Protective instinct of ordinary people is Mamata’s USP

I gave Mamata Banerjee a good close look when she bent down and hugged Mahasweta Devi minutes before she was sworn in as chief minister. The Magsaysay-award winning author sat in the front row with Amla Shankar, Pranab Mukherjee and P. C. Chidambaram. From my vantage point in the second row, I scanned Mamata's chubby face glowing with happiness as she embraced Mahasweta and greeted others with a very deferential namaste. Mamata wasn't ecstatic or delirious; she was evidently overjoyed — yet calm and composed like a ballerina in her finest hour.

To be honest, I didn't think much of Mamata initially. I dismissed her victory over Somnath Chatterjee in 1984 as a fluke. Although it was a stunning election debut — a novice beating a heavyweight hollow in his parliamentary constituency — I attributed her win to the nationwide pro-Congress sentiments aroused by Indira Gandhi's assassination. True enough, she was unseated in 1989. And like other cynics in the media and elsewhere, I also concluded that she was a one election wonder.

But something extraordinary happened within a year. Mamata was mercilessly assaulted by communist hoodlums in the presence of policemen on August 16, 1990 at the Hazra crossing. She escaped death by a whisker. The brutal attack on Mamata changed my equation with her forever: a dispassionate journalist became a sympathiser overnight. I must confess that I saw her in a totally new light after the barbaric episode. Of course I didn't become her advocate in the pages of the Illustrated Weekly of India – the magazine I worked for in those days – although my heart bled for the battered woman.

But as luck would have it, Mamata dumped Jadavpur and fought the parliamentary elections in 1991 from the South Kolkata constituency where I live and vote. And I could give vent to my sympathy through the ballot!

Well I am not the only one who was irresistibly drawn to Mamata out of sheer sympathy. The more communists hounded and battered her, the more popular she became across Bengal. Outraged citizens expressed their solidarity with the wronged woman by voting for her in election after election. And Mamata has won six in a row by huge margins. I would reckon that she has more well wishers than any other politician of the right or the left. Widely regarded as a victim of Marxist high-handedness, Mamata arouses the protective instinct of ordinary people. This is the secret of her invincibility.

For the record, communists unleashed not only hoodlums like Laloo Alam – the lynchpin of the Hazra attack – on Mamata but police officers loyal to the reds. In the dock are Kolkata police commissioner Ranjit Pachnanda and his immediate predecessor Gautam Mohan Chakraborty. Mamata has publicly accused Chakraborty, now ADG (Armed Police), of dragging her by the hair out of Writer's Building – the state secretariat – where she sat on a dharna on January 7, 1993 to demand justice for a rape victim.

Chakraborty is seen wearing a tie and blazer in photographs shot on that black day. But journalists and photographers were driven out before the police manhandled Mamata apparently at then chief minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya's behest. And Pachnanda, swears Mamata, not only bit her but tore her sari and blouse on October 25, 1998 during a demonstration at Bedi Bhawan in the heart of Kolkata.

Will Mamata forgive them or teach them a lesson so that no police officer dares to assault women cadre of any political party in future? Only Mamata knows the answer. But one thing is clear: Mamata hasn't forgotten her 1993 eviction from Writer's Building as is evident from an October 2008 press conference where she recalled how Chakraborty beat her and dragged her by the hair. She also branded Chakraborty a communist agent and promised to punish him after capturing Writer's Building.

I know from impeccable sources that communist hoodlums and the police have inflicted so many injuries on Mamata that she still writhes in pain. There are 46 stitches on her skull. Her body is covered with wounds. There are injuries galore on her feet, legs, arms, abdomen and head. And the perpetrators, including senior police officers, are still at large. Along with her, countless women workers were also beaten black and blue. Mamata did not trust government hospitals in Bengal. So she received medical treatment either in Kolkata's private hospitals or at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.

The world saw Mamata's cool exterior when she took her oath in the Raj Bhawan. She looked unflappable. Every now and then I saw her gently smile – not at anyone in particular but to herself. However, one can imagine the anger seething inside her. Her heart may be aching for revenge but her head must be telling her to bide her time. The question is: Will she wait to unleash all that pent up fury? Or will she strike while the iron is hot?

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S. N. M. Abdi is a consulting editor, writer, columnist & broadcaster from India.