Mamata and controversies go hand in hand

Not many people were taken by surprise when US secretary of state Hillary Clinton paid an unusual visit to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee - since everyone knew how influential and powerful she was - more so because she was an important constituent of UPA coalition government and could easily hold it to ransom over various 'reform' decisions.

Mamata Banerjee's power can also be gauged from the fact that she literally grounded leftists in West Bengal by marking an end to their more than three-decade-long rule in the state. She spent days and nights fighting against the communist regime that had only dawned helplessness across the state, according to many political experts.

More than her political promises, it is her integrity that has made her a popular figure across West Bengal. While lower rung political workers have been spotted travelling in luxury cars and dining in fine restaurants in big towns and cities, Ms Banerjee, on the other hand wears rubber flip-flops and inexpensive cotton saris, and drives a compact Hyundai car, striking a chord with the common people in the state.

But on the flip side, the popular leader of Bengal has become famous in the rest of the country not because of her concerns for the “aam aadmi” but for her unpredictability. And not a wonder, she has been embroiled in a number of controversies since she started her political career. But her latest brush with controversy happened only recently – when she withdrew her support from the Congress-led coalition government, after the latter announced 'big bang reforms' that included FDI in retail business, hike in diesel prices and capping on subsidised LPG cylinders.

Ms Banerjee has differed with the FDI decision earlier as well and it was she who forced government to shelve it during last year's fall. Raising her concerns for, what she called the benefit of aam aadmi' she threatened the government over the decision, which she believes will throw retailers out of business.

Talking of her issues with the current UPA government, one can't forget how she forced Dinesh Trivedi, a Trinamool Congress MP, to resign as railway minister, after he included an overall hike in passenger fares while announcing the 2012 annual rail budget. Though the hike was welcomed both by the UPA members and observers in the industry as well, given the paltry condition Indian Railways is in, but that didn't deter 'didi' to force Mr Trivedi to resign, only to see his colleague Mukul Roy take over. Not only this, Ms Banerjee saw to it that the fare hike was rolled back.

Ms Banerjee also defended the arrest of Ambikesh Mahapatra, a professor of Jadavpur University, who was assaulted before being arrested allegedly for circulating, what was claimed, defamatory cartoons of Ms Banerjee.

During an interactive programme with students, Ms Banerjee stormed out after getting uncomfortable with some questions. Suprisingly, Ms Banerjee alleged that some of the students present during the programme were 'Maoist cadres'. She even instructed the police to take pictures of the students who asked her questions during the interaction.

While some experts have called Ms Banerjee 'illiterate and dictatorial' but that has never deterred the chief minister and she exhibited it when she announced that a rape victim was lying despite the police finding evidence that supported the victim's allegations. She even crossed limits by demanding the arrest of a farmer who dared to question Ms Banerjee over rising fertilizer prices.

Despite her unpredictable nature, Ms Banerjee's attempt, whether right or wrong, has struck a chord with people from the middle class, but there are also people who believe that she has committed a 'historic blunder' by leaving the UPA government. Their argument is simple – the state exchequer is empty and all the special packages will go to states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and others, who draw closer to the Congress-led government following her exit.