Contrary to perception, Mamata actively solicits advice, across backgrounds.
She represents the waves of political change in the Left parties’ 33-year-old bastion, West Bengal. However, in the past two years, there is a sea change in Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s attitude: She is spending much more time listening to advice.
As Banerjee inches towards power in the state, the advisers are pouring in. Some of them wait for their chance to be heard through the afternoon, braving mosquitoes at her residence next to a filthy canal in Kolkata, while some use their cellphones to make it a little easier. While she lends a patient ear even to rival groups and a range of experts on different subjects, the key corpus of advisers has remained more or less stable — just like her electoral success in the past two years.
To business
Interestingly, even as her political USP has shot up in the past three years because of her stance against a Tata factory and a chemical hub, many of her advisers are people with a business background. Painter Shuvaprasanna has been with her even when she was the lone MP of her party on the opposition bench during the first United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. After she became railway minister last year, she quickly roped in Ficci secretary-general Amit Mitra and ad man Suhel Seth as her key advisers in Delhi.
Even Partha Chatterjee, leader of the opposition in the West Bengal assembly and Banerjee’s trusted lieutenant in the party, comes with vast experience of public relations because of his career in Andrew Yule.
Suhel Seth’s first meeting with railway minister Banerjee was at the Kolkata airport. Seth was waiting for her at the VIP lounge; Banerjee, in her true style, came to the common departure lounge meant for ordinary passengers and told Seth to come out to the common area, as she never uses the VIP facilities as a matter of principle.
In the meeting that extended to one-and-a-half hours, Banerjee told Seth he had to help her in railway matters. She also told him, “I can’t afford your fees.”
When Seth replied, “You don’t have to bother about my fees. I’ll do this to give something back to my country”, Banerjee threw in some incentives, “I can promise you two things. Your name will be remembered in the history of Indian Railways. And you will get to eat excellent samosas.”
Almost everyone who has found place in her core group was initially attracted by her simplicity and honesty. Mitra, who heads the Experts Committee on Railways, had met Banerjee to discuss how to bring investments for the Railways. Banerjee told him categorically, “Please tell the investors that none of them would require to meet me or any of my officials with suitcases (with cash). They can do a fair business with Indian Railways.”
HAS OWN MIND
“Even though we give her advice on many issues, she has an independent mind and has clear opinion on various issues. You can say we exchange ideas or we just try to polish her ideas,” Shuvaprasanna describes his interactions with Banerjee. The painter’s house has become the den of most of the crucial strategy meetings of the Trinamool Congress.
“During the formation of the second UPA government, Mamata was in a dilemma whether she should join the government or provide outside support to it. We told her she must join the government, as people of the state had voted to see her in power. We also told her that unless she became a minister, she couldn’t improve the sorry state of affairs in the state,” Shuvaprasanna says.
As Banerjee gives much importance to intellectuals and the cultural world (she bought a laptop recently only to play Rabindrasangeet) cultural icons of Bengal such as singer Nachiketa and theatre personalities Bratya Basu and Shaoli Mitra (daughter of legendary actor Shombhu Mitra) have also come close to her. On issues of economics, Banerjee banks mainly on professors and college principals. A trusted adviser is Bibek Debroy, well-known economist. In the past two years, many retired bureaucrats like Debabrata Bandopadhyay (former secretary in the land department) have joined the fray. “Many serving bureaucrats have also struck a good relationship with Banerjee,” said another adviser.
Banerjee is also trying to show she has a big heart. So, noted classical singer Rashid Khan, who campaigned for the Left Front during the municipal elections, has found a place in the railways’ latest advisory committee.
But, be it Suhel Seth speaking on her role as a railway ministry, be it Amit Mitra describing the investor’s mindset or Shuvaprasanna elaborating on cultural aggression, every meeting with the advisers has one thing in common — when others talk, Mamata Banerjee sketches on her notebook or on loose sheets.
