Being faced with a party like the BJP two months prior to any election can drive anyone crazy. The most seasoned of politicians and poll strategists have failed competing with the saffron party in elections which the BJP decides it cannot afford to lose. In West Bengal, for instance, the chief minister has ceased making any sense, and is spinning incomprehensible metaphors only in order to project herself as a confident competitor to the BJP. The Modi-Shah-Nadda combine really seems to be getting to the TMC’s head, which is why some leaders are jumping ship to the saffron party, while others cry over those who are leaving.
Mamata Banerjee, during a rally in north Bengal’s Alipurduar, warned TMC defectors that they were about to get their tails set on fire by the BJP, and that a “Lanka kaand” was imminent for those who had quit her party. “Some people are running away in fear. Tell those who are running away — ‘You will know what the BJP is. They will set your tail on fire and create a Lanka kaand’,” Banerjee said, defying her own diktat to party leaders and workers of not speaking ill of those quitting the party.
In an attempted coverup aimed at justifying the painful exit of senior leaders from her party, Mamata Banerjee also said that defections were being witnessed because of the rebels being, in fact, greedy and corrupt. Suggesting that TMC did not allow corruption in its ranks, Banerjee claimed that tickets are not up for sale within her party, but are rather awarded to those who the people resonate with. It is in this context that the Bengal CM spoke of defectors having their tails burnt in the BJP.
What was Mamata Banerjee trying to say, however, with the “set your tail on fire” bit? Was the Bengal chief minister suggesting that all those who are leaving her party are, in fact, Hanuman? Was she also saying that such people – who she has elevated to a godly status with her remarks, were unparalleled Rambhakts? If so, who did she imply Bhagwaan Shri Ram to be? Was the TMC supremo saying that the many Bajrangbalis were following the footsteps of PM Modi, since he is the one at the helm of affairs within the BJP and the Central government? Effectively, did she mean that PM Modi was Shri Ram of Indian politics? If that is what Mamata Banerjee indeed meant, it would mean that there is indeed a deep level of veneration towards PM Modi within the TMC.