Imagine there’s some award ceremony in your office. Employees are supposed to get awarded for their contributions to the organisation and you’re expecting the award for ‘Employee of the month’. What if your narcissist boss chooses to award himself instead of any employee claiming that his contribution to the organisation is beyond comparison? Funny, right?
Mamata Banerjee is one such boss. Believe it or not, the Bengal CM Banerjee has surpassed even the first Prime Minister of India when it comes to narcissism.
Mamata Banerjee honours herself with an award
In what turned out to be a ‘funny’ development, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday was honoured with a newly-instituted state award for her “relentless literary pursuit”.
The award, introduced this year by Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi, was given to Banerjee for her book “Kabita Bitan”, which is believed to pay tribute to the best writers of West Bengal.
It is pertinent to note that the award will be given once in three years to people from the non-literary world for their significant contribution to literature. Education minister Bratya Basu announced that a panel of senior writers nominated the chief minister to be awarded for her Kobita Bitan, a collection of her poems.
Protest against the decision
Witnessing the ‘self-appraisal’, Ratna Rashid Bandopadhyay, a Bengal-based writer and researcher, began protesting against the cultural institution’s decision to present Mamata Banerjee the award on the occasion of the 161st birth anniversary of Rabindranath Tagore. In such a move, she returned a prestigious award to the Paschimbanga Bangla Academy on Tuesday.
“I came to know from media reports that the Paschimbanga Bangla Academy has announced a new award and honoured chief minister Mamata Banerjee with it as recognition of her tireless pursuit for literature. This is a distortion of the truth. By honouring the chief minister, the Academy has not only set a condemnable example but has also insulted all people who are dedicated to Bengali literature,” Ratna Rashid Bandopadhyay wrote in Bengali.
It is not only Ratna who is protesting against the decision. Anadiranjan Biswas, a member of the general council of the Sahitya Akademi (eastern region), also resigned from the national institution’s Bengali advisory board to oppose the decision.
“On May 9, 2022, which was the 161st birth anniversary of Gurudev, sheer insult has been caused to Bengali poetry in Kolkata. Earlier also, it has been observed by me that whims, caprices, nepotism and ‘pick and choose’ theory are ruling the contemporary Bengali literature in Kolkata. Hence, my conscience and the morality which I believe in goaded me to take this ultimate action,” Biswas wrote in English and sought immediate exclusion of his name from the approved projects of the Sahitya Akademi’s Kolkata office.
Mamata’s self-appraisal is no less than Jawahar Lal Nehru
Mamata Banerjee is such a narcissist that she can even put India’s first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru to shame. Last year, during the Durga Puja celebrations, a theme-based pandal in North 24 Parganas installed an idol of Mamata Banerjee. You see, Banerjee really thinks that she is next to goddess Durga.
The idol had 10 hands depicting the ten schemes launched by Mamata Banerjee.
“Each hand of the idol represents one of her government’s initiatives such as Lakhi Bhandar and others,” Indranath Bagui, President of Baguiati Nazrul Park Unnayan Samiti had informed.
CM Mamata Banerjee considers herself a self-taught painter, poet and writer. She is believed to have written more than 100 books.
“Around 300 paintings of my painting were sold in exhibitions and ₹9 crores was fetched in total, each of them costing ₹3 lakh.” the CM once proudly asserted.
Why are we comparing her with Jawahar Lal Nehru, you might ask? Well, In 1951, a ‘humble’ Nehru accepted that his birthday be celebrated as ‘Children’s’ Day’ in India. It did not happen because ‘he loved children’ but because he was inspired by Queen Elizabeth II, whose birthday is celebrated as Flag Day to raise money for Save the Child Fund.
Moreover, in 1955, he, in a humble manner, accepted the India’s highest civilian award Bharat Ratna, because he couldn’t say no. While the recommendations for the Bharat Ratna are made by the Prime Minister to the President, Dr Rajendra Prasad probably would have exercised some other powers without consulting the Cabinet to honour Jawahar Lal Nehru with the award.
However, we have a new Jawahar Lal Nehru in making and she is Mamata Banerjee.