Why Mamata is seeing the ghost of Modi

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is seeing the ghost of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in everything.

Be it the Air Traffic Control (ATC) of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Airport making her Indigo aircraft hover in the air by withholding signal to land for 13 minutes, or the Army men stationed at 19 places in the state, collecting data about heavy vehicles in what was revealed to be a routine exercise.

The Trinamool Congress cadre have already alleged that a plan was underway to eliminate the CM. She herself has been crying hoarse about a "military coup" and an attack on a democratically elected popular government in what she felt was not only an infringement of rights, but also a direct attack on the federal structure of states.

The conspiracy theory in circulation stems from her suspicion that being the most vocal critic of demonetisation, Modi is out to settle scores with her. Her conspiracy phobia is nothing new. She had been seeing the phantoms of the CPI(M) ever since she projected herself as the arch-enemy of the communists in Bengal.

When she launched the Trinamool Congress in 1992, she said that her party was the principal opponent of the Left and not the Congress, which over the years had turned into the CPI(M)'s B-team. Mamata's mistrust for the Left, however, has an iota of truth.

In August 1990 she faced an attempt on her life in the hands of CPI(M) goons, Lalu Alam and Muhammad Mukhtar. Mamata, as the then Youth Congress president, was taking out a rally against the communists when CPI(M) supporters assaulted her.

She suffered a near-death blow, and had to be treated for months in a nursing home. The fear took such deep roots that Mamata saw the evil designs of the CPI(M) behind every incident of attack.

True, Mamata had to fight hard and struggle to unseat the 34-year-old Leftist rule in Bengal. But even after having come a long way, she could not leave her baggage of fears, suspicion and anxiety behind.

Such was her conviction in her fears that even after becoming the chief minister in 2011, she was seeing the invisible CPI(M) hands behind every issue that rocked the initial days of her administration. A farmer from an obscure village of Belpahari in West Midnapore, Shiladitya Chowdhury was called Maoist and arrested for questioning Mamata on the hike in fertiliser prices in August 2012.

Again, a student of Political Science of Presidency University, Tanya Bharadwaj came under the ire of the West Bengal CM for making a comment on the law and order situation in the wake of atrocities on women. Tanya was branded as a Maoist. Examples such as these are in plenty.

Who can forget Jadavpur University Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra's harassment for sharing a cartoon, which made good humour of the tug-of-war between two Trinamool Congress MPs — Mukul Roy and Dinesh Trivedi — over the railway portfolio?

Or the threats Kamduni girls such as Tumpa and Mousumi faced from the highest office of administration for daring to question Mamata on the rape and murder of their childhood friends in June 2013?

In 2014, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, while Mamata was campaigning in Malda district, an incident of fire from a short circuit in her hotel room broke out. She and then cabinet colleague, Madan Mitra, were quick to call it a deep-seated conspiracy to kill the Trinamool supremo.

Now after 2016 Assembly election with the utter rout of the CPI(M) and the Left from Bengal politics, and the gradual rise of the BJP in the state courtesy the politics of polarisation the CM has been practising, Mamata has found a new foe in the saffron party.

Her phobia has naturally found a new vessel in the BJP. Her relentless tirade against PM Modi, post-demonetisation, has given her an excuse to nurture the phobia and she has publicly said that she feared her life was threatened.

In a tweet she had said: "Today I am taking a pledge whether I die or live, I will remove PM Modi from Indian politics."

Echoes of similar sentiment were heard in other tweets that followed over the past 21 days.

In one tweet she wrote: "Never seen a PM who threatens his political opponents. PM should be sober." Then there's another: "Modiji, you are equating corruption with anyone who opposes your policy. PM Modiji you think, you alone are intelligent?"

Is this the ranting of a mind completely overpowered by paranoia, suspicion and dread? Are her fears concerning the Indigo flight and the Army genuine? Mamata's fears in these cases are not only unfounded, but also carefully cultivated and positioned to create the right noise against the BJP-led NDA government.

The Army had called her out on her false allegations of the Centre masterminding a "military coup" against her democratically elected government, but a headstrong and fearless Mamata refused to budge. The incident has given the Opposition another handle to beat the government.

Biswanath Chakrabarty, political analyst and Professor of Political Science at Rabindra Bharati University, explains Mamata's move: "The issue has hit the headlines and that she has been able to unify the heavily fractured Opposition is her success story."

There's method in her apparent madness, he insists.

(Courtesy of Mail Today.)

Also read: Why are top Indian politicians crying threat to life?