All in a year's Paribartan

A week ago MS. Jayalalitha, the CM of Tamil Nadu ordered to put up full page Ads in some of the leading national dailies regarding the achievements of her government in the last one year. It did not go down well with the people. Well, nothing wrong in showcasing what you have achieved and scoring a few brownie points over your competitors. But in my opinion, she would be better off following her Paschimbanga counterpart. Ever since the day Mamata Banerjee cried for ‘paribartan’ and guided her party to a landslide victory in the state assembly election, I have nothing but admiration for this lady. She has done so much for her state in the last 1 year. Yet, humble as usual, she has never tried to showoff or will ever do in future for that matter. Hence as a sign of goodwill gesture, I am writing down a few of her and her party’s major accomplishments.

1. Professor Ambikesh Mahapatra who was employed in the famous Jadavpur University in Kolkata, was arrested for sending a cartoon in an e-mail to his associate. But the arrest was made not before he got a royal bashing from the loyal TMC supporters.
2. Cabinet railway minister Mr. Dinesh Trivedi was sacked for announcing a brave railway budget that focused on safety aspects in train.
3. Leading newspapers were banned from public libraries so as to promote freethinking among readers.
4. The rape case of an Anglo-Indian woman returning from a nightclub was out rightly snubbed. Forensic reports and other evidences counted for nothing against Ms. Banerjee’s correct intuitions that it was an act of malicious campaign by the CPI(M).
5. Late Closure License (LCS) of all the nightclubs was revoked. The message was clear- “Go home early. Else don’t blame the government if you get raped.”
6. Steps have been taken to remove Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels – Founders of Marxism – from the textbooks.
7. Students were branded as “Maoists” for asking uncomfortable questions.
8. Now this one is my favorite. Ms. Banerjee has directed the authorities to make sure all the government buildings are painted Blue. The rationale behind this is there must be a neutral uniform color code for a city/state and it is also an answer to Jaipur being called the ‘Pink City’. The municipality also has plans to give tax cuts to people who paint their home blue. One of the best utilization of public money.

I wish Ms. Banerjee good luck in her efforts to make sure Paschimbanga is known as “The City of Blues”. What irony !!!