Reality & Myth

One breezy night and after a smart evening shower, she takes a ride in her now synonymous Santro down several roads and byroads across the Maidan, the lungs of Kolkata. Neither is she a heroine who roams about the city only after sundown nor a college girl out with her boyfriend for an evening smooch-ride. As at 56, she can only think of people who made her their queen — may not be Queen of Hearts like Princess Diana — who can take on her opponents like Elizabeth I.

Like many a western leader, our chief minister also waited at traffic lights till it was turned green for her lane — something we are not accustomed to in this part of world where hooters can give you a warning from quite a distance of a VIP’s arrival like a maharajah on an elephant so that we can clear the raj path. With eyes wide open, we, the people, were used to look at such cavalcade — no horseback procession in 21st century Kolkata but Armada-Gypsy-Amby-Amby-Gypsy-Mahindra Classic-Tata 407-turned-ambulance (this was the smallest convoy used by her predecessor) — zoom past hundreds of cars-buses-trams in morning and evening rush hours.

Now, that picturesque, and envious, scene is past. We have a chief minister who can work well past midnight — yes, she did on her first day at Writers’ — and may take a stroll along the corridors of power to find whether her colleagues are drooling or not. She can do a Haroun al-Rashid on evenings or maybe a little late after that also to fix civic problems with the mayor sitting on the backseat. Or maybe with the urban development minister in the same hatchback, she can discuss innumerable problems of a city now infamously known not for Joy, but Misery.

But i wonder whether her prying eyes did miss other nocturnal nefarious activities of the administration, especially the Men in Khaki. Can the woman in Dhanekhali stop the policemen not asking for usual bribes from each fish-laden Andhra truck that enters Kolkata through Vidyasagar Setu and take the same road that she took last Saturday evening? Being in charge of the home ministry, will she kindly ask the police not to stop vehicles at Rajabazar or Chingrighata or Ultadanga in dead of the night and harass innocent passengers in the name of security check? Had it been a real security exercise, we wouldn’t have any complaints, but how can you stop a car or matador, ask anything between Rs 5 and Rs 500, and let it go without giving a proper receipt for the payment? As we all know, even the IPS officers get a share of the booty.

When the chief minister promises “free hand” to the police for taming hooligans we should live with a slim hope that we don’t need to grease their palms. Myth of Haroun al-Rashid should turn into reality in this transitional phase of Bengal history.