Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09KOLKATA79
2009-03-20 13:39:00
UNCLASSIFIED//FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY
Consulate Kolkata
Cable title:  

WOMEN IN INDIA: MAMATA BANERJEE - WEST BENGAL FIGHTER AND

Tags:  PGOV KWMN IN 
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ZNR UUUUU ZZH
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FM AMCONSUL KOLKATA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 2314
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2833
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


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