucrats are afraid to speak out their minds fearlessly before you and are terrorised by your unpredictable and whimsical behaviour”.

Katju was spot on. No member of her council of ministers can muster the courage to voice a contrary opinion. No one contradicts Banerjee, even when she is wrong (which is very often). No minister or bureaucrat has the guts to disobey any order given by her, no matter how unconstitutional it may be. She abuses anyone who angers her, no matter who he is. Banerjee is the law and they have to follow her. There are numerous examples of the Chief Minister having shunted out and punished those who have dared to follow the law of the land and Constitutional propriety and disregarded her advice or orders.

It is, thus, supremely ironical that Banerjee is held up as an icon by the ‘liberals’ (read: pro-Congress and communist civil society members). They seem to have conveniently forgotten her past sins and, for the sake of their own petty interests, thrown their weight behind her for the only reason that she speaks so raucously against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party. But no matter what, at the end of the day, Banerjee will remain intolerant, mercurial and undemocratic. No amount of whitewashing can obliterate those ugly and prominent stains that mar her persona.