Birthday tantrums

No, it's not just kids throwing them any more
Ever since it came to power, the Mamata Banerjee government has not let birthdays of great men pass quietly. But then, when did Didi ever do anything quietly. So from Rabindranath Tagore and Vivekananda to Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and Satyajit Ray, all the famous scions of the state have had their birthdays celebrated.So isn't it but natural that she would walk that extra mile to celebrate former chief minister Jyoti Basu's birthday also? It's another matter that she celebrated it two days too early. But what can one do if a birthday coincides with a Sunday?
But instead of the Writers' Buildings or the state secretariat where birthdays are usually celebrated, this time the venue had changed to the assembly - because it is in session and also because the person in question is a former chief minister. It all looked fine and Jyoti Basu, up in his life-like painting, looked happy with the arrangement, flowers, garlands, lights and all. Mamata went up gracefully to offer her respects, like she had done on past occasions as well. Her retinue of ministers followed. But where were Basu's former comrades?
Naturally, they were busy protesting. In Bengal, isn't it a way of life to protest? It provides much-needed intellectual relief to the quintessential argumentative Bengali. The protest gathered momentum and finally peaked with a boycott of the birthday party. Basu's own men did not gather for the celebrations saying that they did not believe in celebrating birthdays on wrong days. Apparently, the CPM has planned a celebration of sorts on the right day - for Mamata's was just a show, they said, like many other shows she stages to create an impact.
Her act of rising above party colours while marking her respects to the dead failed to convince Basu's comrades. She, however, face well set in appropriate sombreness, said that she believed in not criticising the dead, even if he belonged to a different political thought. Had she not buried the hatchet and gone and wished Basu on his birthdays?
One was reminded about a similar fight over the birthday of Subhas Chandra Bose, this year. The familiar statue opposite Raj Bhavan looked different this January 23. The makeshift staircase that the dignitaries would climb to reach Netaji's head and garland him was decorated with the Trinamool colours, quite a departure from the red colours that one was used to seeing in Bengal for the past 34 years.
But soon one heard that Forward Bloc, the party Netaji founded, declaring that it would boycott the birthday celebrations planned by the state government. After all, Netaji was theirs, wasn't he? Incidentally, this time too, Mamata had celebrated Netaji's birthday at Writers' Buildings two days in advance because January 23 was a state holiday.
Finally, good sense prevailed. For once, the fiery Didi stepped back and that gave her a leg up on her rivals. She invited the Forward Bloc chief Ashok Ghosh, Left Front chairman Biman Bose and other Left leaders to garland Netaji first and announced magnanimously that Netaji belonged to everybody.
They say a democracy survives only when there is a strong opposition. They also say that India is a mature democracy. Whether a strong opposition means opposing everything that the sitting party does, including boycotting birthday celebrations, and whether a mature democracy means fighting like kids over "our leader" and "their leader" is something that the less powerful like us are left to debate.
But never mind this debate for now; the aam Bengali is certainly delighted at this never before experience of seeing the birthdays of our great men and women celebrated. Whether they belong here or there, there is no denying their greatness. Happy birthday, Jyoti Babu, never mind the fact that the state now offers its green salaam to you.