Kolkata: The Singur-Nandigram agitation had catapulted Mamata Banerjee to such a position in West Bengal that the 34-year-old Left Front regime had no answer. The agitation had not only charted the political future of Mamata, but also offered her ample space to cement her position as the chief administrator of Bengal.
The state is again witnessing an agitation, predominantly led by women, in Sandeshkhali against high-handedness of the ruling party and indiscriminate land-grabbing. And a young Left leader is using the agitation and emerging as a face of the Reds in Bengal.
Minakshi Mukherjee, the state president of DYFI, the youth wing of CPI(M), has already turned the tables on her senior colleagues in her party. A huge rally at the historic Brigade Parade Grounds in Kolkata on January 7 saw the grey-haired Alimuddin Street satraps taking a back seat. In fact, none of them, except CPI-M state secretary Mohammad Salim, was allowed on the dais. The pulsating crowd on the grounds just wanted to hear Minakshi.
Hogging all the limelight, the 39-year-old leader did not disappoint. She suddenly went silent while reciting lines from Kazi Nazrul Islam's famous poem, 'Bidrohi' and was bold enough to admit on stage about not remembering the exact lines. Soon followed her jibe at the Trinamool Congress that the Left leaders were different and never shied from admitting mistakes publicly. Loud cheers greeted her, while she earned the moniker of 'captain' from octogenarian Left Front chairman Biman Bose.
In Sandeshkhali, as the police were busy monitoring major ferry ghats to stop politicians and activists trying to enter the river-bound hamlet in the Sunderbans, Minakshi managed to give them a slip last Saturday and crossed Kalindi river to reach Natunpara. The police simply failed to recognise the sari-clad woman with her face covered with a white cloth, meeting villagers and talking to them, as the CPI-M leader. By the time they did rush to stop her, four hours had passed and a sizable crowd had gathered around Minakshi.
"Young people like Minakshi are trying to highlight the plight of the people of Sandeshkhali by talking to the villagers, those who are directly affected by the highhandedness and injustice meted out to them by the Trinamool Congress strongmen. The ruling party wants to dilute voices of dissent and drown them amid the din of kirtan songs. We are presently at a juncture, defining our political future. We cannot dispute the fact that a face is needed in a political party. But, the process of developing a face does not happen in a Left party in a way it happens in other political entities. In an organised political party like the CPI-M, one needs to gradually climb the stairs, it does not come as a family privilege," says professor and political analyst Partha Pratim Biswas.
An unusual thing happened in January in Bengal. CPI-M mouthpiece Ganashakti, which rarely focuses on a single person and projects him or her as the party's face, did an exception and ran an eight-column front page picture of Minakshi Mukherjee, a day after the DYFI's Brigade Rally. In a desperate hope, many Left supporters in Bengal are believing that Minakshi is the one who is capable of wielding a magic wand, and eventually be the catalyst providing the Left with some electoral success.
But that's about sweeping emotions. For Minakshi, it is her lack of urbane sophistication, simplicity, grit and determination that is sticking out in Bengal's political canvas. For the Left leadership, she is definitely their best bet. The question which hangs in air is, can she take on a political behemoth like Mamata Banerjee in the coming elections and steer the Left towards winning seats? Only time will tell.
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