Didi Sees Red Over Rat-Bite at Hospital: Blames CPM of Playing the Pied Piper

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West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has done it yet again — let her fertile imagination run riot. She was at her asinine best when she recently accused her favourite bete noir, the CPI(M), of letting loose rats at the SSKM hospital, where a 53-year-old woman had allegedly died of rat-bite on December 23.

For the uninitiated, lest I be accused of letting my imagination run riot here and blaming perhaps my favourite punching bag, here’s is the proof, courtesy The Times of India — Rat bite death in West Bengal: Hospital orders probe, Mamata alleges CPM role.

The chief minister’s reaction came after the rat-bite incident was highlighted by some TV channels. “The media inclined to CPM are running live shows on this rat incident. They have only created this incident. I think they have only left the rats there,” the TOI report quoted Banerjee.

Now, there is no denying the fact that govt hospitals in West Bengal used to be in a pitiable state. Besides lacking in medical facilities and infrastructure, they are often infested with cockroaches, bedbugs, ants, rodents, dogs and even pigs. After the ‘Paribartan’ that had swept her to power, Banerjee’s first priority, as in-charge of the health portfolio, was to improve the condition of the hospitals. She had even suspended the director of a hospital who had objected to the crowd (read supporters and mediapersons) accompanying her on her visit to the campus.

Thus, it wouldn’t be wrong to assume that a ‘Paribartan’ had indeed taken place in state-run hospitals too. In fact, Banerjee herself had visited SSKM several times during her seven-month regime and surely would have noticed that the hospital was bereft of any four-legged creatures. Thus, the re-appearance of a rat at SSKM in her regime is surely a deep-rooted conspiracy hatched by the CPM. The CPM must have employed a modern-day Pied Piper who let in a swarm of rats in SSKM.

The incident surely demands a CID/CBI probe. But of course, the chief minister has lightened the burden of the fact-finding committee by declaring the identity of the culprit well in advance.

Banerjee perhaps suffers from a split personality -- there are times when her "Opposition" avatar makes her forget who is in charge now.

Social media networks like Facebook have been abuzz with reaction following the comment. There were some acid comments like had the chief minister’s mother passed away at SSKM during the Left regime, the CPM would have definitely been blamed for “negligence” and a Bangla Bandh would have followed. Questions were asked whether her mother’s attending physicians were suspended. Some were astonished that she did not see a CPM hand in the AMRI fire tragedy.

But of course, it is not the right sort of comments to be posted on a public forum! Banerjee had threatened to clamp down on Facebook and all such social media networks (where her detractors were busy maligning her) even before Union communications minister Kapil Sibal came up with the bright idea. Those crediting or blaming Sibal for the clampdown, should read my earlier post: Facebook Users Beware: Every Post you Make, Didi’s Watching.

Anyway, back to our Pied Piper story. The rat-bite incident had followed the Hooch tragedy at a village in South 24-Parganas district that claimed 173 lives. Here again, the CM had smelled a CPM conspiracy in spreading rumors of drinking water being contaminated. The Left had predictably reacted sharply. Dr Surjya Kanta Mishra, the leader of Opposition in the state, accused the chief minister of encouraging “poisoned politics”. He reminded that Mamata herself, while in the Opposition, had spread rumours like the CPM would mix poison to the drinking water in Tallah, the main source of drinking water in Kolkata.

Such unwanted comments coming from the CM speaks volumes about the insecurity she is suffering from. And it is this insecurity that is difficult to understand. Why does a political leader, who swept to power with overwhelming popular support after decimating a party that had been in power for 34 years, suffer from such paranoia? What is that she is scared of?

One answer perhaps is that responsibility and Banerjee do not go together. She was a good Opposition leader — raising hue and cry at the drop of the hat — and now suffers from a split personality. There are times perhaps when the “Opposition Mamata” overpowers the “CM Mamata” and she blames CPM of everything wrong with the state. It is either that, or she has begun to find the crown too uneasy to wear.

But I am diverting again. Back to the Pied Piper story. Her rat-bite reaction perhaps beats all her previous quotable quotes like the massive floods in the state in 2000 were man-made or CPM engineered the train collision in Sainthia in July 2010 ands such.

All said and done, a probe into the SSKM incident would hopefully unearth the famed Pied Piper, which should be the greatest find of the century, a discovery that would certainly earn her a place at Madame Tussaud’s, if not a nomination for a Nobel Prize!