Mamta Banerjee Should Be The Prime Minister In 2019 - WAT Wednesdays

Prav Een

Should Mamata Banerjee be the prime minister of the country? The moment I saw this question,my mind raced to the memories incidences in the past which answers the question if she should become a prime minister of the country. Mamta, in the past rose to fame for protesting against the decision of the then ruling government of Bengal, The Communists, to acquire the land of poor farmers and provide it to the Tata's for setting up a Tata Nano factory.She rode on the popularity wave which helped her oust the communist regime and capture power in Bengal. The Tata's then decided to move the Nano factory from Singur,West Bengal to Gujarat as the then chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, offered several incentives for the same. Gujarat, thus, capitalized on the setting up of the factory and was able to provide jobs to a number of unemployed youths, thereby driving up the economy of Gujarat. The incident mentioned above is just one of the many examples where one can see the difference in functioning of a leader who works for the people and a leader who works for their own benefit. There are also allegations that Mamta's government is involved in the Rose valley chitfund scam and the Sharda group chitfund scam. It would set a terrible example if a person who has been alleged to have conspired with the scammer was elected to the post of the prime minister. For a party to become the ruling government of our country, the party should have the support of the majority of the members of the house(majority government). However, even if the party doesn't have a clear majority, A party can form the government, if members of the house from other parties support the party to form the government(coalition government). The main issue of having a coalition government at the centre is that the ruling government(majority party) tend to appease the smaller parties by providing them with posts,power etc to keep the government at the centre stable. In case of a coalition government, the government doesn't work for the betterment of its subjects but functions with an inherent fear that the government may topple. Since Mamta's fame is confined to the Bengal alone, It would be difficult for her to have a sway over the masses from other parts of the country, thus making it difficult for her party to win a majority in the parliament.As mentioned above, a coalition government may not be able to work as efficiently as a majority government even if they have the best intentions. Taking into consideration the points mentioned above, I don't think Mamta should become the next Prime minister of our country.

18 Jan 2017, 04.08 AM

Debashish Mishra

Should Mamta Bannerjee be the Prime Minister? This question raises many a eyebrow.Are we short on people to make a cheap popularity seeker person become the chief of our country.The very place which helped her gain popularity and accession to the seat of Chief Minister has been left unattended.The land which was under possession of state government since 2006 was returned in 2016 only after the Supreme Court thrashed the government.The Dhulagore incident in december 2016 , was another incident which put the people to fits. Incidently the CM felt delusive of the riots and felt the social media falsely aquitted her. Her agitation against the CBI's action against NARADA , SHARADA and Rose Valley convicts is just another indicator of her own involvement in the case.The movement against Demonetisation was another giant step which questioned her personal interest against that of the people. Instigating her party member to attack the BJP party office, singlehandedly denying the GST Bill and violating the precious time of LOK Sabha are just another jewels added to her garland of Misfits. Making her the Prime Minister would not only be sinisterous for the constitution but also put the safety of our Country to question.

18 Jan 2017, 05.22 AM

Debashish Mishra

A person who has not been able to secure the benefits and rights of her own State can not be put into the shoes of PRIME MINISTER.

18 Jan 2017, 05.25 AM

Aneesha Chaudhury

Mamta Banerjee, a next door girl until 1970, is now getting opted in people's mind to be the Prime Minister of India in 2019. This seems to be a huge achievement one can expect in his or her life. Now the question comes is Mamta really competent to be in such honorable post? In 1970 she joined congress then in 1997 she founded Trinamool Congress and in 2002 she became rail minister of India and in 2011 she became Chief Minister of Bengal. The most commendable achievement graph any one can wish for. She promised the Bengal people that she will transform Kolkata to London. She took a brave step to eradicate Lefties from Bengal, which is a blessing for Bengal. But do all these achievement and steps make her qualified to be a Prime Minister of Bengal? No, these do not. The main attribute one should have for being a Prime Minister is communication skill and guts to face counter questioning. She is egregious in case of communication skill and handling uncomfortable questions. If one asks counters her back with uncomfortable or sensitive question then she directly accused the one to be a Maoist or Communist, which is not at all acceptable. The famous SARADA massacre, she was deeply involved in it but somehow when central started investigating to the root then she started blaming center and started creating weird problems. Another thing she lacks is having a firm promising appearance. A PM should present himself with dignity and gravity with a pinch of humbleness. She lacks in knowing jargon. And from her interviews it seems that she does not even updates herself with the basic knowledge about common stuffs, sometimes she even goes blank for a while. Even the amount which is received from Govt of India under the scheme of MGNREGA is not circulated properly and on time to the workers. It is kept in savings account forever until the worker or the Panchyat head comes to the bank and looks for it. This practice is highly unethical. Another important attribute of a PM is taking best decisions and maintaining calm and composer in turbulent time. She even lacks in this quality. She only can think about and execute a short term plan, which can work in being a CM of a state but when in comes to managing and developing a country once needs to be a prophet. Hence in my opinion Mamta Banerjee should be be the next prime minister in 2019. She need to get her more matured and more toned.

18 Jan 2017, 07.49 AM

SARTHAK PATNAIK

Should Mamta Bannerjee be the prime minister of the country? .In the 2011 Legislative Assembly elections of West Bengal that uprooted the 34-year-long Left Front government led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)which was the world’s longest-serving democratically elected communist government in the world,Mamta Bannerjee created a lasting influence on the world.She rose to prominence after opposing the erstwhile land acquisition policies for industrialization by the Communist government in West Bengal for Special Economic Zones at the cost of agriculturalists and farmers.Since then,she has never looked back.Riding on the populist wave,she has reached new heights.But no journey is without setbacks. "Didi"resuming her 2nd term as the chief minister of WB in May,2016, albeit a sweeping victory, finds herself in troubled waters with her party being cornered by allegations of involvement in numerous scams.Her recent protest against the proposed GST and her opinions against demonetisation which the common man as well as the rest of the world ,deemed to be a panacea for the country, has pushed her further into a tight spot.Despite her contributions to several human and social rights organisations that promote welfare and development of poor children and women and her fight against corruption in the past, with the recent events it seems like she is loosing ground morally as well politically.So, taking stock of the current fix she finds herself in ,entangled in a legal and political turmoil, handing over the stewardship of the country to her in this situation will jeopardize the future of the nation,a catch-22 situation indeed.

18 Jan 2017, 08.28 AM

SHOURYA JAIN

21st Century like 20th century is century of economics, the country with biggest economy set the rules for the world. And a good leader is going to be the one who will be able to push and defend the economic interest of his nations the best. Also a good leader should possess the conventional qualities of leadership which includes seeing the things other can’t, convince the people to believe in his path and should be able to mobilize the people to walk down his/her suggested path. Now it has been repeatedly said that the 21st century is the century of Asia, particularly China and India as they are the most populous places in the world. Now by having a closer look at China, one can easily observe that their leadership is extremely determined one. Not only Chinese economy has been the engine of world growth, but also the way China has defended its economic interest across the globe be it south China sea or in the Indian neighborhood (disregarding Indian interest) one thing is certain, 21st century will be China’s century. Now looking at the Indian case where, for a long time India didn’t had the leadership which can envisage the big economic picture (considering India complexities and the fact it is a democracy it is difficult to produce such leaders). If India wants 21st century to be an India’s century we need to have a leadership which can deliver on the economics like Chinese did. Analyzing the case of Mamta Banerjee, Chief Minister of Bengal, who rooted out the leftist from Bengal after ruling for 34 years. Not only her economic policies are regressive (like the one’s before 1991) but also her politics too (including agitations, appeasing minorities) is highly narrow sighted. Instead of attracting the capital she repealed it from the state, as in case of Tata. Apart from not having any economic vision for the country, she doesn’t seem to have a nerve for criticism which is a must have quality for a leader in Democracy. Repeatedly one hear of violence against anyone who speak against her (be it attacks by TMC workers on CPI(M) or BJP offices). Also on many occasion during the recent demonetization or after the arrest of members of her cabinet on corruption charges, she seems to have lost her nerve, threatening center, to not to cooperate on GST. A leader must always keep his nerve under control no matter how the situation is. Given the above reasons one must have serious doubts on her capabilities to mobilize the nation on her path/vision In conclusion if India wants to be bigger player in world economics it must have a leader with broad vision and necessary leadership skills and at the moment Mamta Banerjee doesn’t seem to possess either vision or the leadership qualities required to govern 1.3 billion people.

19 Jan 2017, 08.44 AM

Rebant Malhotra

India has in its thousands of years of existence seen some worth men and women lead the nation. Whether this means Bharat or Hindustan as it was then called or whether it is post-colonial India, we’ve been blessed with some really great leaders. A nation’s rise almost always coincides with the rise of a great leader at the helm of things and for this reason alone Mamta Banerjee is not the right person to lead India in 2019. There are a variety of reasons why ‘Didi’ as she is fondly called, is not the person we need handling the country. There is no doubt that she has displayed remarkable courage and grit by breaking down the rule of the Left in West Bengal. The Communist Party of India had made West Bengal their stronghold but Didi’s movement swept them away after the state had spent decades in the darkness of the Left. However, things did not quite improve after that. The state continues to reel under the pressure of lack of infrastructure and sound investment. Despite having a literacy state higher than the national average there is widespread poverty and underdevelopment. Bengal’s lack of progress can solely be blamed on Mamta Banerjee who has till now not allowed West Bengal to become a centre of manufacturing and trading. A quick look at the past takes us to Singur where Mamta fought the Tata’s to ensure that the Nano car plant move from the state to then Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s Gujarat, who was famous for being a business friendly personality. India’s growth is unsustainable due to the fact that we have a massive service sector but not the adequate industrial sector to back it up with. That should be India’s main focus if it is keen on making strides as an economy. And that is something that Mamta Banerjee will in all probability fail to provide. The ease of doing business in a nation is one parameter where India lags behind and a person like Banerjee at the top would worsen the situation. Apart from this, Mamta Banerjee has also displayed on several instances the willingness to play the ‘votebank’ game which in simple terms means making decisions solely to keep her primary voter base happy. This quality of taking decisions with a populist agenda will never do a country like ours any good. Another argument against her is the fact that in all her years of politics she is yet to have any strong allies which can get her party a national footprint. Trinamool Congress continues to be majorly dominant in Bengal and the 3rd front does not look like a strong possibility. All the mentioned reasons point towards one fact alone- India does not need Mamta Banerjee as the Prime Minister in 2019. Instead, she has a lot to gain if she becomes a stronger leader of the opposition in the current political scenario.

20 Jan 2017, 04.52 AM

Sakshi Kochar

Should Mamta Banerjee be our next prime minister? When we put this question, we are talking about a person's capabilities to be a nation's leader while quite evidently she has failed to prove herself even as a state leader by doing no evident good to the state she has been ruling for more than 5 years. Let's have a quick look at the challenges our country face today and in near future and what kind of leadership we need to address those challenges. The first most important challenge for our nation's leader today is to ensure security of our nation and safeguard it's interest in global context. The security question has gained importance in recent times due to current state of conflict with Pakistan. Also, in face of changing global political dynamics ( when we see Russia getting closer to Pakistan and China due to interest in CPEC, signs of Russia and US getting closer as Trump is being elected), We need a leader who can thoroughly understand these dynamics and work them out in the favour of our nation.Second important challenge is to deal with all hurdles which are not letting our economy grow in-spite of great potential. To deal with such challenges we need a leader who have ability to take bold policy decisions to provide environment which has optimism and trust and conducive for all business and related activities. Looking at performance of Mamta Banerjee in her role of a chief minister of Bengal, we see that she has shown a mind set which is narrow and regressive. While she tried to win the populist vote by opposing land acquisition for nano plant, she denied possibilities of economic growth to the state which it could see in past 5-6 years. Also, She dint seem to have taken any steps to bring the state on path of economic growth in-spite of Bengal having a literacy rate more than national average and other rich resources .Her opposition of GST bill shows her narrow approach which is concerned more with her own interest than the interest of the nation. Moreover, even in terms of popularity, she probably is able to convince people of her state of her qualification to govern the state by talking about minority issues; she would hardly gather any support from people of other states. She clearly lacks global outlook which is prime requirement for a nation's leader. With this kind of profile , I think, she does not even qualify for first level of consideration while choosing our next prime minister.

20 Jan 2017, 06.37 AM

Rituparna Panda

Mamta Banerjee, CM of West Bengal, is gaining popularity and moving ahead by leaps and bounds.She has emerged as the face of anti-Modi movement, during the demonetization protests, and can be said to be an effective contender in the general elections of 2019, replacing other potential candidates like Nitish Kumar. Mamta Banerjee, also called Didi, joined politics through Congress , but soon moved on to establish the Trinamool National Congress(TMC). Mamta's mass appeal & protests in the Singur land case, made her the CM of West Bengal in 2011, defeating 34 years of rule by the Communist Party of India i.e CPI(M), the longest serving democratic party in the world. She has also featured in TIME's list of Top 100 influential people of world. Moreover, being an ex-congress person, she has contacts with congress satraps. She also reached out to her once arch-enemy CPI(M), and shares a great rapport with Arvind Kejriwal(AAP), Hardik Patel of Gujrat and Shiv-Sena of Maharashtra.So, it won't be difficult to form alliances, if required in future, for the elections. She also has effective strategic skills, advising the different opposition parties to unify against the govt during demonetisation, instead of meeting individually; and catering to the needs of poor by distributing cycles and rice sacks. However, she may face some problems in her struggle to be the PM, like the bribery video showing TMC workers' corruption, the collapse of a controversial flyover, killing over 27 people in Kolkata, or the rumors about her party being backed by local criminal leaders in West Bengal. Still, Mamta has enough potential plus appeal, to be the next PM.She only has to expand her base to the other parts of the country as well. Even if she is not able to retain a slot this time, she will certainly be a key player in the next general elections.

21 Jan 2017, 02.41 PM

Mihir Jain

Once in an event, a college student asks our now prime minister that he wants to become like him, follow him and become the next prime minister of India. Narendra Modi replied, it's a good thought but try in 2024, and whole stadium started hooting. So he has a clear vision for himself and his party. Mamta Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal is recently in news everywhere for her harsh protest against demonetisation. Political leaders started figuring out about the elections and they have their eye on forming their government in New Delhi. Mamta Banerjee has a tough task to achieve if she projects herself as PM in 2019 elections as the kind of work this current government has done and the charismatic personality, our PM is it is not easy to see yourself as his competitor. Mamta is always been accused of fighting elections based on caste and religion. she has always favoured one part of society and neglected all other. The limitations in the time of murti visarjan of maa durga and maa kaali is the latest example. We need not require a person in the center who can think or work in one direction. He or she has to open and work for the welfare of each social group in the country. She cannot be the face of the prime minister of a country which represents so many diverse cultures and religions. As a Prime Minister of a country, you have to open yourself to all the challenges from international community, inside our country challenges, work for an agenda which i think keeps missing in her case. If she become the PM with the same attitude she carries than i think India will be again divided into two nations. To conclude, if you have to run a country as big as India, People like her are not an viable option and even masses will not accept her as our supreme leader. She need to clear her image as people's leader not of any community, she need to wash all the blames and cases of scam currently pending in the courts and fight elections with a clean Image.

22 Jan 2017, 05.09 AM