Mamata could give Modi his worst headache
Nobody can turn it around like Mamata Banerjee. Her party members are being rounded up in connection with the Saradha scam, one by one; the Centre is turning the heat on her government on the Burdwan blast and NSA Ajit Doval is practically breathing down her neck. But what does Didi do? Make a few heads roll in her party and government? No. Resign? Never. She takes the battle right to the BJP's camp through a Hong Kong style Umbrella Protest in the well of the Lok Sabha. Blame the Left, blame the Centre, Didi is always right.
Decades of combating Left goons has made Didi into a tough street-fighter. And in street-fighting, the only way to defend yourself is to attack your opponent head-on. Her MPs did just that in the Lok Sabha today, by brandishing open black umbrellas with "Kaala dhan vaapas lao" written on them. Members of the Samajwadi Party and Janata Dal (United) were quick to join in and the Congress too jumped in as did the BJP's old ally the Shiv Sena, forming a united Opposition onslaught against the government. The BJP's comfortable majority counted for little against the histrionic skills of the Trinamool Congress MPs, some of whom also happen to be actors. It wouldn't be surprising if BJP's floor managers like Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Rajiv Pratap Rudy had a moment of sympathy for their counterparts during the UPA regime.
With the entire Opposition by its side, including the right-wing nationalist Shiv Sena, the TMC has succeeded in diluting the terror tag that the BJP was desperately trying to put on it after the Burdwan blast. Even as far as the blast is concerned, the TMC is no longer on the back foot. Mamata has gone to the extent of saying that the blast was an RSS conspiracy and TMC MP Derek O'Brien attacked the NSA for being a "known RSS sympathiser".
Didi was every bit the street-fighter when she took on Modi during a TMC rally at Esplanade in Kolkata on November 24. "Dhomke, chomke, bulldoze kore, impress kore kichu hobe na. (You will gain nothing by threats, snub, bulldozing and even trying to impress). I am standing here. I dare you to arrest me. Aaye arrest kor (Come arrest me). I am standing on the road and not at any office. How many will you arrest? How many jails will you need?" Mamata fired.
"I have come to this place after a lot of struggle. I have been assaulted, hit several times... If you ask me to wash your dishes sweetly, I will do it. But do not make the mistake of threatening me. We have patience, that does not mean we are weak,” she said.
"Should I come and take a walk in Delhi?" she dared Modi, threatening to protest in the capital Anna Hazare style.
In some ways, the BJP is getting a taste of its own medicine. When the UPA was in power, Modi portrayed himself as the angry regional satrap standing up to the "Delhi Sultanate". Now, the shoe is on the other foot, with Modi being at the receiving end of Mamata's fury.
At the Centre, the TMC will be one of the biggest roadblocks to the BJP's reform agenda. The TMC has already declared its opposition to the Insurance Bill and it is likely to follow the same path of disruption to block the other reform Bills of the government. The real battle, however, will be fought on the ground in West Bengal. And given the state's violent history, the battle is bound to be shrill and bloody.