Politicians in power see ghosts in their dreams

Thousands of miles away from home, media is my only source to gauge what has really changed since a new government took over in Bengal. I deliberately use the word Bengal as it connects better to the wider world the Indian state, which has been known as West Bengal since India gained independence. My definition of media does not include only the conventional media - consisting of newspapers, radio and television or the web-based new media,  including the social networking sites, but also the interpersonal deliberations that I have with people all around the world. After all, such communication makes me more informed about the state I refer to.

Going by what the wider media depicts, I am confused about the state of affairs in Bengal. Some claim that things have changed for the better, since Mamata Banerjee became the Chief Minister of the state, while others denounce her government as much worse than the Leftists, who were thrown out of power after over three decades. Amidst the high pitch of the divided views about the state of affairs in Bengal, probably the more rational and objective assessment of the situation is drowned and lost.

Despite such confusion, I find a curious similarity with the time when the previous government was in power. The rhetoric remains the same only it has changed sides (mouth). Now what we hear from the Left - predominantly the CPI-M and their supporters - were earlier echoed primarily by the Trinamool Congress. Similarly, the content and tone of what the Trinamool Congress leaders tell now are very similar to the language used by the CPI-M leaders before May 2011.

They say that the rulers don’t change only the colour of their dresses change. Nowhere would this adage be more appropriate than in Bengal. There may be a gulf of difference in the upbringing, background, political allegiance and acumen of Jyoti Basu and Mamata Banerjee, yet when they speak as chief ministers defending their regime, they seem so similar in the tenor and tone of their rhetoric and also in their arrogance.

A few years back in 2001, the August 12^th edition of the British newspaper, The Sunday Times, published a story, titled “Paranoid President Mugabe on Antidepressants – Haunted by the Ghost”. General Josiah Tongogara, led the military wing of ZANU, the ruling party in Zimbabwe, during the guerrilla war for independence. He was one of the leaders in the fray to become the President of Zimbabwe in 1980 but was killed allegedly in a car accident on the Boxing Day of 1979, which paved the way for Mugabe assuming power. It is alleged that Tongogara was buried at the Heroes Acre cemetery near Harare without proper post-mortem. In the backdrop of widespread suspicion of foul play, The Sunday Times correspondent in Harare R W Johnson alleged that the ghost of General Tongogara haunted Mugabe for 'mismanaging the country' and the Zimbabwean President “sought to placate the ghost by laying an empty chair for him in dinner every night”. 

Given the strong anti-British stand taken by President Mugabe, the story may very well be made up, guided by some petty interests. However, seeing ghosts in their dreams is a commonplace among politicians in power.

Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first Prime Minister might have seen the ghost of Subhas Chandra Bose. An insecure Indira Gandhi might have seen the ghost of Jayprakash Narayan before imposing Emergency in 1975. Rajiv Gandhi might have seen the ghost of V P Singh at the peak of the Bofors controversy. Similarly, Jyoti Basu and Mamata Banerjee might have also seen ghosts in their dreams, which probably influenced them to put the onus of any adverse event to the conspiracies of their respective political opponents.

One need not be surprised by hearing Mamata Banerjee sound like Jyoti Basu. The similarity is probably  not of their making. Any politician in power suffers from insecurity, which manifests itself by the arrival of ghosts in their dreams.

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