Opinion Mamata,Martyrology and the Media

Contemptible!” It brought some reason to the discourse by clearly explaining that two groups of lawyers had approached the courts,one arguing for a PIL and the other submitting news footage and clippings to the Calcutta High Court. Meanwhile,a Times Now reporter clarified that this was not a contempt petition but a contempt notice — rather like a drawing attention motion urging the court to proceed suo motu.

Well done,but the newshounds were hurtling down the wrong fork. This is not a legal story. It is purely political. While the entire retired judiciary was preoccupied with defending the majesty of the law,Soli Sorabjee caught on to the game very early. “She is intolerant,cannot be questioned,cannot be challenged by any court,courts cannot declare her actions illegal — that’s the more worrying part,” he said on Times Now. “But all this may make a martyr of her.” Which is even more worrying.

Martyrdom was indeed the game plan. Mamata Banerjee thrives on the politics of adversity and histrionic victimhood,which served her well through her streetfighting years. Today,as chief minister,she feels restricted by the niceties of running a government. Now,she has fallen back on her old skills. In the course of her speech in an Assembly seminar,she had said: “I would be very happy if someone contempts me (sic) — if they arrested me and took me to jail.” The judiciary could have read her suggestion in two ways. It could have ignored her sweeping comments with the contempt they deserve. Or it could have paid heed to the offended lawyers who approached it and instituted contempt proceedings. It has chosen the latter path,opening the door to a valuable new martyrology.

But the game isn’t a washout because the game plan has gone slightly wrong on a technicality,to which Headlines Today inadvertently drew attention. It speculated that since Banerjee had spoken against the judiciary on the floor of the House,she could

enjoy legislative protections. Wrong,dead wrong. Banerjee was speaking at a seminar in the Assembly to mark its platinum jubilee. That was not the floor of the House because the House was not in session at that moment. The House is an institution,not a brick and mortar structure.

Somewhere in Kolkata on Thursday,someone was tossing in the tsunami of Didi’s wrath for being as ignorant of this technicality as Headlines Today. In the city,the story of the day was the identity of this hapless person. But on the Bangla channels,even the legal story was vying for attention with the exodus from Bangalore,a proposed bus fare hike and a woman whose house was vandalised when she complained about local louts playing loud music. Even today,the political strategist behind Didi’s outburst remains an unsung genius.