Mamata Banerjee

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Mamata Banerjee
মমতা ব্যানার্জী
Portrait of Mamata Banerjee
8th Chief Minister of West Bengal
Governor M. K. Narayanan
Preceded by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee
Constituency Bhabanipur (Vidhan Sabha constituency)
Incumbent
Assumed office
20 May 2011
Minister of Railways
In office
22 May 2009 – 19 May 2011
Preceded by Lalu Prasad Yadav
Succeeded by Manmohan Singh
Member of Parliament
In office
1991–2011
Preceded by Biplab Dasgupta[1]
Succeeded by Subrata Bakshi
Personal details
Born মমতা বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায় (Mômôta Bôndyaepadyayô)
(1955-01-05)5 January 1955[2]
Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Nationality Indian
Political party Indian National Congress (1970–1997)
Trinamool Congress
(1997–present)
Residence Harish Chatterjee Street, Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Alma mater University of Calcutta
Shri Shikshayatan College
Jogamaya Devi College
Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College
Profession Politician
Ethnicity Bengali

Mamata Banerjee (Bengali: মমতা ব্যানার্জী; born 5 January 1955)[3] is an Indian politician who has been Chief Minister of West Bengal since 2011. She is the first woman to hold the office. Banerjee founded the party All India Trinamool Congress (AITMC or TMC) in 1997 and became its chairperson, after separating from the Indian National Congress.[4][5] She is often referred to as Didi (meaning elder sister in Bengali). In 2011 Banerjee pulled off a landslide victory for the TMC Congress alliance in West Bengal by defeating the 34-year old Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Front government, until then the world's longest-serving democratically-elected communist government.[6][7][8] Banerjee previously served as the Minister of Railways twice and is also the first woman Railway Minister of India,[9] Minister of Coal, and Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Department of Youth Affairs and Sports and Women and Child Development in the cabinet of the Indian government.[10] She opposed forceful land acquisition for industrialisation by the then communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers.[11] In 2012, Time magazine named her one of the "100 Most influential People in the World".[12] In September 2012 Bloomberg Markets magazine listed her among the 50 most influential people in the world of finance.[13] The mercurial TMC leader was voted in May 2013 as India's most honest politician in an internal poll by members of India Against Corruption, India's largest anti-corruption coalition.[14]

Early life and career

Banerjee was born in Calcutta (now Kolkata), West Bengal in a Bengali family[15] to Promileswar Banerjee and Gayetri Devi.[16] She grew up in a lower middle class family, and her father died when she was 9. Banerjee became involved with politics while still in school, joining the Congress (I) Party in West Bengal and serving in a variety of positions within the party and in other local political organisations. As a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks to become the general secretary of the state Mahila Congress (1976–80).[11]

Banerjee graduated with an honours degree in History from the Jogamaya Devi College, an Graduate women's college in southern Kolkata.[17][18] Later she earned a master's degree in Islamic History from the University of Calcutta. This was followed by a degree in education from the Shri Shikshayatan College. She also earned a law degree from the Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri Law College, Kolkata.[19]

Throughout her political life Banerjee has maintained an austere lifestyle, always dressing in simple traditional Bengali cotton sarees called 'tant', while wearing none of cosmetics or jewellery and always has a cotton bag slung on her shoulder. She has remained single throughout her life.[20][21]

Banerjee is a self-taught painter and a poet.[22][23]

Early political career

Indian National Congress

Mamata Banerjee during inauguration of the 'Infocom 2011' exhibition at Milan mela ground, Kolkata.

Banerjee started her political career in the Congress party, and as a young woman in the 1970s, she quickly rose in the ranks of the local Congress group, and remained the General Secretary of Mahila Congress (I), West Bengal, from 1976 to 1980.[24] In the 1984 general election, Banerjee became one of India's youngest parliamentarians ever, beating veteran Communist politician Somnath Chatterjee, from the Jadavpur parliamentary Constituency in West Bengal. She also became the General-Secretary of the Indian Youth Congress. Losing her seat in 1989 in an anti-Congress wave, she was back in 1991 general elections, having settled into the Calcutta South constituency. She retained the Kolkata South seat in the 1996, 1998, 1999, 2004 and 2009 general elections.[25]

In the Rao government formed in 1991, Mamata Banerjee was made the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development, Youth Affairs and Sports, and Women and Child Development. As the sports minister, she announced that she would resign, and protested in a rally at the Brigade Parade Ground in Kolkata, against Government's indifference towards her proposal to improve sports in the country.[26] She was discharged of her portfolios in 1993. In April 1996, she alleged that Congress was behaving as a stooge of the CPI-M in West Bengal. She claimed that she was the lone voice of reason and wanted a "clean Congress".

Trinamool Congress

Mamata Banerjee speaking to the elected members and party workers at Bongaon stadium after the West Bengal panchayat elections.

In 1997, Mamata Banerjee left the Congress Party in West Bengal and established the All India Trinamool Congress. It quickly became the primary opposition party to the long-standing Communist government in the state. On 11 December 1998, she controversially held a Samajwadi Party MP, Daroga Prasad Saroj, by the collar and dragged him out of the well of the Lok Sabha to prevent him from protesting against the Women's Reservation Bill.[27]

In 1999, she joined the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government and was allocated the Railways Ministry.[25]

Railway Minister (first tenure)

In 2002, Mamata Banerjee presented her first Railway Budget. In it she fulfilled many of her promises to her home state West Bengal.[28] She introduced a new biweekly New Delhi-Sealdah Rajdhani Express train and four express trains connecting various parts of West Bengal, namely the Howrah-Purulia Rupasi Bangla Express, Sealdah-New Jalpaiguri Express, Shalimar-Adra Aranyak Express and the Sealdah-Amritsar Superfast Express (weekly).[28] She also increased the frequency of the Pune-Howrah Azad Hind Express and extension of at least three express train services. Work on the Digha-Howrah Express service was also hastened during her brief tenure.[29]

She also focused on developing tourism, enabling the Darjeeling-Himalayan section with two additional locomotives and proposing the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation Limited. She also commented that India should play a pivotal role in the Trans-Asian Railway and that rail links between Bangladesh and Nepal would be reintroduced. In all, she introduced 19 new trains for the 2000–2001 fiscal year.[29]

In 2000, she and Ajit Kumar Panja resigned to protest the hike in petroleum prices,[30] and then withdrew their resignations without any reason. [31]

Split with NDA

In early 2001, after the Tehelka expose,[32] Banerjee walked out of the NDA cabinet and allied with the Congress Party for West Bengal's 2001 elections, in protest of the corruption charges levelled by Tehelka.com against senior ministers of the Government.

Return to NDA

She returned to the NDA government in January 2004, and held the Coal and Mines portfolio till the Indian general election of 20 May 2004, in which she was the only Trinamool Congress member to win a Parliament seat from West Bengal.[25]

On 20 October 2005, she protested against the forceful land acquisition and the atrocities on local farmers in the name of industrial development policy of the Buddhadev Bhattacharya government in West Bengal. Benny Santoso, CEO of the Indonesia-based Salim Group had pledged a large investment to West Bengal, and the West Bengal government had given him farmland in Howrah, sparking protest. In soaking rain, Banerjee and other Trinamool Congress members stood in front of the Taj Hotel where Santoso had arrived, shut out by the police. Later, she and her supporters followed Santoso's convoy. A planned "black flag" protest was avoided, when the government had Santoso arrive three hours ahead of schedule.[33][34]

Mamata Banerjee suffered further setbacks in 2005, when her party lost control of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation and the sitting mayor defected from her party. In 2006, the Trinamool Congress was defeated in West Bengal's Assembly Elections, losing more than half of its sitting members.

On 4 August 2006, Banerjee hurled her resignation papers at the deputy speaker Charanjit Singh Atwal in Lok Sabha. The provocation was the speaker (Somnath Chatterjee)'s rejection of her adjournment motion on illegal infiltration by Bangladeshis in West Bengal. The motion was turned down by the speaker on the ground that it was not in the proper format.[35][36]

In November 2006, Banerjee was forcibly stopped on her way to Singur for a rally against a proposed Tata Motors car project. Mamata reached the West Bengal assembly and protested at the venue. She addressed a press conference at the assembly and announced a 12-hour shutdown by her party on Friday.[37] The Trinamul Congress MLAs protested by damaging furniture and microphones in the West Bengal Assembly.[37][38] A major strike was called on 14 December 2006.

Alliance with UPA

Before the 2009 parliamentary elections she forged an alliance with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) led by Indian National Congress. The alliance won 26 seats. Banerjee joined the central cabinet as the railway minister (second tenure). In the 2010 Municipal Elections in West Bengal, TMC won Kolkata Municipal Corporation in a margin of 62 seats. TMC also won Bidhan Nagar Corporation in 16-9 seats margin. In 2011, Banerjee won a sweeping majority and assumed the position of chief minister of the state of West Bengal. Her party ended the 34-year rule of the Left Front.

TMC threatened to withdraw support from UPA in protest of the governments decision to allow FDI in retail markets and also against hike of petrol diesel prices and gave 72hrs for withdrawing the Reforms. On 18 Sep 2012 Evening Mamata Banarjee declared her party has withdrawn support from UPA and ran independently. The TMC's Minister submitted his resignation on Friday 21 Sep 2012.

Nandigram protests

Main article: Nandigram violence

The Nandigram violence was an incident in Nandigram, West Bengal where, on the orders of the Left Front government, more than 4,000 heavily armed police stormed the rural area in the district of Purba Medinipur with the aim of stamping out protests against the West Bengal government’s plans to expropriate 10,000 acres (40 km2) of land for a Special Economic Zone (SEZ) to be developed by the Indonesian-based Salim Group. The police shot dead at least 14 villagers and wounded 70 more.

The SEZ controversy started when the government of West Bengal decided that the Salim Group of Indonesia[39][40][41] would set up a chemical hub under the SEZ policy at Nandigram. The villagers took over the administration of the area, and all the roads to the villages were cut off. A front-page story in the Kolkata newspaper, The Telegraph, on 4 January 2007 was headlined, "False alarm sparks clash". According to the newspaper that village council meeting at which the alleged land seizure was to be announced was actually a meeting to declare Nandigram a "clean village", that is, a village in which all the households had access to toilet facilities. The administration was directed to break the Maoist-backed Bhumi Uchhed Pratirodh Committee's (BUPC) resistance at Nandigram and a massive operation with at least 3,000 policemen along with armed cadre of the Marxist ruling party was launched on 14 March 2007. However, prior information of the impending action had leaked out to the BUPC who amassed a crowd of roughly 2,000 villagers at the entry points into Nandigram with women and children forming the front ranks. In the resulting mayhem, at least 14 people were killed.[42] Many people of the lower classes were made homeless due to this political carnage.[43] A large number of intellectuals protested on the streets and this incident gave birth of a new hope for movement to ouster the left from government headed by the CPI(M).[44][45][46] Mamata Banerjee wrote letters to the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to stop the violence promoted by CPI(M) in Nandigram. Agitation in Nandigram subsided, after the state government shelved the proposed chemical hub project.

2009 Indian election

Trinamool Congress performed well in the 2009 parliamentary election, bagging 19 MP seats, among them 5 women (including Banerjee), reiterating its faith in the Women's Reservation Bill. Its allies in congress and SUCI also got six and one MP seats respectively marking the best performance by any opposition party in West Bengal since the start of the left regime. Until then, the Congress victory of 16 seats in 1984, by the sympathy vote after the death of Indira Gandhi, was considered the best show of opposition.

Railway Minister (second tenure)

In 2009, Mamata Banerjee became the railway minister for the second time. Her focus was again on West Bengal.[47]

She led Indian Railways to introduce a number of non-stop Duronto Express trains connecting large cities[48] besides a number of other passenger trains,[49] including women-only trains.[50] [51][52] The Anantnag-Qadigund railway line of the Kashmir railway that has been in the making since 1994[53] was inaugurated during her tenure.[54] She also declared the 25-km long line-1 of Kolkata Metro as an independent Zone of the Indian Railways[55] for which she was criticised.[56]

Reuters reported that "Her two-year record as railway minister has been heavily criticized for running the network into more debt to pay for populist measures such as more passenger trains."[57] The Indian Railways became loss-making in her two-year tenure.[58] Even before stepping down as railway minister to become the Chief Minister of West Bengal, she said "The way I am leaving the railways behind, it will run well. Don’t worry, my successor will get all my support”.[59] Her nominee Dinesh Trivedi from her party succeeded her as railway minister.

Chief Minister of West Bengal

In 2011, the All India Trinamool Congress along with SUCI[citation needed] and the Indian National Congress won the West Bengal legislative assembly election against the incumbent Left Alliance by securing 227 seats. TMC won 184 seats with the INC winning 42 seats and the SUCI secured one seat. This marked the end of the longest ruling democratically elected Communist party in the world.

Mamata Banerjee at Milan Mela ground after inauguration of the 'Infocom 2011' an IT fair in Kolkata.
Taking the Oath at Raj Bhavan, Kolkata
Mamata Banerjee takes the oath of office as Chief Minister administered by Governor M. K. Narayanan on 20 May 2011.

Banerjee was sworn in as Chief Minister of West Bengal on 20 May 2011. As the first woman Chief Minister of West Bengal, one of her first decisions was to return 400 acres of land to Singur farmers. "The cabinet has decided to return 400 acres to unwilling farmers in Singur," the chief minister said. "I have instructed the department to prepare the papers for this. If Tatababu wants, he can set up his factory on the remaining 600 acres, otherwise we will see how to go about it," she added.[60]

She has also been credited to solving the longstanding "Gorkhaland Problem" by setting up the Gorkhaland Autonomous Council.[61]

She has started various reforms in education and health sectors. Some of the reforms in the education sectors include release of the monthly pay of the teachers on the first of every month[62][63] and quicker pensions for retiring teachers.[64] In health sector "A three-phase developmental system will be taken up to improve the heath infrastructure and service,” Mamata Banerjee said."[65]

In fact she was instrumental in the rollback of the petrol price hikes[66] and the suspension of FDI in Retail Sector until a consensus is evolved.[67] In a bid of improve the law and enforcement situation in West Bengal, Police commissionerates were created at Howrah, Barrackpore, Durgapur-Asansol and Bidhannagar. The total area of Kolkata Municipal Corporation has been brought under the control of Kolkata Police.

Even before assuming the role of Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee had shown keen interest in making the public aware of the state's history and culture. She had named several stations of the Kolkata Metro after freedom fighters,[68] and plans on naming upcoming stations after religious leaders, poets, singers and the like.[69] One of her unprecedented moves as Chief Minister has been to arrange for the playing of Rabindra Sangeet at traffic signals in Kolkata.[70]

On 16 February 2012, Bill Gates, of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, sent a letter to the West Bengal government praising Mamata Banerjee and her administration for achieving a full year without any reported cases of polio. The letter said this was not only a milestone for India but also for the whole world.[71][72]

Mamata Banerjee's Tenure as railway minister is now being questioned as most of the big-ticket announcements made by her last year when she was the railway minister, have seen little or no progress.[73] In June 2012, she launched a Facebook page to rally and gather public support for A.P.J Abdul Kalam, her party's choice for the presidential elections.[74]

Mamata didi gave her party support to Pranab Mukherjee for the post of President of India after a long drama over the issue,She also said" she was personally a "great fan" of Mukherjee and wished he grows from strength to strength".


She is against calling bandhs (work stoppage) but she had called many of them when she was in opposition.[75] Mamata Banerjee took on congress for fuel price hike and other controversial decisions by starting her agitation in Jantar Mantar on 1, October, 2012.

In her statement on 17 October 2012, Banerjee attributed the increasing incidence of rape in the country to "more free interaction between men and women". She said,“Earlier if men and women would hold hands, they would get caught by parents and reprimanded but now everything is so open. It’s like an open market with open options.” She was criticised in the national media for these statements[76]

Controversies

Claim to be Doctorate

When Mamata was elected to the 10th Lok Sabha in 1991, she mentioned in her biography to have obtained a PhD degree from East Georgia University, USA. It was later alleged that such a university didn't exist. To avoid the political controversy, Mamata stopped mentioning this degree subsequently. She was honored with DLitt from Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology.[77]

Railway minister resignation

On 14 March 2012, Dinesh Trivedi announced the annual rail budget 2012 that included an all over hike in passenger fares, ranging from 2 paise to 30 paise per kilometre for reasons of safety, along with network expansion and associated modernisations. The rail fare had not been hiked for nearly a decade[78] putting Indian Railways in ICU as far as its financial viability was concerned. The proposed fare hike would have added 4200 crores to railways income, which while paltry compared to its expenses, would still have saved railways from becoming bankrupt. The budget received enthusiastic support from a wide cross section of society including the general public,[79] industry groups[80][81][82] and all five Rail Unions.[83][84] However, the fare hike proposal in the budget was fiercely opposed by Mamata Banerjee. Although Trivedi initially tried to defend the budget by pointing out that it was necessary for making Indian Railways stronger, Mamata Banerjee forced him to resign as Railway Minister on 18 March 2012.[85][86] On hearing of the incident, noted Indian woman entrepreneur and Chairman & MD of Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw tweeted that "Mamta is a dangerous, populist demagogue: economically illiterate but politically astute – deadly combo!". She added that "Mamta is a sad reflection on just how feudal our society and culture is – talk of human rights!" and "Mamata is behaving like a mad despot. Political leadership is in deficit with such irrational behaviour that can only harm the poor."[87] Industrialist Rahul Bajaj opined that ""It was a very bold budget and he is a brave man to take such a tough call of increasing fares after ten years. I would have wished to see him around as the Railways Minister. However, it is very unfortunate that his own party is now distancing him."[87] Veteran journalist, Vivian Fernandes reported that, "It is getting clearer by the day that Mamata Banerjee's poribortan is not a change for the better. Like the communists, she can only tear, not build."[88] Trinamool MP Kabir Suman came out in open support for Trivedi and expressed his solidarity with him, saying “My respects for the Chief Minister and other party leaders notwithstanding, I must say that it defies parliamentary decorum to get a Railway Minister removed simply because he has acted in the country’s interest.”[89]

Eruption of cartoon incident

Ambikesh Mahapatra, a professor of Jadavpur University was assaulted, then arrested and forced to spend a night in police custody for allegedly circulating 'defamatory' cartoons of Mamata Banerjee. While Prof. Mahapatra, as the victim of the assault was forced to spend a night in police station, his attackers – Amit Sardar, Arup Mukherjee, Sheikh Mustafa and Nishikanta Gharai – allegedly Trinamool Congress activists of the New Garia area on the southern fringes of Kolkata, were arrested on the next day and they were released on bail after being produced before the court.[90] Mamata Banerjee defended the professor's arrest.[91][92]

Abruptly stopped interview

Mamata Banerjee stormed out off the stage in a huff during an interactive programme organised by CNN-IBN TV channel on Friday 18 May 2012 at the Kolkata Town Hall, Kolkata without answering questions from audience (which consisted a large number of students). Mamata alleged that the students were Maoist cadres. Moments after walking off the stage,the Chief Minister instructed the police to take photographs of those in the audience who had asked questions.“The students are only asking Maoist questions and the CPI(M) questions,” she complained as the programme moderator sought her answer to the issues raised. “They are the Maoist students."[93] Some publications, in their editorials characterised Mamata Banerjee as "Dictatorial"[94] and her rule as "Mamata's growing dictatorship",[95][96] citing her forcing Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi's resignation, and the professor Ambikesh Mahapatra cartoon incident, as examples of this tendency. On June 17, 2013 Mamata was forced to flee from a meeting called at Barasat district, 24 Parganas when a mob assaulted her after a 20-year-old college student was allegedly gangraped and murdered there. She later described the Barasat rapists and protesters as CPM workers.[97][98] She is often cited by a section of the media and critics to be as "megalomaniac, eccentric and populist politician". [99][100][101]

See also

References

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  2. ↑ "Mamata Banerjee's Biodata in Lok Sabha's Document". loksabha.nic.in. 
  3. ↑ "CM Mamata reveals her true age; says she is 5 years younger". OneIndia. 
  4. ↑ "Council of Ministers – Who's Who – Government: National Portal of India". http://india.gov.in. Government of India. Retrieved 11 August 2010. 
  5. ↑ Kohari, Alizeh (20 May 2011). "Mamata Banerjee sworn in as West Bengal chief minister". BBC News. 
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  10. ↑ "Detailed Profile = Km. Mamata Banerjee". http://india.gov.in. Government of India. Retrieved 11 August 2010. 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Yardley, Jim (14 January 2011). "The Eye of an Indian Hurricane, Eager to Topple a Political Establishment". The New York Times. Retrieved 14 January 2011. 
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  33. ↑ "Weather plays spoilsport for TMC". 21 October 2005. Archived from the original on 18 February 2007. Retrieved 2 December 2006. 
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  38. ↑ "Heritage vandalised in Bengal House". The Times of India. 2 December 2006. Retrieved 2 December 2006. 
  39. ↑ For more information on the Salim Group please see Sudono Salim
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  45. ↑ Kirschbaum, Stevan. "Nandigram says 'No!' to Dow's chemical hub". International Action Center. 
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  53. ↑ Arun Sharma (10 October 1998). "Destination nowhere". The Indian Express. Retrieved 14 August 2008. 
  54. ↑ "Prime Minister dedicates Anantnag-Quazigund rail line in Kashmir to nation". Press Release, Press Information Bureau, Government of India. 28 October 2009. Retrieved 2 December 2009. 
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  56. ↑ "Rail budget: Parliament uproar over Kolkata metro plan". Asian Age. 25 February 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2012. 
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  59. ↑ "Job done, successor only has to monitor". The Telegraph (Calcutta, India). 18 May 2011. Retrieved 24 February 2012. 
  60. ↑ "Singur Land Given Back". The Times of India. 
  61. ↑ "Gorkhaland Autonomous Council". The Times of India. 19 July 2011. 
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  63. ↑ "Mamata effect: Salaries on first day of the month". 
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  65. ↑ "Mamata Banerjee announced health sector reform". 
  66. ↑ "Petrol price cut a positive step: Mamata Banerjee". Zee News. 
  67. ↑ "Don't want government to fail, but can't support FDI". The Indian Express. 
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  69. ↑ Mandal, Sanjay (16 January 2011). "Didi's metro name game". The Telegraph India (Calcutta, India). Retrieved 29 February 2012. 
  70. ↑ "Listen to Rabindra Sangeet at Kolkata traffic signals". India TV News. Retrieved 29 February 2012. 
  71. ↑ "Bill Gates appreciates Mamata Banerjee for polio eradication". 
  72. ↑ "Bill Gates praises Mamata Banerjee". 
  73. ↑ "Mamata's big rail plans of 2011–12 still stuck on performance track". 
  74. ↑ "Mamata launches Facebook page – seeks support for APJ Abdul Kalam". 16 June 2012. 
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  79. ↑ "Readers Verdict: Mr Trivedi, you are our hero". FirstPost. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012. 
  80. ↑ "India Inc Hails Rail Budget; Calls It Balanced, Pragmatic". IndiaTVNews. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012. 
  81. ↑ "SICCI hails Rail budget as forward looking". ChennaiOnline. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012. 
  82. ↑ "It’s a balanced rail budget, says GCCI". NavHind TImes. 14 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012. 
  83. ↑ "Rly unions against rail fare hike roll back". Business Line. 15 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012. 
  84. ↑ "Five railway unions write to PM in support of Dinesh Trivedi". NDTV. 17 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012. 
  85. ↑ "Mamata has her way, Trivedi quits as railway minister". Firstpost. 19 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012. 
  86. ↑ "Trivedi resigns, Mukul Roy to be new railway minister". The Times of India. 18 March 2012. Retrieved 23 March 2012. 
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  88. ↑ "Trivedi exit shows Mamata can only tear things apart, not build". IBN Live. March 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2012. 
  89. ↑ "Cong playing un-fare games, cries Mamata". IBN Live. 16 March 2012. Retrieved 31 March 2012. 
  90. ↑ "Mamata cartoon row: Prof fears for life; attackers get bail". Hindustan Times. 14 April 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2012. 
  91. ↑ "Mamata Banerjee defends arrest of professor over cartoon, political parties slam her". The Times of India. 14 April 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2012. 
  92. ↑ "Mamata Banerjee sees red over cartoon lampooning her". IBNLive.com. 14 April 2012. Retrieved 14 April 2012. 
  93. ↑ "Dictatorial Paradigm". The Hindu (Chennai, India). 19 May 2012. Retrieved 19 May 2012. 
  94. ↑ "Dictatorial Paradigm". Jagran Post. 15 April 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2012. 
  95. ↑ "Mamata’s growing dictatorship". Asian Age. 16 April 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2012. 
  96. ↑ "Mamata didi now seems to be a dictator". Truthdive. 15 April 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2012. 
  97. ↑ Author:J Barua, Mamata runs from angry protestors in Barasat, Kolkatta Monday June 17, 2013, 17:43 pm (IST)
  98. ↑ PTI Barasat rape case: Girl's family meets President Pranab Mukherjee, demands CBI probe, New Delhi, Mon Jul 15 2013, 22:12 hrs
  99. ↑ Ananda Majumdar (20 March 2012). "Whimsical style of party chief Mamata Banerjee does not work". Daily Mail (London). Retrieved 9 May 2009. 
  100. ↑ Megalomaniac women in politics dnaindia.com. Retrieved on 27 October 2007
  101. ↑ "Eccentric Mamata not wrong". MSN. 6 September 2011. 

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