She packs a punch

There is one person who has been able to lighten our mood in these dark and somber times, our beloved Mamata-di. She has come up with a solution to bridge the state’s budget deficit and get even with her arch-rivals, the comrades.

There is one person who has been able to lighten our mood in these dark and somber times, our beloved Mamata-di. Now the rest of the political class may be pondering over how to win the hearts and minds of an alienated people, but Ms Banerjee is not one for any such reflection. She has come up with a solution to bridge the state’s budget deficit and get even with her arch-rivals, the comrades.

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She has sought in all seriousness that the government sell off all official buildings belonging to the Left to make up for the gaping hole it left in the state’s finances. And from Mamata the new-age economist, she then moved on to ask plaintively as to whether her supporters expected her to beat up the prime minister to get him to loosen the purse strings. Could she do such a thing, she asked the faithful, and not be called a goonda? Now, we know that Didi can pack a punch, but the very thought of a left hook from her is enough to make the gentle Manmohan Singh head for the hills. And we note that her colourful vocabulary has rubbed off on her supporters. One of them, a minister no less, recently spoke of how the comrades, like snakes, should be beaten. Yes, here is an example of Didi’s lads baring their fangs at their opponents.