WOMEN IN INDIA: MAMATA BANERJEE - WEST BENGAL FIGHTER AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KOLKATA 000079 SENSITIVE SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA/INS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KWMN IN SUBJECT: WOMEN IN INDIA: MAMATA BANERJEE - WEST BENGAL FIGHTER AND DRAMA QUEEN REF: A. A) KOLKATA 78 ¶B. B) NEW DELHI 439 ¶C. C) NEW DELHI 394 KOLKATA 00000079 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Firebrand communist-baiter Mamata Banerjee leads West Bengal's principal opposition party, the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) that has aligned with Congress to challenge the Left Front's 32-year rule in the state. An astute politician - six term parliamentarian - with an eye for theatrics, she formed her own party and throughout her career has alternated between the alliances led by the two national political parties, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress, for the best political deal. Infamous, and unapologetic, for her role in "spoiling" the proposed industrial automobile investment by the Indian corporate house Tata, her populist and unpredictable measures worry elements of the business community in Kolkata. However, her unrelenting fight to dislodge the Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPI-M) in West Bengal has already resulted in what outside analysts view as a very favorable political alliance with Congress. With a strong and loyal party following in West Bengal, particularly from her constituency in South Kolkata, and the political momentum gained from championing the views of farmers versus industry, she can be a political spoiler or enabler for any investment, including American, into the region. In the event of successful AITC and Congress electoral results in the state and at the Center, she will be a likely United Progressive Alliance ministerial candidate, although her eyes are clearly on the Chief Minister's seat in West Bengal when it goes to the state polls in 2011. End Summary. ¶2. (U) This cable is part of a Mission India reporting series on Women in India (Reftels B, C) and the upcoming Indian parliamentary elections. Lone Crusader ¶3. (U) Mamata Banerjee leads the principal opposition AITC party in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal (Reftel A). As a firebrand agitator, she emerged as the main challenge to the ruling Left Front headed by the CPI-M. Without any political lineage or mentor, Banerjee stands in marked contrast to other women leaders in India - Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, Rabri Devi and Jayalalitha - who either represent a political dynasty or became leaders with the backing of a "godfather". Affectionately known as "Didi", (Bengali for elder sister) she has refused to use her gender or her socio-economic Brahmin caste (highest of the Hindu castes) for political gain. She is the only female politician of her statue in West Bengal; however, she doesn't capitalize or campaign on this. As the party founder, dominant personality, and only sitting parliamentarian she enjoys close to absolute power within her party. Humble Beginnings to National Role ¶3. (U) Banerjee was born on January 5, 1955 into a lower middle-class family in Kolkata. Her father had been a small-time Congress pre-Independence freedom fighter. She joined student politics as a teenager and in 1984, at the age of 29, was appointed as General Secretary of the All India Youth Congress and successfully contested and trounced the veteran Left parliamentarian Somnath Chatterjee from Jadavpur in the national elections in 1984. She lost the Jadavpur seat in 1989, but returned to Parliament in 1991 representing South Kolkata and subsequently became Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development. Her Own Party~ ¶4. (U) In 1996 she was re-elected to Parliament for a third term, but found that not all of her Congress colleagues shared in her zeal to oppose the ruling Left Front in West Bengal. She publicly lashed out at Congress leaders and labeled them the "B team" of the CPI-M and "watermelons" who were "red" at the core, but with a "green" exterior. Her own party, along with the Left and the media, characterized her dramatic agitations as that of a hysterical "bull-in-a-china-shop". In 1998, Banerjee left Congress and formed her own party, the AITC. ~with her own Partners ¶5. (U) With AITC Banerjee joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance and was rewarded with the post of Indian Minister for Railways in 1999. However, in 2001 she resigned in protest of her government's alleged "corruption" (more likely for her own political ambitions) and re-aligned with Congress to contest the KOLKATA 00000079 002.2 OF 002 2001 West Bengal state elections. The AITC faired poorly and in 2004 she re-aligned with NDA and became minister for Coal and Mines. The same year she successfully contested national elections and was elected to parliament for her sixth term - the sole winner from AITC. Thereafter Banerjee gradually distanced herself from the NDA, and focused more than ever on dislodging the Left from the West Bengal government. Leading the Movement Against Land Acquisition ¶6. (SBU) In 2007, Banerjee dramatically emerged from the political doldrums to lead a mass movement in rural Bengal championing the cause of farmers, low income groups and religious minorities. With her humble ways and fiery rhetoric, she came to be identified as a champion of the downtrodden. She positioned herself as the leader of a farmers' movement to resist the CPI-M government's moves to acquire agricultural land for industry in the much publicized Nandigram and Singur villages. In short, she projected herself as more left than "Left" and forced a humbling retreat by the CPI-M government in Nandigram and Singur while simultaneously striking a devastating blow to economic activity in the state. (Privately, Banerjee and senior AITC interlocutors have clarified that they are not against industry per se, but that they need to be consulted and taken into confidence as one of the political stakeholders. They have not presented a clear alternative industrialization strategy.) In the 2008 panchayat (local government) elections the AITC scored a major success, making inroads at all levels including wresting control of district level governmental bodies from the Left Front. Most recently, Banerjee negotiated a very favorable electoral alliance with Congress, a "marriage of political convenience" to contest the upcoming parliamentary elections and challenge the Left. Comment - Mamata Mia! ¶7. (SBU) Fearless, temperamental and aggressive, Mamata Banerjee has often been likened to a tigress. Due to her unpredictable and high-strung nature, she has succeeded in occupying the political limelight in West Bengal as no other politician has. She has taken on the Left, when no other leader was willing, and has capitalized on Nandigram and Singur anger to mount what analysts view as the most credible challenge to Left Front rule in West Bengal since they came to power in 1977. She will continue to ride the anti-land acquisition and populist wave, although her popularity with the farmers as the "woman that made Ratan Tata say `ta ta' to West Bengal" does not sit well with industrialists in the city. However, on the other hand, some are secretly encouraged by the healthy dose of political competition in the state as it may break the deadlock and perceived sloth of the Left Front. The common man identifies with her unsophisticated and humble ways, not least because she continues to live as an unmarried woman with her mother in the one room tenement where she grew up. She can mobilize a crowd in minutes and has a keen eye towards theatrics, whether with an impromptu song at the local shopping center festival, or symbolically carrying the bloodied land of "Nandigram martyrs" throughout the state with her own campaign. However, her dominance and the cult of personality have left the party institutionally weak, but one with a clear leader. Her challenge is to overcome the criticism that she is "irrational" and "unpredictable", criticism earned even during her previous stints as Minister in Delhi, and prove that she can, and is ready to, govern the state of West Bengal. About her desire and determination to become Chief Minister - no one has any questions about that. TAYLOR