But those who were thinking that the game is over, let me tell you it is not. A lot of things are left to happen
--Mamata Banerjee, while leaving the Writers' Building on June 15 evening
The remark of Ms Mamata Banerjee that the game is not yet over has given rise to a fresh bout of speculation regarding the possible political scenarios in the wake of her losing the Presidential poll cards as a result of her badly and impulsively playing them.
In my view, for Mamata, the Presidential game is over. She will not be able to retrieve her cards. If she was trying to hint that she still has some cards up her sleeve, she was just whistling in the dark in a moment of understandable petulance. Nothing more.
Once Dr APJ Abdul Kalam decides not to be a losing candidate and spoil his brilliant record in India's contemporary history, nothing can stop Mr Pranab Mukherjee from winning. The only question now is whether Mr P.A. Sangma will withdraw thereby enabling Pranabda to win unopposed or will he remain in the field as a mark of protest over the non-nomination of a tribal candidate for India's high office? Even if Sangma remains, Pranabda's win is certain.
My own feeling is that the political managers of Mrs Sonia Gandhi, who have proved adept in managing and overcoming what seemed a major embarrassment, will now focus on placating Sangma either by offering to support Sangma himself or a tribal candidate of mutual choice such as James Lyngdoh, former Chief Election Commissioner, as the Vice-President in order to satisfy his tribal pride.
The speculation and assessments that with the storm over the Presidential elections blowing over, it will now be smooth-sailing for the Congress and the UPA till 2014 are over-optimistic. Mamata's Presidential game is practically over. Her pinpricks game will continue. Even before the controversy over the Presidential polls she had repeatedly demonstrated her pinpricks value. That value remains intact and could increase in the coming weeks as a result of political developments in Andhra Pradesh. One understands from sources in Delhi that the political managers of the Congress are worried over the dangers of Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy being able to induce large-scale defections of Congress MLAs and MPs following the electoral triumph of his supporters in the bye-elections the results of which were announced on June 15.
If that scenario materialises, the political roller coaster will continue. The union cabinet headed by Dr Manmohan Singh is now facing pinpricks from West Bengal. It may start facing pinpricks from AP too.
There are various speculations as to what Mamata can do next. One view is that being an emotional person, she may be thawed by Pranabda's references to her as "almost like my sister" and she will be a mellowed person now so far as the Presidential polls are concerned. She has herself sought to give the impression that she is far from mellowed.
Permanent defiance is a defining characteristic of Mamata. The Communists learnt it to their cost in WB. She will be looking for ways of fresh defiance of New Delhi even if she has lost her Presidential cards.
Dr Manmohan Singh is not going to regain his credibility as a result of the feel good atmosphere in the Congress following the favourable developments relating to the Presidential polls. The political crisis that seemed to be looming on this issue has been skilfully overcome by the political managers of Mrs Sonia Gandhi.
The national crisis due to public perceptions of large-scale corruption, collapse of governance and the economic downslide continues.
B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate, Chennai Centre For China Studies
AUTHORS: B. RAMAN
PEOPLE: MAMATA BANERJEE | PRANAB MUKHERJEE | SONIA GANDHI | P.A. SANGMA
TAGS: PRESIDENT OF INDIA | UPA
SECTION: NATIONAL
SUBSECTION: OPINION
अनुवाद द्वारा पॉवर्ड
| 8/D-28 JUN 17, 2012 12:36 PM | Mamata's performance as opposition leader in Bengal allowed Left to rule Bengal for so long. Had she been consistent in her approach & politics and had she shunned sheer opportunism, Left would have been out of power at least 10 years before. She is a useful only to help her Crorepati MPs and MLAs who are accumulating more wealth in terms of government contracts and her chit-fund friends who have started investing in media and even sent their own candidate to Rajya Sabha. |
7/D-24 JUN 17, 2012 11:05 AM | >> Unfortunately her performance as a students' union president would raise false expectations of her potential as a future political leader. This is what happened with MMS. We rushed to give him credit, when it was really PVN, who was the conducting the music. |
6/D-4 JUN 17, 2012 01:06 AM | Mamata would make a good students' union president. Unfortunately her performance as a students' union president would raise false expectations of her potential as a future political leader. |
5/D-3 JUN 17, 2012 12:54 AM | Didi's sentiments about Kalam are good but the country does not work on sentiments. The reality is that the arithmetic is on the side of ruling coalition, like it or not. And honorable Kalam knows this and that is why he does not want to contest. In view of this Mamta should bury her ego and take a graceful bow like the BJP. She has been given a lesson in real politics by Mulayam Singh possibly at the request of Congress. Now Didi talks of expressing her opinion in Facebook. I thought she was against Facebook few weeks back for all the cartoon stories etc., and she had even lodged a case against the Facebook if I am not mistaken? So why use Facebook now, she should have used her New TV Channel and Newspaper instead, and before all that she sud visit a psychiatrist to check the pressure building up in her brain due to her bloated ego, lest it might burst one day. |
4/D-85 JUN 16, 2012 05:23 PM | Whatever her shortcoming may be,Mamata is not a cheat like Sonia who falsely claimed that she has 272 MPs with her and had almost become the prime minister. |
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