No derailing Didi

Mamata Banerjee is ensconced in an almighty tantrum, and all is well with the world. Thank heavens. For a while there she had us worried. In...

Mamata Banerjee is ensconced in an almighty tantrum, and all is well with the world. Thank heavens. For a while there she had us worried. In the Budget session of Parliament she struck us as uncharacteristically mild-mannered. In the days following Prime Minister Vajpayee8217;s announcement that he8217;d be reshuffling his ministerial pack, she struck us as shockingly accommodating. During his Manali sojourn he only had to indicate that the Trinamool Congress chief could be returning to his Cabinet8212;and she immediately conveyed her gratitude for his kind statement of intent and bid her travel agent to get her on a flight to Delhi. What did the lady think she was doing? Not a screech, no histrionics8230; what was going on? Was she sobering into political irrelevancy? In these times of vanishing certitudes, did she not know that her shrill rhetoric and theatrics were among the few constants in Indian politics?

As it happens, we needn8217;t have worried. It was simply an aberration. Didi is back to her old, reassuring self. She is angry. She is brimming with unreason. She wants to rewrite the rules of parliamentary democracy; the prime minister, said her spokesperson on Saturday, had no right to consider Sudip Bandopadhyay for a ministerial berth, it is the Trinamool8217;s prerogative to decide which of its MPs is sworn into the council of ministers. Certainly, the signs are promising, this is the Mamata Banerjee we know. She will live to fight another day. The streets of Calcutta will once again witness her famous fights to stir, if not shake, the ruling Left Front. The hallowed precincts of Parliament could once again see a vintage Mamata antic 8212; remember when she arrived in Parliament on one occasion, bandaged and stretchered? Elections in West Bengal will once again come alive with her shifting alliances and her allegations of electoral malpractice.

To smother this creativity by burdening Mamata Banerjee with ministerial responsibility and its attendant niceties would be cruel. No, she must remain free and unfettered. Unless, of course, the prime minister in his infinite wisdom decides to carve out a separate ministry for Eastern Railways just for her.