This traces back to those days when I was just another teenager and didn’t understand elections. I was still in school, away from home, in a hostel in the capital of Uttar Pradesh - the city of Lucknow. The hostel was located at the colligation of three major dailies of the state: The Times of India, Dainik Jagaran and Economic Times. For all the kids in the hostel though, the proximity to those News Papers brought many rewards. One such reward would arrive every day at the dead of the night, when we lay our hands upon bundles of empty – yet to be printed upon newspapers. We stole those to make them our rough notes sheets!!
However, beyond this oft repeated act of larceny, which we as kids found to be really amusing, there was another major reward that we received on a rather frequent basis. And that was the News which was always served red hot. One such occasion was the assembly elections of Uttar Pradesh. Elections for me had always been about a black dot on a finger nail before that. My proximity to the prominent dailies and the momentous occasion of assembly elections, in the then biggest state of India, ensured that I moved beyond the black dot and understood something more. For the first time ever I found myself excited about elections without even understanding a bit of it. On the day of the declaration of results I still remember having crashed into the studios of a news channel close-by, with a few of my fellow hostelites, to find the scribes scampering all around us trying to decipher the numbers. The enthusiasm of the scribes was virulent as I started feeling the pulse of excitement while the numbers arrived. To me it felt more like a cricket match where opposing parties were going neck to neck waiting only for that sucker punch to be delivered from some corner.
When I think of it today, I realize that at a time when electoral numbers to me were nothing more than points scored by opposing teams in a match, an individual had taken upon oneself to create a team of winners from zilch. Almost 13 years later that individual – Mamata Banerjee, is on the verge of achieving greatness. She successfully mustered a team of nondescripts to dethrone the default champions – the comrades in Red - who had remained unchallenged in a long - long time. She turned up in a Green crochet to slug it out against the Reds in their own citadel – Gladiatorialike – except that the means were not archaic. The match was fought in a much more restrained democratic set up of assembly elections. The margin with which she won the elections in Bengal – the erstwhile citadel painted in red - in 2011 is evidence enough that commitment and hardwork pays. The margin of her victory signifies that no one is infallible, however great your powers may be, for the real owners of the citadel are not the kings but the proletariat.
The red zone created by the comrades had over the last three decades in Bengal stalled any progress for the state. The green tinge of hope that Mamata has brought to Bengal is symbolical of the fact that the state is now ready to move as the signal changes from Red to Green. Mamata stands on the doorstep of greatness. With bated breath millions await the moment when the door to greatness opens, to see if she could capture that moment of glory. For if she fails to do so it would hardly take a moment to throw the state from a moment of delirium to a moment of derision.
Meanwhile a little birdy tells me that the Communist Manifesto is being revised to make it much more user-friendly - lets say suitable for the IPads !!
