“Mamata shares in that rebellious tradition, having opposed SEZs, land acquisition, privatisation, etc. “We have a glorious tradition of rebellion, stretching back to the days when our freedom fighters chucked bombs at British officials, missed them and hit their wives,” said a historian.
If Didi comes to power it’s very likely she will rename roads such as Lenin Sarani or Ho Chi Minh street or Karl Marx Sarani, with some saying that all of them are likely to be called Tagore Avenue, which might create some confusion.īut most people are banking on Didi’s respect for local values. Others bemoan the inevitable change in street names. “For ideological reasons, of course,” clarified a crony capitalist. That wouldīe terrible.” Red businessmen who used to get fat contracts from the CPI(M) government are defecting en masse to the Trinamool. “Imagine,” said an old Kolkata resident, shaking his head despondently, “imagine hundreds of industries springing up in the city, wide new roads, sleek high-rises and a complete makeover of all our rundown areas.” “Why,” he added, “we might soon end up as just another rapidly developing Indian city. Many are shocked at the prospect of development. “Is there any other way of becoming a teacher?” “That way,” he explained, “he could be mistaken for Rabindranath Tagore.” A concerned father who had enrolled his daughter in the CPI(M) at an early age so that she could become a college teacher was very confused. A friend of his advised him to lengthen Marx’s beard a bit.
“I’ve been painting pictures of Marx, Engels and Lenin for so many years I’ve forgotten how to paint anyone else,” lamented a wall painter. Last seen, she was practising saying again and again, “Stay cool, stay cool, the ballot will go to Trinamool.”Įven the painters are concerned. But now we’ll have to learn new words and slogans”, said a regular rally-goer. “All these years we’ve been using words like ‘proletariat’ and ‘bourgeoisie’ and ‘running dogs of capitalism’ and ‘imperialist stooges’ and they’ve become part of our language. People are concerned they may have to learn an entirely new language. She hoped that Mamata Didi would ensure that the people’s right to bandhs would be respected. “We’re number one in the country when it comes to bandhs,” pointed out an office worker proudly. Others are concerned that the number of holidays may be curtailed. “What is work?” one of them asked me wonderingly, but I was unable to enlighten him, being as clueless about it as he was. His younger colleagues looked at him in alarm. “We might even have to work,” whispered a grizzled babu who remembered the days before the communists took over, going pale at the unpleasant prospect. Babus in Writers’ Buildings are a particularly nervous lot. Habits acquired during those decades would be hard to give up. As the end of over three decades of Communist rule in West Bengal looms nearer, many people in the state are worried.
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