Mamata Banerjee: My Unforgettable Memories

Nandini Sengupta, Mamata Banerjee

Description

This is India's first English translation of Mamata Banerjee's memoirs. Based on her previous writings in Bengali, this succint account spans through her life, right from her youth to her political career. Her humble upbringing comes to the forefront as she expresses her innate desire to nurture her political career with her values. A journey into the life of one of India's most renowned politicians, this memoir is poignant and forthright account of her trials and tribulations, which have inevitably contributed to both her personality and her role as a politician.

Sujets

• Political
• Lettres et linguistique
• Bengala
• Corte Penal Internacional
• Biography
• Mamata Banerjee
• Consumer price index
• Memoir
• Politician
• Politics
• Autobiography
• Bengal
• CPI
• TMC

Informations

• Publié par: Roli Books
• Date de parution: 01 mars 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9789351940135
• Langue: English

Extrait

Abo ut the Au thor

Mamata Banerjee is the eleventh chief minister of West Bengal. The founder and chairperson of the Trinamool Congress, she has been associated with several social and human rights organizations working for the welfare of the poor, children, and women. She has special interest in protecting human rights. She has previously served as Union Railway Minister; Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs, and Sports; and Minister of Women and Child Development.

ROLI BOOKS
This digital edition published in 2014
First published in 2012 by The Lotus Collection An Imprint of Roli Books Pvt. Ltd M-75, Greater Kailash- II Market New Delhi 110 048 Phone: ++91 (011) 40682000 Email: [e-mail] Website: www.rolibooks.com
Copyright © Mamata Banerjee 2012 Translated from Bengali by Nandini Sengupta
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No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic, mechanical, print reproduction, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of Roli Books. Any unauthorized distribution of this e-book may be considered a direct infringement of copyright and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
eISBN : 978-93-5194-013-5
All rights reserved. This e-book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated, without the publisher’s prior consent, in any form or cover other than that in which it is published.
Dedicated to Ma, Mati, Manush (Mother, Land, People)
Ack nowledg ements

This book would not have been possible without the support and help of ABP, Sangbad Pratidin , Shri Dinesh Trivedi, Shri Debashish Bhattacharya, and Shri Kunal Ghosh.
Foreword
M amata Banerjee’s rise as a hugely popular leader has been a surprising and a very inspiring phenomenon in the more recent political history of the world. Her incredible personal sacrifices, a life of protest, and uncompromising struggle makes her a sister to thousands of exploited and brutalized people and a saviour to the terror-stricken masses. A populous and problem-torn part of India, West Bengal, had long been under the ruinous, long, and uninterrupted political misrule of the Communists and was slowly slipping into anarchy and destruction. Yet, its rich and inspiring history bears almost no resemblance to the morass of its present.
Mamata Banerjee catalyzed a never-before-seen public awakening in the state by mobilizing people to protest against the decades-long rule of terror, tyranny, exploitation, violence, and brutality of the state. Of course, it has taken a toll on her. She has often put her life at risk, been battered repeatedly, and fasted for twenty-six days at a stretch as part of a non-violent protest movement to earn her status as a leader of true grit with fire in her belly, and a never-say-die attitude like Mahatma Gandhi and Jayprakash Narayan. This is how she has set up Trinamool Congress and fought relentlessly for the honour and justice of Ma, Mati, Manush (mother, land, people). And this is how she has created history. She has toured the state extensively from one terror-stricken district and village to the next, talking to people, from tribals to poor farmers to factory workers, asking them about their problems, offering solutions to the extent possible, fighting for their rights, truth, and justice. That is how, and why, she knows the problems of the state like the back of her hand. Her dream has always been to liberate the people from deprivation, poverty, and terror. It is this experience that has been her biggest learning; that is how she can confidently offer solutions and suggest ways to implement them on the ground. She is unrivalled in this strength of experience at the grassroots level in the political arena.
Right from the beginning, all through her days as a fiery leader leading a life of struggle and protest, whenever she could squeeze time out of her tirelessly busy schedule, she would pen down her thoughts on life, realizations, struggles, and her terrifying experiences. These are written in her own inimitable style: simple and straight forward like the person, and rich in feeling and realization. This compilation puts together a series of extracts from different volumes of her published works in Bengali. These have been written in various stages of her life and offer glimpses of her childhood, youth, and days of struggle in her own words.
The silent revolution that she triggered in the state which led to the democratic dismantling of the thirty-four-year old Communist regime is unparalleled in India’s political history. The focused terror, brutality, and vendetta that pursued her in the past; the almost unparalleled atrocity that was unleashed on her person in an effort to establish ‘party-cracy’ in the state; her ability to face-off with near-death skirmishes, stand up to the threat, win the hearts of the people, organize them, and lead them to a momentous change in Bengal’s political landscape makes this a riveting memoir. The memoir also sets an example of how much a simple, down-to-earth woman, can achieve armed with nothing more than integrity, mental strength, dedication, steely will, and a fearless mind. It is an amazing journey documenting on the one hand, her eye for the here and now, looking into every little detail no matter how insignificant and on the other, her occasional bursts of creative flourish, in song, poetry, and art. Finally, her untiring and relentless efforts brought about the desired change in problem-ridden Bengal. The campaigns for the panchayat, municipality, Lok Sabha, and Bidhan Sabha elections, the public support for her cause as she toured the length and breadth of the state from the hills in the north to the jungles in the centre and the sea on the extreme south, finally resulted in the victory of the people of Bengal as Ma, Mati, Manush found honour and justice with Mamata Banerjee taking oath as the chief minister in Raj Bhavan. She has not documented her journey through those hectic days, weeks and months. The next generation is looking up to her with hope for a new tomorrow, free from poverty, fear, in a democratic, livable, and liberal atmosphere.
Shuvaprasanna
Prologue
I f you count the days it works out to less than a month-and-a-half. But those were red letter days in West Bengal’s political calendar, heralding the end of a historic movement that has earned its players a place in the history books.
10 April 2011. Mamata Banerjee flew out from Kolkata’s Race Course helipad towards Habibpur in Malda, officially kicking off her election campaign. That was the beginning. The end came on 20 May, the day she took oath as the chief minister of West Bengal in Raj Bhavan and was virtually carried by a tidal wave of supporters all the way to the State Legislative Assembly.
Elections, victory, and defeat are all a natural part of the democratic process. But under the Left Front regime, West Bengal had come to forget this natural process. While governments changed regularly in other states across the country, West Bengal remained an unfortunate exception. Till now. After thirty-four years, the Left-Front’s supremacy in the state came crashing down. And the person who has made it possible is Mamata Banerjee.
Mamata Banerjee was catapulted to the national limelight when she debuted in parliamentary politics by defeating CPM strongman Somenath Chatterjee in the Jadavpur constituency. That was 1984. Jadavpur was considered a red bastion. The young Banerjee immediately attracted attention for her integrity, simple lifestyle, and the fire in her belly to fight the excesses of the ruling regime. Her spirited presence in the Lok Sabha, uncompromising protests against the CPM’s misdeeds, and above all relentless lobbying in the interest of her state was praiseworthy. In that respect, she was a sterling exception in the state Congress leadership of the day. These qualities also earned her the respect of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Not surprisingly she quickly became the CPM’s enemy number one. The ruling regime realized, early on, that unless they clipped her wings, she would soon become a real political danger to them in West Bengal.
So they tried their best to cow her down. Again and again. In 1990, she was brutally attacked near Hazra crossing as the CPM armada rained blows on her head. She fought death and returned from the hospital but the injury continues to bother her to this day. But that attack also made something else crystal clear – that the red brigade’s real enemy is the fiery girl from the narrow bylanes of Kalighat. When Mamata was discharged from the hospital, Rajiv Gandhi, the then Congress president, immediately made her the head of the West Bengal Youth Congress, giving her fight a stamp of approval.
Thus began the next chapter in Mamata Banerjee’s political career as she started a two-pronged fight taking on not just the CPM but also those Congressmen who, at heart, were ‘soft’ on the Left. It is doubtful whether any other politician in India has had to wage a simultaneous battle against both the enemy on the outside as well as their sympathizers on the inside for so long and with such undiminished aggression.
1991 Lok Sabha elections: Rajiv Gandhi was assassinated at the fag end of his campaign. But the Congress returned to power after the polls. The new prime minister, PV Narasimha Rao selected Mamata to head the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs. Alongside her duties as a member of the Central Government, Mamata continued to focus attention on organizing the anti-CPM movement in West Bengal. In 1992, she stood for and lost the elections to head the Pradesh Congress – a victim of intra-party conspiracy. Yet she refused to give up her anti-CPM agitations, refused to compromise on what she felt wa